UPDATE: FACTIONS ESCORTED OUT BY SHERIFFS: STABBING AT CHUKCHANSI: Scanner Reports Road Closures

The Fresno Bee reports: Up to 50 members of the rival Chukchansi Indian leadership factions, including those who broke into the tribal government building Monday, were escorted from the tribal offices by law enforcement this afternoon.

The group that occupied the tribal council building, led by Morris Reid, left the building about 2:15 p.m., escorted by Madera County sheriff's deputies and California Highway Patrol officers. The other group, led by Reggie Lewis, was escorted minutes earlier out of the tribe's economic development building.

Supporters of both sides yelled and jeered as the people walked though the office gates.



Looks like things are coming to a violent head. We received word that police scanners are saying:

Lucky lane and 41 both closed by law enforcement--stabbing reported at tribal office.

Some additional details are coming: Heard that a young man was trying to guard one of the doors to the offices, which were being occupied by newly-elected Morris Reid's group, and then the young man was stabbed by someone trying to get in. OP: That makes it REGGIE LEWIS's responsibility...VIOLENCE.

STAY AWAY FROM CHUKCHANSI!

UPDATE: Called Chukchansi and their operator said the casino is OPEN. She said what was going on was across the street. BUT, she said the hotel is not making reservations. Yikes.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein asks Dept. of Interior to Draft Language Keeping Gaming from Tribes Seeking Land into Trust.

California Senator Dianne Feinstein has received draft language from the Department of Interior, which will place requirements on certain lands to be used for the purposes of Indian gaming.  This will have a direct effect on some tribes gaining the self-reliance that the big gaming tribes received and implemented under Props. 1A and 5.

We have embedded communications, including a response to Rep. Tom Cole asking for information on the matter.

The money portion of the language Sen. Feinstein  is seeking:

gaming shall not be conducted on land taken into trust by the Federal Government after the date of enactment of this aAct, unless the Secretary of the Interior determines when taking into trust for gaming purposes that the Indian tribe demonstrates -

      1. A substantial direct modern connection to the land taken into trust; and
      2. a substantial direct aboriginal connection to the land taken into trust.

WHO benefits from language like this?   Certainly NOT tribes who would benefit from gaming?  Only those tribes that ALREADY have gaming would benefit for the lack of competition for gaming customers.    So is that who Sen. Dianne Feinstein is doing this for?   WHY Senator, would you jump through hoops for tribes that already have gaming, instead of working to HELP tribes that do not?    IF gaming is the engine for tribal self-reliance, wouldn't we want ALL tribes to benefit from Gaming.   Really, Senator, is it more important for tribes like Pechanga, which has stolen $300 million from rightful tribal people, or the Picayune Rancheria, which has eliminated 50% of their tribe to benefit?   Shouldn't you and Senator Barbara Boxer be working on enforcing the Indian Civil Rights Act instead?   Please Sen. Feinstein, don't say you "didn't know" what tribes have done.  We sent you hundreds of letters on Pechanga's Land Transfer.

Who is lobbying for this?  IETAN?

DoI Response to Rep. Cole 11-18-2010 and Sen. Feinstein 11-03-2010.[1]

Senator, please RETHINK this issue.

Letter To Editor on Picayune-Chukchansi Civil Rights Violations and Disenrollment

Here is a letter to the Fresno Bee on an article we posted a couple of weeks back.

Letter to Editor of Fresno Bee:


Regarding the Bee's recent front page story of Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indian's latest business venture.

I find myself wondering once again when the paper genocide of our Chukchansi People and so many other Indian People throughout California will cease? Tribes such as Picayune continue to blatantly violate the tribal, civil and
human rights of hundreds of their own People through disenrollment and moratorium
without consequence.

Tribal council member Alberta states "a healthy economy will allow money to be pumped back into tribal programs". This same promise was made to 1600 Chukchansi People prior to the establishment of Chukchansi Gold. Since that time, over 600 tribal
members including elders and future generations, language keepers and
babies have had their very birthright stolen from them by a PRCI
government who swore to protect the People and their rights.

Chukchansi ancestors have been disrespected and history rewritten--a once proud Chukchansi Nation replaced instead by a greedy corporation whose members have chosen to forget the Indian way of respect and caring for one's People. Programs? Ask currently enrolled tribal People about housing, education or health insurance
for all...then ask of talk of future audits and disenrollments.

