Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Right The Wrongs on Tribal Disenrollment. MY Fight to Honor My Pechanga Ancestors.

From the dungeon of injustice, I fight for YOU.
FOR justice's sake, I will give my last breath and posts FOR ALL disenrolled and violated Native People.
I WILL NOT QUIT
                                                              Rick Cuevas


People ask me, WHY don't you quit?  Move on with your life.  Well, why should I?  Because it's hard?  Part of my life IS fighting for my rights to belong, per the Pechanga Tribal Constitution, the same constitution the then tribal council acted outside of, detailed in the link above. 



Tribes have a sovereign right to determine membership.  Just as South Africa had a sovereign right to be an apartheid nation, which, my Pechanga tribe certainly is.  Sovereign right doesn't make it right

My name is Rick Cuevas, my great great grandmother, pictured below was an ORIGINAL PECHANGA Temecula Person, PAULINA HUNTER.  How do we know?    Pechanga hired renowned expert, Dr. John Johnson to research her ancestry.   His  2006 statement on how wrong the Pechanga Enrollment Committee was to posthumously strip her tribal heritage is HERE.   The full letter here .  Pechanga Chairman Macarro stated that "tribes know their own history"  If that were true, why did the TRIBE hire Dr. Johnson?  I've been coming to the Temecula Indian Reservation since Chairman Macarro was in diapers, now I must come through a guard gate to visit family.

Paulina Hunter

Disappointing that we can get many to say disenrollment is wrong, or we were abused, but we can't get enough to actually do more to fight for themselves.  I've been asked, WHY WON'T SOMEONE DO SOMETHING?   Well, we have and we DID, where were they?

Me holding sign

I am 65 years old now, I was disenrolled when I was 49 (In fact, I got my notice on my birthday)  I AM STILL HERE.  Enterprise Rancheria, Robinson Rancheria, Grand Ronde HAVE ALL restored the rights of those they disenrolled.  THERE have been positive outcomes because THEY WORKED HARD to keep the pressure on. There are 11,000 of us, that should be plenty of weight behind our struggle.     PLEASE, honor your ancestors. 

SILENCE ISN'T GOLDEN, but akin to GIVING UP NEVER GIVE UP


8 comments:

Thunderbird said...

Winners never quit and quitters never win!

Anonymous said...

tote people that say why don't you move on. Let me put it this way. If your house was broken into and all your stuff was stolen, and your identity stolen and the police new who they were and said they can't do nothing and just move on. So, you mean you wouldn't fight for your rights

Anonymous said...

Right people should be mad as Hell where the FUCK are you! People will only use you as a doormat if you let them!!!

Anonymous said...

Imagine 11,000 plus DISENROLLED sending a letter to President Biden, Kamala Harris, Deb Haaland, Native American senator’s demanding that you be reinstated as member of your Tribal nation, demanding action, demanding back what is rightfully yours, a Letter, inundate them with letters, imagine the power that over 11,000 plus voices speak!

Saying that won’t work is not an option, put the power of the pen to paper and let our voices be heard!

Hiding in the shadows is not what our ancestors did, they did not make themselves small, they were warriors and fought to survive!
HONOR your ancestors, speak up and be heard!!

STOLEN LAND! STOLEN CHILDREN! STOLEN RIGHTS! STOLEN VOICES!

Anonymous said...

I personally want to thank Rick for his unwavering commitment to the DISENROLLED! He is the epitome of a WARRIOR!
Speaking the truth, educating the uninformed, documenting the harm, bringing to the fore front the egregious acts committed by corrupt Tribal Chairman and Tribal Councils!

I also want to thank others: White Buffalo, Reinstatement Restitution for your wisdom, knowledge and enlightment.

Numbers speak and when we come together, just as our ancestors did, we have power and we can make a difference, we have to make a difference. Doing nothing is not an option, staying quiet is not an option, speak your truth and take back your power!

My Aunt Joan, Aunt Dolly, my Grandma Grace, all my ancestors Thank you for hearing their voices and speaking TRUTH!

We are stronger together, numbers speak, SPEAK YOUR TRUTH!

Anonymous said...

What about Thunderbird he’s got some pretty good smarts!

Anonymous said...

Thank you Rick for all your hard work and cousin John Gomez. We will never stop fighting for what is right and TRUE. MAY GOD OUR CREATOR BLESS YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES! GO APIS CLAN. MIRANDA AND RAMOS WHY WONT YOU SPEAK UP FOR THOSE WHO YOU KNOW BELONG TO THE LUISENO TRIBE!

WeRone said...

🪶✌🏼🎶