Thursday, December 16, 2010

WHY It's Right For Pechanga Chairman Mark Macarro To Not Represent Tribes with President Obama

Hunter cousin A'amokat had this in the comment section and we thought it deserved to be promoted to a full post.

Thank you to the Obama administration for not allowing people like Pechanga Chairman Mark Macarro to represent Indian country today in Washington DC.

Why, do you say, is this important to us?

 Chairman Macarro presided over denying us due process of law when we were disenrolled from the Pechanga tribe in 2006 (OP:  We were the second large family to be disenrolled) so he doesn't deserve to represent Indian country to the administration in any way, shape, or form.

Imagine for a moment that your citizenship in your nation was being questioned and you are summoned in front of a government committee, in this case the enrollment committee of your tribe, who had among the panel sitting in judgment of your fate individuals who had filed the initial challenge of your citizenship in the first place.

This first challenge was disallowed for obvious reasons but after this close family members and the friends of those same committee members submitted statements against your citizenship.   (OP:  Think of it as the relatives of Justice Clarence Thomas, Scalia, Breyer, Ginsburg providing statements demanding the Supreme Court act.   Do the words recusal and improper come to mind?)

This time the challenge is allowed and even though you request to Chairman Macarro that those committee members with a clear conflict of interest be made to be recused from ruling on your case, they are allowed to sit in judgement of you and your family's fate.  (OP:  For good measure, a tribal council members's MOTHER and AUNT are on the committee)

At the initial hearing in front of the government committee questioning your citizenship in your nation you are not allowed to have an attorney present to represent you and you are not allowed to have any copies of the transcripts of the proceedings so even though the committee left out key steps of the procedures in place, you cannot document this without official transcripts so it is your word against the committee's word.   (NO representation, no discover, no right to confront accusers, no writing implements, and NO responses from the committee)

Not surprisingly the committee rules against you keeping your citizenship in your nation by a slim one vote margin.  (OP: and that one vote was "bought" by enrolling that voter's family, even though a moratorium has kept other family's members OUT of the tribe for a decade.)

The committee consisted of six members who sat in judgement of your keeping your citizenship or not and the committee members with the clear conflict of interest were three of the committee members, all of the votes against your family, with the chair not voting as the chair only would have voted in the event of a tie.

You appeal your case to the executive branch of your government, in this case the tribal council, where one of the councilman is the son of a committee member, the nephew of another committee member, and a close relative of people who submitted statements against your citizenship so he should have been made to be recused from ruling on your appeal but he is also allowed anyway to sit in judgement of your family's fate.

Once again not surprisingly you lose the appeal of the decision to take away your citizenship by one vote.

At this appeal hearing in front of the tribal council you again were not allowed to have an attorney present with you but not only that, you were not allowed to ask any questions or to even to take any notes as note taking instruments of any kind are not allowed in the hearing room per a letter you received from the tribal council prior to the appeal hearing.

The equal protection clause of the Temecula Band of Luiseno Mission Indians' constitution and bylaws under Article V, sometimes referred to as the Pechanga Band of Missions Indians, says the following:

"IT SHALL BE THE DUTY OF ALL ELECTED OFFICIALS OF THE BAND TO UPHOLD AND ENFORCE THE CONSTITUTION, BYLAWS, AND ORDINANCES OF THE TEMECULA BAND OF LUISENO MISSION INDIANS; AND ALSO, TO UPHOLD THE INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS OF EACH MEMBER WITHOUT MALICE OR PREJUDICE."

So government officials, as you are looking into this blog, our tribe's own constitution was violated when we were disenrolled for, among others, the above reasons.

But if a tribe doesn't follow their own rules, who can make them do so?   So we need enforcement of the Indian Civil Rights Act (ICRA).

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great news! guidiville rancheria tribal council has to be included as civil rights violators - the vedolla family were charged with dual enrollment - was proven untrue on all fronts. they denied the family a formal hearing with attornys present to present their case, as well as deny mediation. this is a classic case of civil rights violation - reason again for revising indian civil rights act.

Anonymous said...

