Here is a repost, of an article written years ago, but it's a REMINDER, that it's not JUST about tribal disenrollment, but many Natives are caught in membership moratoriums. Can anyone believe that the Pechanga Enrollment committee members are too stupid to process the paperwork they've had for DECADES?
It's well known in California that the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Mission Indians has terminated over 25% of their tribal members in two massive eliminations. Coincidentally, each family was removed just prior to tribal elections. (story reprised from earlier post)
What many people still are unclear about, is Pechanga's so-called moratorium on membership.
This was put into place under the premise that the enrollment committee had to "catch-up" on all the membership claims. Of course, that was a ruse to simply keep rightful members from joining the Band as per the Tribal Constitution. Pechanga's Chairman Mark Macarro has claimed it's "not about the money". Pechanga's per capita payments were $10,000 per month when the first family, descendents of Pablo Apis were erased from the tribe. When the Hunter Family was disenrolled, (a term created to make it sound like Indians were kicked out of the PTA or country club) the per capita was $20,000 per month. Now, the tribe is giving $30,000 per month to those remaining. Raise your hand if you think it "wasn't about the money".
Here is the story of one family, that we've profiled before. We've been asking them to contribute to this blog with more information and they've finally opened up.
