Monday, August 2, 2010

Why the Pechanga Tribal Council is UNEthical

We wrote this over two years ago. With Hunter Elder Lawrence Madariaga passing away after suffering the humiliation of unethical treatment from the Pechanga Tribal Council, I thought I would resurrect the post. Just in case Pechanga has become more ethical..... no really.... stop laughing...



Why I say Pechanga in unethical


People have asked me why I use the term unethical in my blog’s banner. Here’s the reasons why.

Recall the five fundamental principles of ethics:

1. Do No Harm - Pechanga has failed miserably in this area. Not only have they caused financial harm to many of their tribal members, stripping them of their per capita, they have left them unprotected in the area of health care. They also have violated the Tribal Constitution and illegally have kept many rightful members out, via a moratorium.

2. Make Things Better - Well, Pechanga started well, with a plan to lift all it’s people from poverty. Many of us weren’t in poverty, but did benefit from the casino. After all, our families’ ancestors were original Pechanga Temecula people. But then, came the moratorium, which kept rightful members OUT and followed that with disenrollments, which made things worse.

3. Respect Others – Pechanga touted elders like Lawrence Madariaga, Paulina Hunter’s great-grandson with rewards like plaques for their service, but then left them out in the cold by kicking them from the tribal rolls and then saying, “go get a job” to 80 year olds. They disregarded their most vaunted elder, Antonio Ashman’s sworn testimony that he knew Paulina Hunter when he was a young man in the 1880’s

4. Be Fair – We will be detailing the unfairness of the tribal council, the disenrollment committee and the CPP, but there was no fairness. The Tribal Enrollment committee did not allow us to question our accusers, did not tell us what was missing in our paperwork, forced us to have red ribbon certified paperwork of over 400 pages and yet accepted a letter of hearsay from an imprisoned child molester as more factual, that the results of their own study.

5. Be Loving – How loving is it to eliminate old people, children, infirm from the tribe? To take away their voting rights, elder care, and educational assistance. The tribal council should have taken their task of looking after the individual tribal members welfare. They did not.

Also, recall that ethical responsibilities apply not just to how we treat others but to how we treat ourselves, too. Although ethics is fundamentally a guard against self-obsession, it is right and good to treat ourselves with respect, fairness, and compassion and to avoid causing ourselves harm. Now, the actions of the CPP are causing harm to the tribe and the tribe is paying the public relations price for what they have done, and that price is already $60 million or more.

Exercise your moral outrage and avoid Pechanga.

10 comments:

just do it said...

I am avoiding the Pechanga Casino
like it is THE PEST.
There are other great Casinos in the Southern Cal.area which I have no problem visiting.
But thank's for pointing it out again as to HOW CORRUPT THE TRIBAL
LEADERSHIP AT PECHANGA IS.

Anonymous said...

Pechanga's ethics are: Hey, we gave some free rooms to people displaced by fire, so why should it matter that we've stolen the heritage from hundreds of people, cheated some others out of millions, lied to congress, tossed kids out of school and are trying to cheat them out of water rights?

'aamokat said...

Our resident tribal hack will probably again say that our rights were not violated and also the following, "the non members were disenrolled because the facts were not on their side and they were afforded due process of law."

Well the foremost expert on tribal history, Mr. Antonio Ashman who is called a vaunted (much praised) elder on Pechanga's official Web site said in a notarized statement prior to the first written enrollment of 1978 that he remembered Hunter family matriarch Paulina Hunter as a member of the Band.

And that is just one of the many facts that were on our side that were ignored by the biased enrollment committee who decided our fate.

Also, by allowing the sisters and aunts of people who submitted and/or signed statements against us to rule on our disenrollment case violated not only the Indian Civil Rights Act (ICRA) but also the equal protection clause of the Pechanga Band's own constitution and bylaws under Article V which forbids Malice or Predjudice of tribal members.

So how were our rights not violated and how again were we afford due process?

So answer me this time!

I know I sound like a "broken record" but I am going to keep telling the truth until that "record" gets fixed.

SO TRIBAL HACK AREN'T YOU GOING TO AGAIN LOOK STUPID WHEN YOU MAKE THE SAME BOGUS GENERAL STATEMENTS WHEN I HAVE ANSWERED THEM BEFORE YOU EVEN SAID THEM?

Luiseno said...

Some people may wonder just why so much importance is put on Antonio Ashman statement that he remembered Paulina Hunter as a member of the Band.

Under the constitution and bylaws, one way that is accepted as proof enough to allow enrollment to the Tribe is if a recognized elder of the Tribe states that he knows you as a member of the Band.

This one piece of evidence should have been enough to stop the disenrollment, irregardless of the tons of other evidence provided.

Anonymous said...

GOOD POST!

Anonymous said...

I am linked to pechanga , pala, and mesa grande i could use some help..does anyone know anything about my GGG grandmother Victoria Banks, her daughter was Ida banks Aguilar..are they from Pala or Pechanga? or neither?
j MO

Anonymous said...

sign the petition for oversight hearings get everyone to do it

Anonymous said...

Hey! My great-grandmother was Ida Banks Aquilar...they are from Pala.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

The Pechanga leadership must have shown Robinson their tactics. Lester Marston is the attorney, and he lacks ethics as well.