Pechanga Casino Shutdown Threatens Wealthy Tribal Members; Disenrolled Know How it Feels

Felon Ray Basquez, Jr

With the Pechanga Resort & Casino closed for business, and 4,500 employees laid off.  One group of casualties never mentioned is the remaining tribal members who face the horrible threat of  LOSS OF PER CAPITA ! (omg!)

Some advice from disenrolled:
1. Use your savings (Hey, Pechanga stole a billion from us, No rainy day fund?)
2. GET A JOB.  That's what that yahoo felon Ray Jr. told our elders
3. Get free food from the casino (oh, Pechanga members did that already)
4. Have a yard sale to raise money.
5. Sell your new trucks to cut debt
6. Don't pay your mortgage until you have to give up your home

INDIANZ.COM Focuses on the #StopDisenrollment Campaign WITH HUGE ARTICLE

Thank you  Kevin Abourezk  for this article on tribal disenrollment and the #stopdisenrollment campaign.  We have a host of links about disenrollment here

The 9-year-old girl couldn’t understand.

How could anyone tell her she was no longer Modoc? And if she was no longer Modoc, what was she?

Tribal Sovereignty Without Accountability Leads to Abuses Like Disenrollment and Apartheid

Disenrollment is NOT the Indian Way

Readers, some of this was posted as early as June 2007 and it still does apply.  The links tell the story of what's happened at my Pechanga reservation and other reservations.  Feel free to comment, they are open, but more importantly, share far and wide.

Tribal gaming has helped many tribes in CA, come out of poverty, Pechanga included. Many of the Pechanga people aren't well educated and I remember they were so excited when they qualified for a Target credit card. Unfortunately, with success, greed soon follows. They looked at who they could get rid of to increase their per capita. FOLLOW Pechanga's per capita growth here
The money didn't made everyone happy, some needed power.

SLATE.com on TRIBAL DISENROLLMENT: The Fight Over Who’s a “Real Indian” Pechanga Casino Tribe a Focus

Jaime Dunaway has an extensive piece on disenrollment in SLATE.com . From an interview we did in APRIL:


.. California’s Pechanga Band of Luiseño Mission Indians, owners of the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, CA ,  whose tribal council sought to consolidate power by targeting political opponents through disenrollment. “It was simply a political issue,” said Rick Cuevas, who was dismissed from the tribe, along with nearly 100 extended family members, after the council posthumously disenrolled his ancestor in 2006. “There were votes they couldn’t control. It’s not just about the money. It’s about power and control.”

Unlike Crandell, Cuevas’ relatives were allowed to remain on the reservation—in the house that his father {HELPED} built in 1957—albeit without access to tribal resources, such as health care, housing grants, and other benefits provided by the federal government, which were annulled in the disenrollment proceedings. “They’re basically living under an apartheid system,” he said.


“They can’t go to the park without a tribal member. They can’t drink out of the water fountains. They can’t go to the pool. That’s segregation.”

PLEASE SHARE..... and READ THE ARTICLE HERE 

Judge William Alsup Rules ELEM COLONY Can Bully, Threaten and Banish Members

 A California federal judge on Saturday tossed a suit by members of the Elem Indian Colony of Pomo Indians of the Sulphur Bank Rancheria over their alleged disenrollment, saying that a political struggle between the parties for control of the tribe didn’t offer the members access to habeas corpus relief under the Indian Civil Rights Act.

Adrian John Sr. and the other tribe-member plaintiffs had sought a writ of habeas corpus to prevent restraint of their liberty, claiming that the Elem Colony Tribal Council had tried to disenroll and banish them and that they remained under threat of being removed from the tribe’s California reservation.

In an order dismissing the case Saturday, U.S. District Judge William Alsup agreed with the tribal council that the members hadn’t shown their treatment by the tribal officials, based mostly on documents sent by the tribe in 2016 threatening them with disenrollment, reached the level of a “severe restraint” permitting habeas relief under the ICRA.

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.....

NCAI MARKETPLACE: Another Major Event that IGNORES the ABUSES of NATIVE AMERICANS...BY Native Americans

Another MAJOR EVENT for the NCAI (National Congress of American Indians) and another round of SILENCE by not discussing the corrupt and abusive actions of some tribes:  Pala, Pechanga, San Pasqual, Nooksack, Redding Rancheria, the Cherokee Freedmen issue to name a few.   

The NCAI  is alarmingly silent on the scourge of disenrollment that has ripped the hearts from Native People, much more than the moniker of a football team they railed against so vociferously.   Professor David Wilkins called them out...remember

REALLY, NCAI?   Have you called tribes who have disenrolled and spoke to them about the THOUSANDS of Native Americans who have had their heritage wiped away?    AT LEAST have the DISCUSSION, but alas, their AGENDA has no mention.....again

Learn More on Disenrollment, Ethnic Cleansing in Indian Gaming Country at these Links:

Gaming Revenue Blamed for Disenrollment
Disenrollment is paper Genocide
Read the ICT article on NOOKSACK here
CA Tribal Cleansing
TRIBAL TERRORISM includes Banishment
Nooksack Disenrollment

Mark Macarro SHAMED for Destroying 8 Pechanga Generations #StopDisenrollment

Here are young descendants of Paulina Hunter, ages 5 thru 9 years, disenrolled from Pechanga 107 years after her death  They are the 8th generation of Pechanga people that are traceable.

