UPDATE: Pechanga Chairman Mark Macarro's cousin doesn't like this article. In fact, he gives it his "moron alert". That means it left a mark, even though there are some inaccuracies with this story. Dr. Johnson was PAID BY PECHANGA to research the HUNTER family and HE PROVED us Pechanga.
Jim Marino of the Santa Ynez Valley Journal asks the question. And calls out Pechanga of Temecula in the article. Pechanga has said, "Yes, we know that people who LIVED in the 1880 Temecula era SWORE that your ancestor was a Pechanga, but we'd rather believe an imprisoned child molestor than a vaunted elder"
Jim writes:
With the rise of Indian gambling casinos all over the country — and in particular those 60 casinos in California with more on the way — the question naturally arises: Who exactly qualifies to call themselves an “Indian”?
The basic answer to what appears to be a simple question is that an “Indian” is whoever the particular tribe says is an Indian. Now any person can claim to be part Indian, just as many say they are part Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. OP: Basically, tribes like Pechanga, Redding, Picayune, San Pascual, Enterprise are making a laughing stock of tribal history.
Pechanga portion:
One such vivid example here in California occurred at the Pechanga tribe, another massive and profitable gambling casino between Riverside and San Diego. Once boasting about 900 members, in one fell swoop, tribal Chairman Mark Macarro disenrolled an entire extended family, the Gomez family, in a move commonly recognized as an effort to fatten the profits for the remaining members and families.
To sell this disenrollment to other suspicious tribal members, who suspected Macarro’s true motives, he paid for and commissioned an ethnological investigator from here in Santa Barbara County, John R. Johnson, curator of anthropology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. He is a renowned authority on California Indians and was hired at the tribe’s considerable expense.
His thorough investigation and report to the Pechanga tribal government concluded, essentially, that the Gomez extended family was as much entitled to enrollment as anyone else. The tribal government promptly dismissed his report out of hand, ignoring his findings. To this day, the Gomez family has not been re-enrolled. Because Indian tribes are allowed to disregard the U.S. Constitution, even though tribal members are, by law, U.S. citizens, the Gomez family has no legal recourse.
Thank you Jim, and please keep reading the Santa Ynez Valley Journal.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
KCET and PBS doing a story on Illegal Pechanga Disenrollments
Great news for THOUSANDS of California's Native Americans who have suffered under regime's like that of Mark Macarro and Andrew Masiel and the Masiel/Basquez Crime Family of Pechanga.
From Val Zavala's blog on KCET
This weekend I headed out to Temecula to begin shooting a most interesting story. It's about how some wealthy Indian tribes are kicking out certain members claiming they do not have proper ancestry. But long-standing members who have been kicked out say the "disenrollments" are due to political differences. Also at play -- money. Disenrollments mean fewer tribe members, and fewer members mean more money from gambling revenues for the remaining members. More than $30,000 a month.
The Pechanga Tribal Council is led by a familiar face, Mark Macarro. He's the telegenic Native American who appears in political commercials for Indian gaming propositions. The leader of the "disenrolled" is John Gomez. (See photo of John and family.) He says under Macarro's leadership hundreds of long-standing Pechanga members have been kicked out.
Tribal membership has gone from about 1200 to about 800. Monthly payments from gambling revenues have gone from about $25,000/ month to more than $30K per adult tribe member. No work required.
Much credit to USC News21 journalism student, Brian Frank, who first pitched the story and has done all the research. Thanks, Brian!
Brian and Val, THANK you for bringing this story forward, in this time of financial crisis for many in CA's Indian Country.
From Val Zavala's blog on KCET
This weekend I headed out to Temecula to begin shooting a most interesting story. It's about how some wealthy Indian tribes are kicking out certain members claiming they do not have proper ancestry. But long-standing members who have been kicked out say the "disenrollments" are due to political differences. Also at play -- money. Disenrollments mean fewer tribe members, and fewer members mean more money from gambling revenues for the remaining members. More than $30,000 a month.
The Pechanga Tribal Council is led by a familiar face, Mark Macarro. He's the telegenic Native American who appears in political commercials for Indian gaming propositions. The leader of the "disenrolled" is John Gomez. (See photo of John and family.) He says under Macarro's leadership hundreds of long-standing Pechanga members have been kicked out.
Tribal membership has gone from about 1200 to about 800. Monthly payments from gambling revenues have gone from about $25,000/ month to more than $30K per adult tribe member. No work required.
Much credit to USC News21 journalism student, Brian Frank, who first pitched the story and has done all the research. Thanks, Brian!