Ha, ha. Non-members (Hunter clan) wrong again, by trying to analogize the Pechanga tribal government to the makeup of the federal government. Pechanga functions as a custom and tradition tribe -- a concept the non-members like most Americans cannot fully understand. Accordingly, Pechanga follows its own rules, many of them never having been reduced to writing but still in effect to direct the business of the tribe. The non-members as such, however, see the writings and the result without grasping the operation of the unwritten tradition and custom of Pechanga. Meanwhile, the non-members have been removed for failing to carry the burden of proof to qualify for tribal membership. The non-members did not have the facts on their side. Thus, the removal of the non-members has conformed the membership roll to the membership criteria. In closing, please understand, Dear Reader, that Pechanga has not "eliminated 25% of" its "population." Instead, the disenrollment of the non-members only corrected an error in the tribal roll. The non-members should never have been enrolled in the first place. These non-members have no true association or affiliation with Pechanga, and no legitimate claims against Pechanga. Their statements otherwise mislead the public.

Anonymous said...

The traditions and customs of Pechanga include respecting the oral history of the elders, including Antonio Ashman, who knew Paulina Hunter, PERSONALLY.

Also, Solida Stevenson, Wolf Tinsley's ancestor, and other of the band when the reservation began.
The Hunter Family PROVED we qualified, the enrollment committee ignored the evidence to achieve their plans.
The tribe did in fact, eliminate 25% of their population, as they removed over 400 people from the tribe as they reported to federal agencies.
The non members who should not have been enrolled, include Butch Murphy.
The true association of the Hunters include the land given to head of household, and SWORN testimony in the Luiseno language, true oral history.
The statements above are outright
LIES.

Anonymous said...

This is why President Obama did not want to speak to Macarro or the disenrolled!

Great Job (way to go)!


yes MR PRESIDENT SIR ,stay clear!

'aamokat said...

We understand our tribe's customs and traditions very well and we were merely using an analogy to show people that it is a nation of laws and not some club where people can arbitrarily eliminate without the rule of law.

In addition to Antonio Ashman who said when he was asked if he knew our ancestor Paulina Hunter as a member of the Band, he responded in a notarized statement taken prior to the first written enrollment of 1978, "yes, I knew her as such," tribal elder Dolores Tortuga said in another notarirzed statement in the probate hearings in 1915 for Paulina's land allotment when she was asked if she knew or was acquainted with the DECEASED PECHANGA INDIAN ALLOTTEE PAULINA HUNTER, she responded, "yes, I knew her as a neighbor when WE PECHANGA INDIANS lived on the Pauba Ranch near Temecula, California."

Also, it is ironic that tribal elder Raymond Basquez Sr, who submitted a statement against our tribal membership where he listed deceased tribal elders from previous generations who allegedly said we the Hunters have never been legitimate tribal members, without any proof that those elders actually said what Basquez claimed and that one of the those elders, Solida Stevenson, actually tesitifed on behalf of three of Paulina Hunter's children, Matilda (Hunter) Whitten, George Hunter, and Samuel Hunter during their probate hearings in 1938 for their shares of the Hunter family allotment.

The above facts I listed here are just some of the facts that were on our side.

'aamokat said...

Follow up to my last post:

Our opponent, our resident tribal hack critic, likes to infer that the whole tribe agreed with our disenrollment but it was actually only the biased slim majority on the enrollment committee, their close family members, and some of their friends who claimed we have never been legitmate tribal members and they are all from the CPP faction of the tribe that had its beginnings in the attempted hostile takeover of the tribe during the early 1980's.

But in addition to elders from the historical period of the late 1800's such as Antonia Ashman who knew who an original tribal member and who wasn't one, there were six current tribal elders not from the CPP faction of the tribe who submitted statements in our favor that we are in fact legitimate members of the tribe.

Just another fact, among others, that were on our side.

Notice how the tribal hack didn't try to claim in his rant this time that we were afforded due process when we were disenrolled.

Pretty difficult when gross violations of the equal protection clause under Article
V of the Band's constitution are staring him right in the face.

'aamokat said...

of course I meant Antonio Ashman and not Antonia Ashman, darn typos.

Anonymous said...

So, was Raymond Basquez LYING when he signed your family's enrollment cards, along with child molester Vince Ibanez?

OR

Was he lying when he wrote that Hunters were never recognized?

Either way, he's a LIAR then? And why is he to be believed?


Was Ibanez lying when he said "he didn't do it??"

Anonymous said...

" Dear Reader, that Pechanga has not "eliminated 25% of" its "population"

You forgot "gentle readers"

carole ? carole goldberg right?