Paulina Hunter Descendants
8th generation stripped of their heritage prior to birth by Mark Macarro

The children are the  REAL faces of those harmed by their own people, in this advocacy movement and in some cases, their OWN FAMILIES.
Been seeing a lot of pictures of Natives against Tribal Disenrollment, HAVE YOU posted?

Mark Macarro of Pechanga got rid of 25% of his tribe, including elders, and children and the UNBORN.  Additionally, he's kept his own COUSINS from their rightful place in the tribe.

3 Days of Protest Against Disenrollment in UKIAH

Earlier today and for the next two days, members of the Elem Indian Colony Pomo Tribe will be protesting at the Ukiah Plaza alongside representatives from at least two other tribes in the area.

The group is challenging a cut in membership from the Clearlake Oaks tribe. Those involved in the protest say the Disenrollment/Paper Genocide
of tribe members is contrary to tribal law.

From the organizers:

Today's Stand against Dis-enrollment protest will be held in Ukiah today from 11:00-5:30 each day on April 6th, 7th, & 8th 2016. 

The Pomo Nations families have been targeted by these Zionist Attorneys Anthony Cohen, Lester Marston and David Rapport who specialize in the politically Disenrolling of Pomo people while the majority of their tribal clients are Tribal Governments from Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino Counties! 

Question your Council why they continue to hire these low down dirty blood sucking attorneys. Who will eventually dis-enroll them "

STAND with your Native Brethren against corrupt Tribal Councils.  

In Hopland Disenrollment, Evidence is Unnecessary Because it Would Contradict the Narrative.

Interesting post from a FB page of a recently disenrolled HOPLAND POMO woman, on evidence presented, and how corrupt tribal politicians (not much of a leader) only use what they want to use.

It strikes a chord with me and my family, because in our disenrollment, the enrollment committee didn't use the expert's evidence they paid for, instead using some vague hearsay from ..dead people.

Here's the post: 

Data and records were submitted with our disenrollment appeals letters proving our lineage to the tribe dating back to the 1800's. According to our appeals Letters from the interim secretary of the tribe, we were, in writing, assured that whatever evidence we submitted would be shared with the general council.

Disappearing Indians: Carving Up the NEW Buffalo. Steve Russell's Take on Disenrollment for Greed, Power and Money

Steve Russell has a good piece up in Indian Country Today called CARVING UP THE NEW BUFFALO.  Which is about how greed is leaving many Natives high and dry and fighting for scraps, while others are trying to have their own buffalo stand, where piles of money  take the place of a pile of bones.   I will follow up this piece with an article about MONEY and what has been at stake.

The New Buffalo took its first shaky steps on February 25, 1987, when the U.S. Supreme Court told California it could not shut down card games and high-stakes bingo on the reservations of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians (less than 1,000 citizens) and the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians (less than 50 citizens).

Just as buffalo "hunters" slaughtered animals creating this pile of bones
Tribes have eliminated members to pile up the money.

California is a PL 280 state, meaning that Congress has given it the power to pass criminal laws binding on tribal land. However, gambling was legal in California at that time, just heavily regulated. The state allowed bingo with much smaller cash prizes than the Indians offered and even had a state lottery.  The Supreme Court, consistent with prior decisions, held that state regulations held no force on Indian land.

He gets deeper into the matter with IGRA:

Wherever you see non-Indians organizing to stop this or that Indian casino, there will always be somebody denouncing Congress for gifting Indians with the right to run casinos in IGRA. They are misinformed. IGRA was not the source of Native gaming rights. The source was that part of tribal sovereignty not taken away by the U.S. IGRA was enacted to limit Indian gaming and give states a mechanism to profit from it

Finally, he gets to the MONEY QUOTE:

PART III: Are Native Americans Entitled to Civil Rights Protections? Senate Indian Committee Must Have Field Hearings Senator Barrasso.

The conclusion of Native American Activist Paul Johnson's treatise on the violations of civil rights in Indian Country.  Please check out the previous two posts:Part One and Part TWO   .  Thank you Paul for your excellent work on this critical issue infecting Indian Country

The selective nature of disenrollments illustrates the bias and discrimination that motivates these heinous actions. Tribes select entire extended families and target them for elimination. They place unfair standards only on those they wish to eliminate, with full knowledge that there are other tribal members who could not meet the same standard. Disenrollees are treated differently under the law than other tribal members, and this is what is meant by the violation of the right to equal protection under the law. Equal protection means not only that all people shall be treated equally in the enforcement of the law, but also that all people shall have equal access to the law. This right was intended specifically to prevent unfair or discriminatory actions by those enforcing the laws from preventing individuals from obtaining recourse or remedy.

Read the citation from the Fourteenth Amendment carefully. It doesn't say citizen; it says person. In Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886) the Supreme Court ruled that:

“These provisions are universal in their application to all persons within the territorial jurisdiction, without regard to any differences of race, of color, or of nationality, and the equal protection of the laws is a pledge of the protection of equal laws. “

It doesn't apply to Indians though. Why does the Court deny the civil rights of Indians? Because Congress denies the Civil Rights of Indians. Why does Congress discriminate against Indians? The Supreme Court says that protecting the civil rights of Indians means interfering with the sovereignty of Tribes, but Tribes are domestic dependent sovereigns with lands held in trust by the Federal Government. Congress has plenary powers over Tribes. (OP: plenary power is a power that has been granted to a body in absolute terms, with no review of, or limitations upon, the exercise of the power)

The politics that are being played by Congress and Tribes should not result in the violation of the civil rights of tribal members.