PRCI tribal council...do what the Creator planned for our People. Bring the
People--ALL thePeople--home to Picayune!


While this letter was unpublished, writing newspaper editors is critical to getting the word out. The Fresno Bee as well as the Riverside Press Enterprise depend heavily on the advertising revenue of local gaming tribes. Anyone wonder why some news and letters don't get printed?

Picayune Rancheria's Morris Reid, OPB's Native American Hall of SHAME inductee, Retains Seat

Our friend, FOR ALL NATIONS, reports the following candidates for tribal council have been elected to the Picayune rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians tribal council in the recent election:

morris reid (retained seat/current tribal chair)

janice devine (retained seat)

reggie lewis (newly elected)

lance alberta (newly elected)


The following council members failed in their bid for re-election:

dora jones

mark emerick


The following council members were held over:

harrold hammond sr.

patrick hammond

sam lawhon


And, rightly asks: WHEN WILL THE PICAYUNE TRIBAL COUNCIL HONOR THE ANCESTORS, ELDERS AND FUTURE GENERATIONS OF OUR TRIBE?

BRING THE PEOPLE--ALL THE PEOPLE--HOME TO PICAYUNE!

Pechanga Abuse of It's Senior Customer is comparable to Redding Rancheria's Actions

Today, guest blogger, Carla Foreman-Maslin, disenrolled member of the Redding Rancheria, and AIRRO member compares the latest news of Pechanga's abuse of power in the beating of Richard Swan that we've been discussing for days, with her tribe's casino in Redding. Thank you Carla for your contributions

This sounds a lot like Redding Rancheria. They have harassed, threatened & beat up employees, customers, their own tribal members & other Indian people who have been invited to participate in events or have come to put their money into the casino.

It is a very shameful time for tribes and their citizens who have allowed this type of behavior. The dictatorships and the bullying that is taking place is so outrageous and it really looks bad on American Indians everywhere.

I never thought I would see it all come down to this. I was always proud to be a part of what I felt was a historic time in this country when I witnessed my dad, who was our Tribal Chairman at a gathering of all Tribal Leaders at a Senate meeting in Washington, DC. I witnessed the Tribal Elders along with other Tribal Leaders who fought in the Vietnam war tell stories of their tribes and how they struggled with poverty, etc. I watched grown men cry as they testified on why Indian Gaming was going to help Tribes with economic development for their people to be able to have education, housing, health benefits through self reliance.

I believed in this vision and was proud to see it all come to life. I stood in the field with other Indian people and Mark Macarro when we filmed for Prop 5. I participated along with other California Indians in San Francisco when we all demonstrated for Indian Gaming in California. I will never forget the march to the steps of the Ninth Circuit Court with all the other Native men, women and children.

And now to see what has become a terrible disrespect to some tribes not only to their tribal citizens, but to our elders who have passed on and fought to live to see their children survive and make something of themselves through education. I was going to college when my rights and my family's rights were violated. I lost my education as the tribe was paying for it. Many other family members lost the same rights to their education.

I am appalled that those rights and other rights have been stolen by people who have no right to take the most sacred part of our being away from us. This is such a crime and the criminals have to answer for it. The fact that the loophole of "sovereignty" has allowed them to push their crime to other levels is a joke.

This is a major crime to any human being. Sovereignly is not for committing crimes against humanity, it is to be used as a protection for people. Whoever thought of using sovereignty as a way to protect their crimes has a very dark and evil mind. It is as evil as the mind of Hitler and other evil dictators throughout the world.

The victims need to stand up for their rights and continue to protect what is rightfully theirs. Teach your children to stand for their rights. There is nothing wrong when it is right. The only wrong is letting the criminals continue to commit crimes against the victims. In this case, the criminals have been given fame, when they deserve shame.

Greed, power and corruption has ultimately become a way of life for some of these tribal leaders and as long as they get away with it without justice, more tribal leaders will figure out that they can do the same to any tribal member, because they are untouchable. I never thought I would ever see such injustice in this time in our lives. Shame on those who don't stand for the innocent victims.

I would like to see a hero rise up and take a stand for our American Indians who have lost their voices and their rights.

