PALA WATCH: Who is Robert Smith, PALA's Current Chairman Is Bad to the bone

Pala's porcine "leader", Robert Smith is profiled by our friends at PALA WATCH follow their blog for information on the corruption.  He ranks behind the leadership of Chukchansi as one of the most corrupt.   

The government and fools have chosen to refer to Robert Smith as Honorable. They do so even with the knowledge of his far-ranging criminal activities. They do this either because they are the beneficiaries of his ill-gotten gain or simply admirers of power without regard of it source.

Bureau of Indian Affairs HELPS PALA Executive Committee to TRAMPLE on Tribe's Governing Documents

The latest CUPA NEWSLETTER calls out Robert Smith's Exec Committee AND the BIA.

You 'Member.. Robert Smith

For nearly 25 years the governing documents of the Pala Band have been trampled on by the BIA in cahoots with Pala’s Executive Committee. In 1994 Pala was supposed to adopt a new Constitution.

That Constitution included Kupa as part of the blood requirement. But the BIA took it out. From 1994-1997 the BIA requested all kinds of changes to the Constitution that Pala’s Executive Committee rejected in favor of their 1997 version of the Constitution.

Pechanga and Pala Tribe's Disenrollment Stories Strikingly Similar: Tribal Heritage Erased and Citizenship Terminated.

PALA vs. Pechanga in the race to eliminate Indians.  Pechanga Resort & Casino has brought good fortune but that wasn't enough for some.  Greed won out over honor and tribal history.

Two casino tribes from Temecula the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians and the Pala Band of Mission Indians in Valley Center, both related in Luiseno heritage, have affected their membership's lives by stripping tribal citizenship and erasing their heritage.

KCBS Channel 2 reporter CRISTY FAJARDO reports on disenrollment for greed and power tonight. Pay special attention as to how WEAK the responses are from the two tribal chairmen, Mark Macarro and Robert Smith .  They can lie and obfuscate with ease, because they know that nobody will put them in check.

Here is the video, PLEASE watch and share..

PALA vs. Pechanga Casino Expansions: Pechanga KNOCKS OUT PALA

Pala Casino Spa & Resort confirmed an unspecified number of layoffs, citing facility closures prompted by a $170 million expansion and remodeling as well as economic pressures from “an increasingly competitive Southern California casino resort market.”

THANKS ROBERT SMITH, Mark Macarro is kicking your ass in the business arena.  Two titans of disenrollment in business clash, PALA on the losing end.....

PALA Tribal Abuse: Aguayo Reply Brief Details GOVT. Mishandling of Trust Responsibilty

We wrote about the Pala tribe's victory in court, where the BIA was able to throw FEDERALLY enrolled Natives under the bus in Nov 2014. Judge Cynthia Bashant wasted no time in denying Plaintiff's motion, saying it was a membership issue.   See Documents here: Aguayo v. Jewell   @

NOT SO FAST your Honor...
You can Find the Aguayo Reply Brief here

Sally Jewell doesn't swear to protect ALL Natives

The Pala Disenrolled defense team has file answer briefs in their appeal. Including the fact that the court beloved Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez (which the court uses to weasel out of making decisions) DOES NOT APPLY HERE.

MONEY 1: 

The BIA’s website also acknowledges the legal distinction for federally

acknowledged tribal members. “The rights, protections and services provided by

the United States to individual American Indians...flow...because he or she is a

member of a recognized tribe.”  

Pechanga and Pala Disenrollment News Video From KCBS 2 in Los Angeles

Re-POST: KCBS Channel 2 reporter CRISTY FAJARDO reports on disenrollment for greed and power tonight. Pay special attention as to how WEAK the responses are from the two tribal chairmen, Mark Macarro and Robert Smith! They can lie and obfuscate with ease.

Here is the video:

Native American Gambling Constortium AGAINST SOVEREIGNTY....for American STATES. Likes TRIBAL SOVEREIGNTY, When They can Use it like a CLUB to beat the Weak

A Gaming Tribe consortium led by the DESPICABLE ROBERT SMITH, is against a state exercising their sovereignty in the internet gaming area. Meanwhile, the rotund leader of the Pala Band of Indians in CA, wields sovereignty like a club to beat the weak of his tribe.
Almost immediately after New Jersey legalized Internet gambling, an alliance of American Indian tribes operating thousands of miles away issued a statement decrying the move, accusing the state of weakening gambling license requirements.

The California Tribal Business Alliance’s reaction was a testament to the far-reaching effect of New Jersey’s decision in February, affecting a debate American Indian tribe casinos have grappled with for years even though no tribes operate in New Jersey, observers said.

Only three states in the country, including Nevada and Delaware, have legalized Internet gambling. Several tribe-run operations have ventured to offer play-for-free Internet gambling, but none offers real-money games in this country. A debate continues on whether tribes should pursue real-money Internet gambling.
“There is a huge divide in Indian country,” said Roger Gros, publisher of Global Gaming Business magazine, who has written about Internet gambling issues facing commercial and American Indian casinos.


For some, New Jersey’s law has become a legal affirmation that tribes could offer Internet gambling to patrons as long as server machines taking the bets were in Indian territory, Gros said. But others, who are concerned that Internet gambling will lead to a drop in visitors to casino properties, greet New Jersey’s new law with more skepticism, he said.