This attitude toward Indians is not new. America has a long and bloody history of mistreatment of native peoples. Nothing has changed except that now Tribes have gaming. Along with the gaming came wholesale corruption. The Federal Government allows the corruption as long as it is just Indians hurting other Indians, but there are other ramifications that have not been fully understood. The BIA now says disenrollees are not eligible for federal services or programs because they are not members of a Federally Recognized Tribe, and their internal policy states that disenrollees are not entitled to per-capita distribution.

The BIA does not inform disenrollees that they are taking these actions against them. They say that tribal law is controlling law for tribal members, but disenrollees are not tribal members. So without committing a crime or any transgression at all against the Federal Government, the BIA denies services, programs, and revenue sharing to those who are otherwise entitled and eligible. They do this without providing due process, and without equal protection of the law. There is no legal definition of disenrollee, and no federal regulation that tells the BIA that they have to stop seeing an Indian as an Indian just because a Tribe decided to harm a selective portion of their members.

Disenrollees can have their tribal membership terminated. It happens all the time these days; however, Tribes do not tell the Federal Government what to do. Why then is the BIA acting against disenrollees on the instruction of Tribes? It appears that the BIA and Tribes are working together to inflict harm and injury on innocent persons, and it is time for disenrollees to recognize that they are U.S. Citizens. In 1924 Congress granted all American Indians U.S. Citizenship, and if their tribal membership is terminated, for whatever reason, Indians revert to U.S. Citizens, and they are entitled to all the rights and protections of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In fact Indians are U.S. Citizens even when they are also Tribal Citizens, and can always assert their rights.

This fact has been lost in the disputes over membership and the BIA and Courts purposely avoid addressing civil rights violations. So far the BIA and the Courts have been able to narrow the scope of their decisions to frame disenrollment as internal tribal matters in which they have no jurisdiction and cannot interfere. They are able to do this because the disenrollees file their appeals and complaints against the Tribes. The Tribes are immune to lawsuits, and the BIA has no jurisdiction, and the cases are dismissed, or the appeals are lost.

The BIA should not disregard these rights and protections, and the BIA should not apply tribal law to those who are no longer tribal citizens. The problem is that disenrollees are so intent on regaining tribal membership that they forget that they are U.S. Citizens and allow the BIA to treat them as neither U.S. Citizens nor Tribal Citizens. To make matters worse the BIA gives deference to the Tribal Leaders who are hurting their own people no matter how corrupt the leaders are. The BIA says it is reasonable for them to give deference to Tribes even though this deference enables Tribes to violate their own Constitutions, Laws, Customs and Traditions.

The BIA addresses only matters involving tribal law and membership disputes and ignores any other arguments in appeals. The Courts rule that Tribes are sovereign and immune to lawsuits. Congress specifically left out provisions for enforcement of the ICRA. Disenrollees are painted into a corner, with no recourse except to claim their Rights. How else are they going to make any headway against a power structure that is completely discriminatory?

The BIA will never interfere and help disenrollees get reinstated. They have no rules, regulations, policies, procedures, court decisions or empowerment from Congress to reinstate disenrollees. Even if a Tribe's governing document gives the BIA this power, they will still try to weasel out of doing something for disenrollees. Instead of seeking reinstatement, disenrollees should tell the BIA that they are being denied due process and equal protection under the law. They should demand a hearing, and an opportunity to present evidence on their behalf with an independent judicial review.

This strategy will have either of two outcomes. It is possible that the BIA will rule that those disenrollees who assert their civil rights are still eligible for federal services and programs despite being disenrolled. Those disenrollees who obtain this ruling from the BIA will have proof that they are Indians, and that the Tribe was wrong in disenrolling them. This is a far better outcome than a decision not to interfere, and could lead to further action.

If the BIA rules that the agency cannot provide disenrollees a hearing or equal protection under the law, then the table is set for a suit against the BIA. The Court will then have an opportunity to hear the arguments and decide for all disenrollees whether or not they have civil rights. In might also mean that disenrollees can file complaints with the Department of Justice claiming civil rights violation by the Tribe against a U.S. Citizen with the support of a judicial decision that says that Tribes do not have the right to determine your eligibility for federal services and programs.

There is even a chance that the Court might rule that the BIA must change the internal policy that disenrollees are not entitled to per-capita revenue sharing. This is where the whole strategy has been pointing. Gaming Tribes have Revenue Allocation Plans with the BIA that state that Tribes must share revenue with Tribal members. There are federal court decisions (Short et al.v. United States, 1973) that state all Indians of a reservation are entitled to share revenue from reservation lands regardless of their tribal membership status. By asserting their claim to civil rights protections disenrollees might be able to remove the reason why the Tribe disenrolled in the first place. If Tribes cannot withhold per-capita from disenrollees they might not be so hasty to disenroll members. With the requirement for Tribal membership out of the picture, then the Tribe will have to share with disenrollees too or be in violation of their RAPs.