Peace & Love
Carla Foreman-Maslin

20 Yrs of Indian Fortunes & Feuds From Pechanga Dishonor to Struggling Tribes.

An article in today Union Tribune has some stories about what has happened to some tribes since the IGRA became law. Some tribes have become rich, some are on their way. Some like Pechanga, Redding, Picayune, Enterprise have cut the hearts out of some of their tribes elders, and children.

When Pechanga Chairman Mark Macarro went on television to implore the citizens of California to help make tribes SELF RELIANT, we thought that they would work together for the betterment of everyone. Instead, tribal members got swallowed up in greed and infighting and bullying became the rule of the day.

Tribes complained about treaties being broken by the white man, yet, the Cherokee have hurt the Freedmen with a treaty of over 140 years that was broken.

Picayune (Chukchansi) eliminated 500 people from their tribe, dulling the glitter.
Pechanga has kept 500 people OUT of the tribe that rightfully should be in via an illegal moratorium and have also terminated 300, while FORCIBLY removing children and escorting them from the reservation school, noted in this KNBC VIDEO. Now, they have eliminated 700 jobs due to economic slowdowns and the public avoiding them for casinos of tribes that have not treated their people so badly.

The links have more of the story and here's that UTrib story:


Much has changed in the 20 years since Congress enacted the landmark Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which set the ground rules for Indian casinos and changed life forever at Viejas and many other reservations.

Before gaming, Viejas was a dying tribe, mired in poverty that fostered drug and alcohol abuse, discouraged education and contributed to an infant mortality rate approaching 20 percent.
“What a difference,” Pico said. “Gaming gave us the opportunity to be able to think and plan. Before, we just had a high interest in surviving.”

Yet other local tribes – Ewiiaapaayp, Jamul, Los Coyotes, Manzanita, Mesa Grande – have yet to cash in their casino dreams.

Across California and the nation, Indian gaming has brought uneven results, from unimaginable wealth for a relative few to years of frustration for others and worse, such as members being banished as political power came to mean control of serious money.
“We don't have to worry about the federal government terminating us anymore,” said Clyde Bellecourt, national director of the American Indian Movement. “We're terminating ourselves.”

While big tribes with large reservations had dominated Indian affairs nationally, casino wealth has flowed largely to smaller tribes, such as most of those in San Diego County and California.
“The economic benefit that it brought was kind of inverse to some of the needs that existed in Indian Country,” said Philip Hogen, an Oglala Sioux and chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission.
Rather than the large, rural reservations, “it was tribes that by accident of history and geography found themselves next to a metropolitan market who made the most of it,” Hogen said. “Nothing wrong with that. Nobody said it wasn't going to work that way.”
The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was a compromise, six years in the making, driven in the end by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in California v. Cabazon.
The court ruled that Cabazon, a 25-member band in Riverside County, and other tribes could continue to conduct high-stakes bingo on their reservations without state regulation or interference.

“After the Cabazon decision, there was a lot of concern that the floodgates were open,” said Bill Eadington, a gambling expert at the University of Nevada Reno. The gaming act “was really an attempt to plug the dike . . . to create a level playing field between tribes and other interests.”
Instead, Indian gambling quickly exceeded expectations, Eadington said.
From $200 million in 1988, it mushroomed into a $26 billion industry nationwide by 2007, with nearly $8 billion in California, the dominant Indian gaming state with 58 casinos.

But just 69 of the country's 420 Indian casinos generated $18.8 billion, or 72 percent, of the $26 billion. Many of the most successful tribes – such as Barona, Pala, Sycuan and Viejas of San Diego County – also are in California.
Twenty years ago, few knew or cared that San Diego County was home to more tribes – 17 – than any other county in the nation. Today, only Riverside County has as many tribal casinos – 10.

Some California Indians have become multimillionaires, but only about 32,000 people – less than 10 percent of the state's American Indian population – belong to a gaming tribe, according to the latest state and federal data.
In a program unique to California, gaming tribes pay into funds that have distributed nearly $525 million over the past seven years to more than 70 less-fortunate tribes.

But gaming appears to have done little to bring down alarming unemployment rates. California reservations reported a 49 percent jobless rate, matching the national level, according to the 2005 American Indian Population and Labor Force Report, which contains the latest data available.