Brian and Val, THANK you for bringing this story forward, in this time of financial crisis for many in CA's Indian Country.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Pechanga Tribe Motion to Dismiss DENIED. Case Moves Forward.
Here's the latest from the Joe Liska vs. Donna Barron of Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians:
The hearing on June 22 is postponed..
The Judge in this case denied Pechanga's motion to have the lawsuit dismissed. The defendant Donna Barron's claim, that the paperwork was served late
was disputed by the proccess server, who while attempting to serve papers was escorted out of the Reservation by the Tribes lawyers.
OP: Pechanga Tribe trying to keep justice from moving forward, imagine that? Remember, they tried to keep the people of California from voting on increases in slot machines?
The Judge will make a ruling in 2 weeks, and if the case
goes forward then the next hearing will be on July 27.
The hearing on June 22 is postponed..
The Judge in this case denied Pechanga's motion to have the lawsuit dismissed. The defendant Donna Barron's claim, that the paperwork was served late
was disputed by the proccess server, who while attempting to serve papers was escorted out of the Reservation by the Tribes lawyers.
OP: Pechanga Tribe trying to keep justice from moving forward, imagine that? Remember, they tried to keep the people of California from voting on increases in slot machines?
The Judge will make a ruling in 2 weeks, and if the case
goes forward then the next hearing will be on July 27.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Politicians Touched by Tribes, Out of Touch with Main Street?
Santa Barbara Attorney Jim Marino has an interesting column up on the leverage that California's Gaming tribes have on our state congress. These include tribes like Enterprise Rancheria, Pechanga, Redding Rancheria and Picayune Rancheria that have stepped all over the civil and human rights of some of their members, denying them voting rights, elder care and access to their homelands.
Pay to play
The pay to play mentality has never been more prevalent than it is today. The historic special interests have been around a long time: unions, big business, medical and legal based associations, prison guards and a number of others.
The newest players are the handful of Indian casino groups, some with only one or two “tribal members,” many with questionable tribal identities and who have been allowed to build and operate full blown class III gambling casinos on land that is not eligible for Indian gambling under federal law.
On any given day you can see these casino Indians arriving in Sacramento in their private jet planes bearing gifts in the guise of political contributions to those willing legislators and officials with hands extended.
Just a few of the many, many examples have had direct impacts on local communities and more can be expected
When the voters approved Proposition 1A in March 2000, few understood that they were not just amending the Constitution, Art. 4, sec. 19, to authorize the governor to negotiate gambling compacts with federally recognized Indian tribes or bands.
Rather, the voter approval in effect ratified the 59 tribal-state compacts executed by Gov. Gray Davis without existing authority and approved by the legislators in October 1999.
THE MONEY SECTION of the ARTICLE
Friends in high places
The state of California and Gov. Schwarzenegger could have required these tribes, offering these machines for play like the casino at San Pablo, Calif., to pay significant money to the state and further to follow rules of operation established by the state in that compact.
At the 11th hour, state Senator Jim Battin from the Palm Springs area wrote a letter urging Commissioner Hogen and the National Indian Gaming Commission not to change the rule, and he got 20 other senators to sign that letter.
The rule was not changed.
So here is a state senator urging a federal agency not to change a rule that would have been a benefit to the state is supposed to represent.
Senator Battin has funneled thousands of dollars in Indian casino monies to his political colleagues in Sacramento through his “Friends of Jim Battin” committees, (lending new meaning to the expression “it pays to have friends”).
When his campaign financing practices ran afoul of the California Fair Political Practices Commission, he set up the “Jim Battin Defense Fund,” funded, of course, by Indian casino money.
Pay to play
The pay to play mentality has never been more prevalent than it is today. The historic special interests have been around a long time: unions, big business, medical and legal based associations, prison guards and a number of others.
The newest players are the handful of Indian casino groups, some with only one or two “tribal members,” many with questionable tribal identities and who have been allowed to build and operate full blown class III gambling casinos on land that is not eligible for Indian gambling under federal law.
On any given day you can see these casino Indians arriving in Sacramento in their private jet planes bearing gifts in the guise of political contributions to those willing legislators and officials with hands extended.
Just a few of the many, many examples have had direct impacts on local communities and more can be expected
When the voters approved Proposition 1A in March 2000, few understood that they were not just amending the Constitution, Art. 4, sec. 19, to authorize the governor to negotiate gambling compacts with federally recognized Indian tribes or bands.