Can the BIA force Tribes to share revenue with disenrollees? That question won't be answered until some brave disenrollees assert their claim to civil rights protections. There is also the NIGC, and gaming Tribes must file Tribal Gaming Ordinances with the NIGC that state they will share revenue with tribal members. Along with the Tribal Gaming Ordinances comes a waiver of sovereign immunity due to the provisions of the IGRA. Gaming Tribes must sign such a waiver so that the NIGC can enforce the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

The alphabet soup gets a little crowded here, and before too much complexity drowns these actions in a slew of hearings and delays the best weapon that disenrollees have is to stand fast to their civil rights and see where the strategy leads. Most Tribes will probably reconsider their disenrollment decisions if it becomes apparent that the federal government will be forced to either investigate or act. No one knows if this strategy will work though. It hasn't been tried before. 

This is an opportunity to fight disenrollment actions and force the BIA, the DOI, the DOJ and perhaps even Congress to develop a policy that addresses the civil rights of Indians in a meaningful way. We won't know until we give this strategy a ride and test it out. 

Indian Country Today: Loss of Citizenship via Disenrollment is a DISASTER

What is happening at Nooksack is making the national stage.  It helps those who have been victims of corrupt activities to keep bringing their stories forward.   Pechanga, Chukchansi, Redding, Pala, Cherokee Freedmen all have disenrollment stories, and they are not alone. Moratoriums have harmed hundreds, and loss of federal recognition, like the Mixed Blood Uinta Utes are stories that also need to be learned.

Read this opinion piece from Indian Country Today:

Prof. David Wilkins is dismayed by language chosen by the Chief Judge of the Nooksack Tribal Court in a disenrollment decision.

His dismay is directed not at the holding of the case, which supported the sovereign authority of the Nooksack Nation to be stupid, but to the Chief Judge’s assertion that tribal enrollment is of less legal import than loss of US citizenship.

Nowhere in Prof. Wilkins’s critique of the opinion does he touch the essential argument the judge made: “While the impact on the disenrollee is serious and detrimental, it is not akin to becoming stateless.”

I propose a thought experiment. Suppose that the persons subject to disenrollment by the Nooksacks had US citizenship not by the right of birth set out in the Fourteenth Amendment, but rather a derivative citizenship based on the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.

Suppose that upon disenrollment, US passports had to be surrendered, Social Security numbers cancelled. Would that not be at least a different kettle of fish, if not two seasons ofThe Deadliest Catch?

Disenrollees would be insulted and diminished. They may have lost affirmative action consideration if it existed anymore. They would have lost any benefits that flow though membership in the Nooksack Social Club—for so it will render itself by its own actions.

Disenrollees are not stateless persons in two senses. The first is that they still have passports and the consular rights those passports confer. They still have Social Security cards and access to the anemic social safety net those cards confer.

The second is that they are still citizens of the Nooksack Nation to the degree it still exists, as the Cherokee Nation does, as the Six Nations do, as the Navajo Nation does…I am not fully informed how many tribal nations survive, but I’m certain that it’s a substantially smaller number than can be found in 25Code of Federal RegulationsPart 83.

You don’t get your tribal citizenship from the US government.

Either something of your tribal identity, your peoplehood, survives as more than family folklore or it does not.

 

UPDATE: BIA Determines Eight Disenrolled From PALA Should be Re-instated

UPDATE: This is the determination that Pala Chairman Robert Smiths said was INVALID. He claimed the BIA spoke out of BOTH sided of their mouth, which most of us thinks is impossible, as the BIA usually has it's head up its.... uh, its head in the sand Great news today from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.  Although they have been sorely lacking at the Picayune Rancheria, they have come out with a recommedation for the Pala Band of Luiseno Indians.  Let's see how Robert Smith handles this situation.   They have been asked to give recommendations on the disenrollmentsof eight members of the Pala Band.

Here is the determination (click to enlarge):

"OUR RECOMMENDATION is to change its disenrollment decision of the eight individuals and to have them remain on the tribal membership roll of the Pala Band of Mission Indians."   ...as it has been proven that they possess the required degree of Indian blood.

Chukchansi Tribal Disenrollments Disheartening: Commentary

I received this via email, and without my computer, so I'll attribute it when I can. I think its important to get this out there. Carmen George's article can be found in our archives.


I found the Sept. 29 Sierra Star article by Carmen George about disenrollment of Chukchansi tribal members very informative and well written, although it is very disheartening to see what is happening to the Chukchansi people. Unfortunately, disenrollment is all too common with many tribes today.

I serve as the District 6 representative for the Citizen Potawatomi Nation which covers the southern half of California from near the Kings River to the Mexican border and the southern half of Nevada, representing about 1,900 members of our 30,000-plus member tribe headquartered in Shawnee, Ok.

Myself and the other 15 members of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Tribal Legislature recently took a Native Nations rebuilding course through The University of Arizona's Native Nations Institute. What is happening with the Chukchansi Tribe fits the "standard approach" profile as described in the course material to a tee.

So many tribes fall into the pit of the "standard approach" to economic development and nation building. The typical results are almost always failed enterprises, a politics of spoils, brain drain, outside perceptions of incompetence and chaos that undermine the defense of sovereignty and the confidence of the community.