Flush gaming tribes have become political powers, contributing hundreds of millions of dollars to candidates and campaigns across the nation.

Read more HERE

Former Redding Rancheria Members Fight to Protect their Property

It's not easy to survive on your own property when the tribe can steamroll you.

Members of a family disenrolled from the Redding Rancheria tried to stop ongoing road construction Tuesday near the Win-River Casino expansion project.

About a dozen members of the Foreman family and their supporters attempted to block a construction project that will remove a driveway on rancheria property that leads to one of the family's homes. The road is being widened as part of a casino expansion. Bob Foreman Jr., whose father Bob Foreman Sr. owns land adjacent to the casino, said the family is not opposed to the casino's growth. "If we were part of the tribe still, we would want to expand," he said.
But the family is concerned that the construction could impede on its land or make getting in and out unsafe, Foreman said. Tuesday's protest was the latest chapter in a long-standing dispute involving tribal lineage at the Redding Rancheria, and prompted a call from Win-River Casino officials to the Shasta County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff's deputies Tuesday morning told the protesters that they needed to move. Members of the Foreman family said they were there because they wanted to see any permits the Redding Rancheria had for the roadwork.

Barbara Murphy, the tribe's chairwoman, said the land that the road and the driveway sit on are owned by the tribe. Being a sovereign nation, she said the rancheria isn't required to file for permits with the city or county.

See the rest of the story HERE

No Budget Deal, But Legislators PAR-TAY at Civil Rights Abuser Chukchansi

There's NO BUDGET for us after over a month into the fiscal year, yet our top legislators were partying at the Chukchansi Casino. Couldn't they have solved the budget over the crap table? Oh, craps table, sorry, I was confused by what they were spewing.

Let's see, a $15 BILLION deficit that they can't figure out how to fix. I KNOW, I KNOW.. QUIT spending so much and start going after those who haven't paid yet. Don't let tribes be LATE on their payments.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines and Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill were among the VIPs Chukchansi's soiree. That's three of the so-called Big Four legislative leaders. They could have celebrated the casino's expansion by giving Californians a budget.
Gov. Arnold had just issued an ill-conceived executive order trying to reduce the pay of 200,000 state workers to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour until the budget is passed. Bass said that was terrible, but not terrible enough for her to require the Democratic caucus to stay in Sacramento and solve the problem. Villines and Cogdill didn't offer much more.

Your JOB IS NOT DONE and partying with a tribe like Chukchansi, that has terminated so many Indians IS NOT going to get it done. Of course, you can choose to do it the way Chukchansi does it. GET RID of some citizens (illegals) and we'll have more money for the rest of us. Provide nothing for them and we'll have MO' Money. If you think that's okay for Chukchansi and Pechanga, it should be okay for California.

Sen. Dean Florez Feigns OUTRAGE at Rez Shopping

Where was Senator Dean Florez's OUTRAGE when the Picayune Rancheria in Coarsegold terminated half of it's tribe? Is that what you though self-reliance meant, Mr Senator? How about when the Pechanga tribe violated the civil and human rights of 25% of it's membership? Your silence was deafening.



From Dean's Editorial:

When Californians approved Propositions 1A and 5, they were told -- and believed -- that these landmark gaming initiatives would give our state's Indian tribes the right to operate casinos on Indian lands. OP: And the opposition said it would come to this: gambling off the rez. Who was right?

Voters never dreamed that a few short years after they endorsed these measures promising Indian self-reliance on Indian lands, communities throughout California would be fighting to prevent an alarming move toward the proliferation of Indian casinos on nontribal sites, miles away from the ancestral homelands. OP: HOW about joining the fight for the individual Indian, that was harmed by the tribes? And again, many voters KNEW they'd be fighting this issue. Once you politicians started get PAID by the tribes.

One such battle is now under way in Madera County, where the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians' proposed mega-casino project, on Highway 99, more than 40 miles from their federally recognized land, seems headed for approval by the Bureau of Indian Affairs OP: TRANSLATION: North Fork Indians do not contribute to my campaign funds like Indian-killer Picayune does. Poor Chukchansi may lose so bidness in a sweet bit of Karma.

Read his editorial at the Fresno BEE Add your comments here and there.