Rather, the voter approval in effect ratified the 59 tribal-state compacts executed by Gov. Gray Davis without existing authority and approved by the legislators in October 1999.
THE MONEY SECTION of the ARTICLE
Friends in high places
The state of California and Gov. Schwarzenegger could have required these tribes, offering these machines for play like the casino at San Pablo, Calif., to pay significant money to the state and further to follow rules of operation established by the state in that compact.
At the 11th hour, state Senator Jim Battin from the Palm Springs area wrote a letter urging Commissioner Hogen and the National Indian Gaming Commission not to change the rule, and he got 20 other senators to sign that letter.
The rule was not changed.
So here is a state senator urging a federal agency not to change a rule that would have been a benefit to the state is supposed to represent.
Senator Battin has funneled thousands of dollars in Indian casino monies to his political colleagues in Sacramento through his “Friends of Jim Battin” committees, (lending new meaning to the expression “it pays to have friends”).
When his campaign financing practices ran afoul of the California Fair Political Practices Commission, he set up the “Jim Battin Defense Fund,” funded, of course, by Indian casino money.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
BIA rules on Altura Rancheria: Seven not Five
The Bureau of Indian Affairs has decided there are seven, and not five, members of the Alturas Rancheria. There has been an ongoing dispute regarding membership, as opposing factions among the members stood to have majority voting rights based on the number of members in the rancheria.
The decision was announced in a June 6, 2009 letter to Rancheria Chairman Phillip Del Rosa and Vice Chairman Darren Rose. A copy of the letter was delivered to the Daily News this week for Del Rosa. Del Rosa and Rose have been in an ongoing dispute over membership, with Del Rosa now holding a four-vote majority of the seven members, based on the ruling.
Rose, who was adopted into the tribe when it was pursuing a casino to be located in the Yreka area, would have held a three-vote majority had the BIA determined there were only five voting members.
Rose claimed that the adoption of of Don Peckingham and Calvin Phelps into the tribe was for only an honorary membership with no voting rights.
The decision was announced in a June 6, 2009 letter to Rancheria Chairman Phillip Del Rosa and Vice Chairman Darren Rose. A copy of the letter was delivered to the Daily News this week for Del Rosa. Del Rosa and Rose have been in an ongoing dispute over membership, with Del Rosa now holding a four-vote majority of the seven members, based on the ruling.
Rose, who was adopted into the tribe when it was pursuing a casino to be located in the Yreka area, would have held a three-vote majority had the BIA determined there were only five voting members.
Rose claimed that the adoption of of Don Peckingham and Calvin Phelps into the tribe was for only an honorary membership with no voting rights.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Santa Ysabel Tribal Council Votes to Keep Chairman Accused of Mis-Spending
The Santa Ysabel Tribal Council, which owes the county about $1 million in missed payments stemming from a deal struck between the two governments to help pay for increased law enforcement, ambulances and problem gambling programs, voted 4-3 to KEEP Chairman Hernandez. He still faces a recall by the tribe.
Vice Chairwoman Brandie Taylor, who has had an ongoing feud with the chairman, said she was surprised by the outcome of the vote.
"Honestly, we were shocked at the four votes for him," she said in an email statement. "The four never gave their reasons and now the tribal members want to know how they could have voted for the best interest of the tribe by allowing him to stay in office."
In the petition for removal, the tribe's Legislature alleged that Hernandez misspent the $27,180, which the tribe had allocated last year as a payment for the Inter-Tribal Court. The petition did not say how the money was spent.
Hernandez said last month that the claim was false. He said he paid the court what the tribe could afford at the time, $5,000. The chairman said the tribe had failed to pass a budget for 10 months, which put the tribe's finances in disarray. Obviously his leadership skills need improving.
Vice Chairwoman Brandie Taylor, who has had an ongoing feud with the chairman, said she was surprised by the outcome of the vote.
"Honestly, we were shocked at the four votes for him," she said in an email statement. "The four never gave their reasons and now the tribal members want to know how they could have voted for the best interest of the tribe by allowing him to stay in office."
In the petition for removal, the tribe's Legislature alleged that Hernandez misspent the $27,180, which the tribe had allocated last year as a payment for the Inter-Tribal Court. The petition did not say how the money was spent.