The Sacramento-based California Tribal Business Alliance, which represents three tribes in the state, was one of the most vocal critics of New Jersey’s law.

“Online gaming is a slippery slope, and putting at risk a multimillion-dollar industry, the associated jobs and the revenue interests to impacted states, without safeguards, is a gamble no one should be willing to take,” Robert Smith, chairman of the alliance, said in a statement prior to the enactment of the New Jersey law.
Leslie Lohse, vice chairwoman of the alliance, said the primary concern was that New Jersey’s law allows regulators to decide whether companies, such as PokerStars, will be allowed to operate Internet gambling sites on behalf of Atlantic City casinos. The parent company of PokerStars, Rational Group, is looking to take over the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel, through which it would offer Internet gambling.

“We don’t believe their bad-actor language is strong enough,” Lohse said of New Jersey’s gambling laws. “That would definitely be an issue for us.”   OP:  WHAT A JOKE.  CTBA has a "BAD ACTOR" at their helm!



Unlike New Jersey, some other states, such as Nevada, have inserted so-called bad-actor clauses that prohibit certain companies from receiving licenses.
PokerStars last year settled with the U.S. Department of Justice a case that involved charges of money laundering, bank fraud and illegal gambling.
Another provision of New Jersey’s law allows it to negotiate agreements with other states, such as California, that would allow residents in both jurisdictions to gamble on websites run by entities in other states. That would place Atlantic City casinos in direct competition with tribal casinos in California.
“What we are concerned about is the standard of regulation is somewhat weakened,” Lohse said of New Jersey. “If there is reciprocity with the state down the road, which standard will prevail?”
California is a much more populous state than New Jersey, she said, so the potential for many more people to play poker and other casino games online is huge.
“The crown jewel is not New Jersey,” Lohse said.

READ MORE HERE

READ MORE ON PALA HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS: Pala disenrolled 162 members

Pala Disenrolls families

Pala disenrollments led to hardship

PALA WATCH

The Cupeno's Trail of Tears; A horrible beginning and now Robert Smith wreaks more sorrow on Pala

Tony Perry of the LA Times has a story of the beginnings of the Pala Tribe, which their Chairman Robert Smith is shredding via disenrollment....

The history of the Pala Band of Mission Indians begins with an event so traumatic that it is known as the Cupeño Trail of Tears. It remains so central to tribal members, they memorialize it in the entryway of the building that has come to symbolize the tribe's modern prosperity: a casino off Interstate 15 in northern San Diego County.

In 1903, U.S. officials forced hundreds of Cupeño Indians, at gunpoint, to move their household possessions, wagons and livestock from their longtime home in what was then called San Jose del Valle, now Warner Springs. A court had ruled that the tribe did not own the land that it had occupied for generations; the new owner had dreams of a resort.

The tribe was herded around Mt. Palomar to a spot beside a Catholic mission in the San Luis Rey River Valley. During the 40-mile forced march, women and children were terrified.

When tribe members arrived at their new home, they found "nothing but tents and the rundown mission," according to the casino display. At the insistence of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Cupeño tribe melded with the Luiseño tribe that lived nearby — creating the modern Pala Band of Mission Indians.

Under the hand of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the two groups existed side by side despite occasional rivalries. To this day, descendants of the Luiseño pioneers prefer one cemetery, descendants of the early Cupeño largely prefer another.

One of the survivors of the forced march was Margarita Britten. She was an expert in basket weaving; she and her husband had seven children. At Pala, she became a tribal elder.

The disenrollment controversy involves a decision by the Pala governing board that Britten's father was not an Indian and thus she was not a full-blooded Cupeño. In all, 162 of her descendants have been cut off from sharing in the tribe's profits from its casino, hotel and other business ventures.

Britten's relatives note that the Bureau of Indian Affairs has repeatedly ruled that Britten was a full-blooded Cupeño. And they say it is unfair to expect her descendants to have documents such as birth certificates or marriage licenses that predate the relocation.

Tribal members who have been disenrolled have made plaintive appeals to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, although the agency does not have the authority to overrule the Pala board. Says one appeal:

"Indian ancestry is a priceless personal truth, central to identity, culture and community. It is rooted in individual biology and being, inalterable by the whims of others. Ancestry is not a political status to be erased with the stroke of a pen."

Pala Chairman Robert Smiths Meets With President Obama at Conference

The chairman of the Pala Band of Mission Indians met with President Barack Obama on Thursday as part of a 12-member delegation of tribal leaders to discuss American Indian issues ranging from law enforcement to health care. Pechanga Chairman Mark Macarro was not chosen to meet with the President.

The face-to-face meeting with the president was part of the larger White House Tribal Nations Conference, a one-day meeting held at the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C., to give tribal leaders an opportunity to meet and talk with representatives of the Obama administration.

Pala Chairman Robert Smith said he was honored to have been chosen to represent California Indian tribes at the meeting with the president.

                                                            

"It was quite an experience," Smith said. "I was surprised and happy." 

In the 20-minute meeting, Smith said, he emphasized the need to appoint more American Indian judges in federal courts and the need for more funding for the Bureau of Indian Affairs to provide services for poor and nongambling tribes.   Violations of civil rights by Indian tribes should also be a topic of discussion