Per capita payments, or "stipends" as they were called in the article, are at the heart of what is driving the Chukchansi disenrollments. Rather than reinvesting casino profits into nation-owned and operated enterprises that further economic development, create jobs within the community, insure self-determination and lessen dependency on federal aid, the profits are fought over and eventually squandered and the community remains in chaos and poverty.

It saddens me to see this. While I am not Chukchansi, I am Native American. But it also concerns me and because while the Bureau of Indian Affairs may appear to be hands-off with the tribe's enrollment issues, you can bet they are watching the chaos and dysfunction of the tribal government.

If there are enough petitions, protests and law suits, the BIA has everything it needs to lobby for removal of the tribe's federal recognition. Without federal recognition the tribe will basically cease to exist. No grants, no casino, no tribe.

On a much wider scale, there are some who would like to see the Indian Self-Determination Act and Education Assistance Act of 1975 repealed. Some are of the opinion that there should be no special agreements with native nations. There were many activists who fought long and hard for Native American rights to self-determination.

My hope and prayers are that there are enough native nations with the vision and courage to be self-determined. I am proud to say that the Citizen Potawatomi Nation is one such tribe. We are the ninth largest federally recognized tribe and the only federally recognized tribe with member representation outside of the tribe's geographic jurisdiction.

I wish there was something I could do to help the Chukchansi tribe but I wouldn't know where to start, even though I was raised in the area. Frankly, I don't think there is much hope if the leadership isn't taking the "long look" (seven generations into the future). OP: There Is! keep writing, write the BIA in behalf of the Chukchansi disenrolled.

The tribal government has to have public-spirited leadership instead of boxing ring politics where factions fight to control the goodies. Without these key elements within the tribal government it would be very difficult to impact change.

My hope is that this letter will stir within the Picayune Chukchansi leadership a desire to consider what is best for their tribe as a whole rather than the select few currently in power.

It is heartbreaking that fluent native speakers are in the mix of disenrollments. This sends the message that money is more important than heritage, culture and traditions.

OPB's Native American HALL OF SHAME: Macarro of Pechanga an Inductee, Picayune, Enterprise and Redding Represented

Original Pechanga's Blog has begun it's Native American HALL OF SHAME, with spots earned for the despicable way they've treated their tribal members, in many cases forcing them back to poverty and to put them back on the state. Here are some of our first inductees, which could be the California branch of the HOS.


Mark Macarro Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians

Chairman of the Temecula Band of Luiseno Mission Indians, AKA the Pechanga Band, is a civil rights violator who has presided over a modern day genocide of Native Americans by allowing, without due process of law, the disenrollment of hundreds of long time fellow tribal members in good standing and if the children of these families are included that number approaches the 500 mark.

Chairman Macarro also has turned a blind eye to the fact that hundreds of legitimate tribal members have been kept out of the tribe due to an unconstitutional moratorium (according to the Band's own constitution and bylaws) on new adult members that has been in place for going on thirteen years. Ostensibly, the moratorium was to give the enrollment committee time to “catch up”, yet over a decade later, they still haven’t achieved that goal.

In addition, despite the fact that he personally promised the United States Congressional Resources Committee on April 17, 2002, which is backed up by the tribe's land to trust application with the United States Department of Interior, that no changes whatsoever would be made to a piece of land known as the Great Oak Ranch if the land was put into trust and made part of the Pechanga reservation.

But once the Great Oak Ranch property was made part of the reservation the tribe tore up a large portion of it and they put "The Journey At Pechanga" golf course on the land.

Here are excerpts from the United States Congressional Record of Chairman Macarro's testimony:

Mr. Hayworth. "Thank you, Mr. Avery.Chairman Macarro, does the Pechanga Tribe have any plans for development of any kind on the Great Oak Ranch property?"Mr. Macarro. "No, we don't. As stated in our application to Interior/BIA, we stated or have designated there is no change of use in the property, and the intended use and purpose is to preserve and protect the resources that are there."

Mr. Hayworth. "Without objection, we would welcome that. Just one follow-up, and for purposes of the record, Mr. Chairman, does the tribe plan to use the Great Oak Ranch for gaming purposes or any purposes other than what you have just outlined?"

Mr. Macarro. "No, the tribe does not."

Chairman Mark Macarro, a man who hobnobs with presidents and other high profile politicians and who was the charismatic spokesman for Indian gaming during the campaigns to bring legalized gaming to California reservations, has a dark side that the politicians and the general public don't want to see.




Glenda Nelson Enterprise Rancheria

Currently Chairwoman of the Enterprise Rancheria tribe, Glenda was at the forefront of the disenrollment of 72 of her fellow tribal members. Those same 72, subsequently disenrolled members, had signed a recall petition against Nelson and four other members of the Enterprise Rancheria Tribal Council who were guilty of taking multiple cash distributions from the tribe's Human Services Fund for the needy. Ironically, Glenda Nelson was the tribe's Treasurer in September 2003 when this occurred. She successfully suspended the 72 members, pending disenrollment, in a manner timely to prevent those members from voting in the recall election scheduled to be held seven days later.


Morris Reid Picayune Rancheria Tribal Chairperson

During the 2003 to 2006 run up to disenrollments, he claimed to be wholly against any disenrollments. He even went so far as to pay for two petition mailings from his own pocket.