Anonymous said...

Dear Anonymous


If Pechanga functioned like a custom and traditional tribe then way is my family who turned in all our paper work in on time still on a 14 year moratorium.
You do not function like a custom or traditional tribe but a bunch of lairs and greedy S.O.B.
TIME FOR CHANGE

'aamokat said...

"If Pechanga functioned like a custom and traditional tribe then way is my family who turned in all our paper work in on time still on a 14 year moratorium.
You do not function like a custom or traditional tribe but a bunch of lairs and greedy S.O.B.
TIME FOR CHANGE"

Prior to their disenrollments, newly elected members to the enrollment committee, including members of the Hunter and Manuela Miranda families, made accusations that the people who had a slim majority on the committee, all from the CPP faction of the tribe, and who controlled the actions of the committee had, among other discrepancies, not enrolled people who had their applications in before the deadline for the moratorium.

The newly elected members of the committee tried to work within the committee but found that they ran into a brick wall when dealing with the slim majority of the committee from the CPP faction.

They then informed the tribal council but the council reportedly did nothing about it.

After this the slim majority on the enrollment committee served the newly committee members with disenrollment papers even before any evidence had been submitted against them.

As I said in other posts, this first challenge was not allowed but then family members and friends of the slim majority of the committee from the CPP faction submitted statements against the newly elected committee members.

So these are still more reasons why the enrollment committee members from the CPP faction of the tribe should not have been allowed to rule on the disenrolled's cases.

So the moratorium and disenrollment are directly related.

Anonymous said...

There are 562 federally recognized tribes in the United States. 12 tribal representivates were invited to meet with the President.
They were:

Names of Leaders Who Met With The President on Wednesday:

•    Earl J. Barbry, Sr., Chairman, Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana
•    Cedric Black Eagle, Chairman, Crow Nation
•    Brian Cladoosby, Chairman, Swinomish Indian Tribal Community
•    Karen Diver, Chairwoman, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
•    Brenda Edwards, Chairperson, Caddo Nation
•    Tex G. Hall, Chairman, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation: Three Affiliated Tribes
•    Gary Hayes, Chairman, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe
•    John Red Eagle, Principal Chief, Osage Nation
•    Joe Shirley, Jr. , President, Navajo Nation
•    Robert H. Smith, Chairman, Pala Band of Mission Indians
•    Edward K. Thomas, President, Tlingit Haida Central Council
•    Mervin Wright, Jr., Chairman, Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of Nevada

The vast majority of our tribal leaders weren't invited.
Mark Macarro wasn't invited to ride on the space shuttle either!
So what do you thinkq that all of the tribal leaders who weren't invited are bad?

Your blogs are getting boring, you can open up any of the comment pages and it says the same thing.

Anonymous said...

It was my understanding that his name was on a list to be invited, he was taken off that list.....

Anonymous said...

He was invited....he just wasn't chosen to meet the President.

Anonymous said...

FYI, the office of the President and several House and Senate staffers have visited this site. There has always been a growing number of people who have visited this site, and some of the information may seem repetative to the daily viewer. However first time viewers need this information. If its seems the information is old, you can change that by making up your own blog and spreading the news. OP blog is getting real big.

Anonymous said...

If anyone has a copy of the Pechanga Bylaws? please post so that this hearsay of the CPP may stop. It has gotten so far out of hand that they believe their own lies. If you have a copy OP, then please post it.
and if you have already posted it, please refresh the memories of these fakes.

Anonymous said...

Mark Macarro would never be the tribal leader chosen to be the first one on the space shuttle.

He lost his chance to meet the President when it was pointed out to congressional staffers and WH aides that he LIED to them concerning the Pechanga Water Rights bill about the number of allottees with ties to the reservation.

It left a bad taste in their mouths to know that there are HUNDREDS of people who have rights to allotted land vs the dozen or so they claimed.

Congratulations to Robert Smith for besting Mr. Macarro again

Anonymous said...

President Obama Sir,

Watch this youtube video these are pechanga warriors!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92v3O0t0EfU

Anonymous said...

Keep Laughing Retard.........You sound just like those white Indians when they first came to the REZ..."I GOT MY CHECK, NOW WE ARE REAL INDIANS"

Anonymous said...

Excellent post