But, by mid-2006, he was singing a different tune. He started talking about ‘sovereignty’ and nodding his head at meetings when the crowd would start shouting to kick ‘those people’ out who didn’t belong in the Tribe.

When the first disenrollment “kangaroo hearings” were started, Morris voted with the rest of the Council to unanimously remove the first members-the family of Mary Chapman.

After their hearing, Morris told me that anyone who gets a notice to appear at one of the “fair and impartial” events was already going to be disenrolled. The Council was only giving the hearings so that they could claim to have given everyone due process on paper, even though they never had any intentions of reversing any Enrollment Committee findings to remove someone from the Tribe.

Dixie Jackson Picayune Tribal Chair in 2003

In conversation with Bryan Galt, Enrollment Committee Chairperson; “We need to have a thorough audit of the member records so that we can determine who may not be properly enrolled so that we can make a decision on them.” I objected to the idea of making what I considered to be a “redetermination” since the members in question had been legally enrolled by Tribal Council vote years before that day.

I was told to make a list anyway using a checklist developed for new applicants (meaning for those applicants who were waiting since 2003). She and the Council decided it was such a thorough method of determining eligibility that it should be applied retroactively-regardless of the fact that no one in the Tribe had enrolled under the criteria on the checklist.

My committee wrote an opinion that stated this action was not legal under the Constitution or the enrollment ordinance because current members were protected under ex post facto. The Tribe’s lawyer, Marc McMahon told us (the committee) that ex post facto only applied in criminal cases, but that it didn’t matter because the Council had the final say as to what laws apply and which ones don’t.

The Committee didn’t finish the directive and no one was disenrolled during the 2003-2005 term for record keeping errors. That was the job of the newly appointed henchmen and they did their best to remove as many people as possible from 2006 to 2008 (estimated at 45%).

Tracey Avila Robinson Rancheria

Tracey led the tribe to terminate 75 tribal members, just prior to a January 2009 election to determine tribal leadership.

A June 14 election was decertified, and the tribe's election committee – dominated by Avila's family – has ruled that her challenger for the seat, EJ Crandell – who won the June election – has been disqualified from running.

There would also be a loss of education opportunities and funding, as well as Indian health services,which are critical due to the high number of tribal members suffering from diabetes and chronic diseases, particularly elders.

Those who hold jobs with the tribe also could be fired. She said some of the members in question already have been put on administrative leave from their jobs. A “no gossip” memo also was reportedly issued by Avila to staff, warning that discussion about the disenrollments would result in termination.

Airing PECHANGA'S Dirty Laundry in Public; Spotlight is a good Disinfectant

A reminder of a post from 2007 where Pechanga remaining members (remainers?) were upset that we were speaking out in public about the horrid actions of the CPP haters. We culled the story from Paulina Hunters blog on My Space. In essence, the remainers are upset about being called out, but NOT upset about violations of civil rights, human rights, Pechanga Constitution, Child Molesters.......

from 2007

We've received a lot of comments from families of CPP members that we have spoken out against. They are not the least embarrassed about what their relatives have done to the tribe.

UPDATE: Sorry, for those who don't know the CPP is part of a splinter group of tribal members that conspired to violate the civil rights of some of the membership. Check out the main page of http://www.pechanga.info/ for the rest of the story. Feel free to join in on the message board at the link above.

Here's what A. Basquez wrote to Paulina Hunter's My Space :

Hey dont be mad because you cant prove your ancestors because I am a basquez and I am proud of it I have been enrolled since 1973 when were you enrolled when the casino went up thats what I thought. OP: Kind of sweet don't you think? that's only 25 years AFTER Lawrence Madariga built his house. He would've needed a new roof by then. Please NO comments on spelling here. After all, he admitted his family, so it's understandable.
.
another comment...this time from shawn....

From:Just me
http://www.myspace.com/mechamp1
Date: May 15, 2007 9:33 AM
Date Sent: 5/15/2007 9:33:00 AMBody:Please leave my family and my people alone, accept the truth and move on....Thank you...."
STOP THE MADNESS!!
Body: Please leave my family and my people alone, accept the truth and move on....Thank you....

MY RESPONSE:
Shawn, Thanks for writing. We HAVE accepted the truth. The TRUTH is that we were screwed by the Concerned Pechanga People, which includes Butch Murphy, who has NO Pechanga blood. Now, the TRUTH, as proved by Pechanga's own hired expert, (The Hunters DID NOT HIRE HIM, Pechanga did) is that Paulina Hunter was Pechanga. The TRUTH is, that Pechanga Disenrollment committee has depositions taken in the Luiseno language from 1915 that prove that Paulina Hunter is Pechanga. The TRUTH is that Paulina Hunter has census reports from 1895 that says she's from Pechanga. That's 112 years ago. YOUR people, is OUR PEOPLE, Shawn. Educate yourself a little more. Ask yourself why a moratorium is legal? Because of the will of the people? Then why wouldn't that same will of the people, that voted overwhelmingly to halt all disenrollments not followed by the tribal council? You need to accept the truth Shawn, and know that if you don't help to right the Pechanga ship, it will go down. Would you fight for your rights to be Pechanga? Or would you just walk away and say...hey, it's no big deal? Pechanga has been overtaken by corrupt people,

Last one:

Delila V. from Pechanga sent me the following email:

your profile is the most fucken stupidist shit ever a real member wouldnt say shit about the tribe TALK SHIT about other families or about anyone from the REZ. use a person that is no longer here wont say who's profile this is so FUCK YOU AND STOP SENDING ME SHIT. DAMMIT! i dont give a fuck if you got dissenrolled if you were truly from Pechanga Reservation then you wouldn't have got dissenrolled..and can prove that ur from there!

Delila, the problem is that WE DID prove that we were from Pechanga, and in fact, the Pechanga Enrollment Committee PROVED we were from Pechanga, by hiring their own expert, who SAID we were from Pechanga. They chose to believe a child molester instead, and one who stood up in the General Meetings and complained the we weren't voting the way they wanted, and a guy who's two sister's are on the enrollment committee. Gloria W, who came to the reservation 100 years after Paulina was there, and of course, one who doesn't even want her brother in the tribe.
I understand that you don't care if we got disenrolled, you benefit by more people getting kicked out.

These kids are the future of Pechanga...

Fostering Government to Government Relations between Native Nations and the U.S.

Frequent commenter to Original Pechanga's blog, Allen L. Lee is a guest blogger today with his proposal for a solution to continue and foster government to government reations between Native Nations and the U. S. Please ADD your comments.


The dis-enrollment of thousands of people from Native Nations in the U.S. has reached a crisis. From my view these dis-enrollments, largely based on the re-evaluation of the lineal descent of a previously recognized citizen/ member of a Native Nation is in opposition of the human rights principle that everyone has a right to belong to their respective Nations.
I take no issue with the rights of tribes to determine who may or may not become members of their tribes if the person’s were/are not previously recognized as members. That is what I believe the right to define who a tribe is by membership is meant to protect.
Those that have already been recognized by the tribe as members/citizens I believe have a right to belong, barring any traditional justifications for removal that can be substantiated in an historical context.
Re-defining who or what a tribe is should not infringe on the right of a member/citizen to belong. Almost all of the modern dis-enrollments are done with a foundation of Euro-American race and family lineage. Few have any tribal historical context at all and most can be traced to American requirements of Blood Quantum to prove a racial heritage. In this light, the U.S. must take a full measure of responsibility or any and all dis-enrollments and Native Nation citizenship disputes that revolve around Blood Quantum.

The three processes considered will be presented from the least desirable to most desirable from my perspective.

The least desirable would be to remove the offending dis-enrolling nations from the registry of federally recognized nations. Although I feel that it’s justification would be based on the clear fact the people who we as a nation originally agreed to recognize as sovereigns are no longer a part of that sovereign nation due to being dis-enrolled, thereby changing one of the cardinal tenets of federal recognition, being a retaining of a historical contexts, the removal from federal recognition would be tantamount to termination, especially since native nations people are recognized as having dual citizenship.

Second on the proposal would be what Diane Watson has already initiated in Congress regarding severing relations with tribes until they adhere to treaty and/ or Indian Civil Rights Act guidelines. This solution technically has no intervention offenses committed by the U.S. against Native Nations, just a refusal to finance or fund the acts of dis-enrollments.
The severing of relations is an act of sanctions, not interference, but the shortcoming in this action is that it approaches the Native Nations as if they were autonomous sovereigns, which they are not.
They are dependent sovereigns that cannot negotiate extradition treaties with foreign nations; they cannot harvest native foods and medicines and send them to foreign nations or even across state lines without federal inspection. They cannot manufacture are trade arms with foreign nations. If the U.S could technically severe relations with a domestic dependent sovereign then technically the Confederate States of America would have legal grounds to exist, and they don’t.
The flaw with the other two proposals is that they digress from one of the most important purposes of diplomacy, and that is to continue government-to-government relations with another sovereign.

My final proposal and most desirable for me from a U.S. citizen perspective would be for the federal government to encourage and recognize coalition governments consisting of those people that the U.S. may determine to have been wrongly dis-enrolled from their Native Nations, and the governments that approved of the dis-enrollments.
This solution fosters the principle of diplomacy, and continued government-to-government relations between the U.S. and Native Nations. It encourages the dis-enrolled to continue to exercise their right to belong to their Native Nation and enhance their collective powers of sovereignty without encouraging the creations of newly formed factional bands outside of any historical context.It also allows the U.S. the opportunity to continue government-to-government relation with the whole sovereign instead of a remnant depleted by internal or external acts.

It shows less of an act of preference for one group of people or the other with-in the idea of a “National” identity.I think the fostering of coalitions governments through mutual recognition of the wrongly dis-enrolled and the dis-enrollers is the best solution for the dis-enrollment crisis from a U.S. perspective.

Allen L. Lee

The Pechanga Indian Removal Acts: Violations of Civil Rights

Steve Craig and the folks at apoliticalblog.com have graciously asked me to contribute to their blog. Here is the first submission The Pechanga Indian Removal Acts

The Pechanga Indian Removal Acts

Posted on January 16th, 2008 by Original Pechanga

The explosion of Indian Gaming in California has lead to some acts that tribes such as Pechanga Band of Temecula would like to keep as “family secrets.” Removing Indians from tribes, pronouncing them non-Indians, had the same effect as Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Acts had in 1830’s America. Get the Indians we don’t want or like out of the way.

In 2004 and 2005, as part of the Concerned Pechanga People’s Indian Removal Policy, members of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Mission Indians were forced to give up their membership in the tribe whose reservation is in Temecula, CA. Life-long members, who have had land on the reservation for centuries were forcibly expelled from the tribe. This act of paper genocide has had devastating effects on 25% of the Pechanga people.
Elders no longer qualify for the health care that they lobbied the tribe to provide for all its members. The young are not allowed to attend the reservation’s school, being forcibly blocked and told to leave, much in the manner of the white racists who blocked black children from integrating schools in Little Rock in the 1950’s.

Those who were removed, face an unsecured financial future. Many worked for the tribe, were part of all events, meetings, have their dead buried in the Pechanga Cemetery. Now, that has ended. In order to increase the per capita ($15,000 per month at the time of the first removal) some of the descendents of Pablo Apis, the family of Manuela Miranda were terminated from the tribe. Per capita grew to $20,000 per month (plus bonuses) for those remaining, members of the Concerned Pechanga People initiated a misinformation campaign, one that has successfully terminated over 300 Native Americans of Pechanga descent at the time of the second removal (the descendents of Paulina Hunter.) The per capita is now reportedly $40,000 per month.

Blood relatives are banished from the reservations, families who are no longer in the tribe, but live on the reservation property that they’ve owned since the late 1800’s live in fear that the tribe will take away their water, which has been threatened by some of the remaining tribal members. Will Pechanga really turn off their lifeblood, as easily as they took away their civil rights? It’s not difficult to think so, after the atrocities that the CPP have already committed.

The Concerned Pechanga People
This is the group of people that let the blackness of greed take over their hearts and minds.

The Splinter Group

This group is an offshoot of the 1980’s Splinter Group, led by Russell Murphy and assisted by Frances Miranda and Ihrene Scearse (later on the enrollment committee and committed to removing tribal members). Non-enrolled members of Pechanga, they started attending meetings and disrupted the regular goings on of the business. They announced that they were separating from the band and forming their own Tribe. They petitioned the BIA to recognize them, but the BIA refused.
With few exceptions, no member of the splinter group applied for membership because they knew they could not meet the constitutional requirements established by the Pechanga Band.
The actions of the splinter group raise legitimate questions: Are they really Pechanga? Are they able to document their lineal descent from an Original Pechanga Temecula Person as the Pechanga Bands Constitution and Bylaws require? Did they figure that disruption of tribal matters was the way to go?
This is not the portrait of a tribe in need, asking the people of California to allow tribes to have Las Vegas type gaming such as portrayed in the Prop. 1A and Prop. 5 television commercials of the 1990’s. This is about power, greed and violations of civil rights, voting rights, and elder abuse. It’s about tribal governments wielding sovereignty like a club and it’s about individual Indians that have nowhere to turn for justice.
I’ll explore this more in future posts, with thoughts on expanded gaming in California and what it feels like to be told you aren’t who you know you are.

Please take a look at the whole article, please check out the link and COMMENT.

Beneath the Glitter of Indian Gaming at Chukchansi

Issues with disenrollment didn't happen overnight in California, it happened as casinos came up.

Tribal Corruption

Chukchansi

Beneath the Glitter

As the $150 million Chukchansi resort readies for its casino opening June 25, 200 tribe members kicked out four years ago fight to become members again.

By Lisa Aleman-Padilla and George Hostetter
The Fresno Bee

(Updated Monday, June 16, 2003, 4:23 AM)

The biggest, most expensive and most controversial American Indian casino/entertainment complex in central San Joaquin Valley history is expected to make its debut in eastern Madera County in 10 days. With it comes a long-simmering and increasingly bitter tribal civil war over who will pocket the profits of a business that eventually could rake in $200 million or more a year.

Carved out of a once-forlorn swath of rocks and brush in the Sierra Nevada foothills near Coarsegold, the gamblers' half of the Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino is all but finished.
That's the casino, home to 1,800 slot machines and more than 40 card tables. June 25 is the planned opening date, according to the owners, the Chukchansi Indians of Picayune Rancheria.

The 192-room hotel is expected to open next door in August. The total project's estimated cost: $150 million.
Indian gaming has been a fixture in the six-county central San Joaquin Valley for two decades. Gamblers, though, have seen nothing locally like the Chukchansi digs -- nearly 300,000 square feet of casino, hotel and entertainment venues.

Nor has there been anything here quite like the Chukchansi membership fight that has brewed for four years. Its roots go back even further. Twenty years ago, the tribe had only 30 members, the result of federal policy dating back to the Eisenhower administration designed to terminate Indian lands such as rancherias. The thinking, at least among non-Indians, was that Indians should be assimilated into mainstream America.

It took several decades of court battles, but many tribes finally regained their legal recognition and the right to renew their lives on rancherias. In a word, they were "reconstituted."
By the late 1990s, with the Chukchansi tribe legally reborn, a liberal enrollment policy raised the membership total to more than 1,000.

Then, in 1999, as negotiations with a casino management company neared a critical juncture, nearly 200 people were suddenly kicked out of the tribe.