Hernandez said last month that the claim was false. He said he paid the court what the tribe could afford at the time, $5,000. The chairman said the tribe had failed to pass a budget for 10 months, which put the tribe's finances in disarray. Obviously his leadership skills need improving.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Pechanga's Macarro to Commissioners: DO as I say, Not as I DID, or I'm Really Not Lying THIS Time
Pechanga's Tribal Chairman Mark Macarro showed quite a bit of chutzpah, when speaking before Riverside County Commissioners this week. A man who lied to Congress as we discussed HERE, and HERE when he told them the tribe would not use 296 acres of pristine environment the tribe wanted put into trust. Anyone want to guess where the new Journey Golf Course is built upon?
Here's a quote by John Macarro, shorter brother of Mark, from the Press Enterprise: In response, Pechanga's General Counsel John Macarro, wrote, "Once the land is placed in trust, a tribe has complete zoning and planning authority over it and can change land uses just as a county or city can change or update its general plan or zoning designations."
This past Thursday,Temecula's efforts to derail a proposed gravel mine near a pristine environmental reserve just outside of town were dealt a severe setback, when officials voted against letting the city annex the land.
Mark Macarro, chairman of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, told commissioners the annexation would protect the place where tribal tradition says the Earth was created and the tribe was born.
"This is our Eden," he said. "We cannot re-create where the world was created. There is only one Eden."
The Pechanga tribe, led by Macarro re-created Eden by throwing out the elderly and children of two large families that we've discussed HERE and HERE
Here's Macarro's quote to Congress on the Great Oak Property:
And, when specifically asked if the Pechanga Tribe had “any plans for development of any kind on the Great Oak Ranch property”, Chairman Macarro responded as follows:
“No, we don’t. As stated … the intended use and purpose is to preserve and protect the resources that are there.”
Former Pechanga Legal Analyst John Gomez Jr. had this to say: “The transfer of the Great Oak Ranch and eventual development of the property is tragic,” stated John Gomez, Jr.* “If the golf course project, or any other development, had been proposed on private property as culturally rich and significant as this, you better believe that tribal officials would have taken every action, whether it be lawsuits or acts of Congress, to stop it. Unfortunately, the duty to protect and preserve does not apply to tribal projects that may add to the bottom line.”
Temecula Area People, Pechanga Chairman Mark Macarro has desecrated the land but want YOU to protect land. He LIED when he said HE would protect the land, but REALLY REALLY means it when he says he wants to protect the land NOW. He has put the safety of OTHER culturally significant sites in jeopardy, because he LIED to Congress. Put no stock in what he says.
There is lots of information at the links, please take a look.
Here's a quote by John Macarro, shorter brother of Mark, from the Press Enterprise: In response, Pechanga's General Counsel John Macarro, wrote, "Once the land is placed in trust, a tribe has complete zoning and planning authority over it and can change land uses just as a county or city can change or update its general plan or zoning designations."
This past Thursday,Temecula's efforts to derail a proposed gravel mine near a pristine environmental reserve just outside of town were dealt a severe setback, when officials voted against letting the city annex the land.
Mark Macarro, chairman of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, told commissioners the annexation would protect the place where tribal tradition says the Earth was created and the tribe was born.
"This is our Eden," he said. "We cannot re-create where the world was created. There is only one Eden."
The Pechanga tribe, led by Macarro re-created Eden by throwing out the elderly and children of two large families that we've discussed HERE and HERE
Here's Macarro's quote to Congress on the Great Oak Property:
And, when specifically asked if the Pechanga Tribe had “any plans for development of any kind on the Great Oak Ranch property”, Chairman Macarro responded as follows:
“No, we don’t. As stated … the intended use and purpose is to preserve and protect the resources that are there.”
Former Pechanga Legal Analyst John Gomez Jr. had this to say: “The transfer of the Great Oak Ranch and eventual development of the property is tragic,” stated John Gomez, Jr.* “If the golf course project, or any other development, had been proposed on private property as culturally rich and significant as this, you better believe that tribal officials would have taken every action, whether it be lawsuits or acts of Congress, to stop it. Unfortunately, the duty to protect and preserve does not apply to tribal projects that may add to the bottom line.”
Temecula Area People, Pechanga Chairman Mark Macarro has desecrated the land but want YOU to protect land. He LIED when he said HE would protect the land, but REALLY REALLY means it when he says he wants to protect the land NOW. He has put the safety of OTHER culturally significant sites in jeopardy, because he LIED to Congress. Put no stock in what he says.
There is lots of information at the links, please take a look.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
San Pasqual: Suing our State for chance to take more cash
YES, this is the same tribe that the BIA recently invalidated their elections.
The San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians is seeking $550 million from the state over the number of slot machines allowed at Valley View Casino, it was reported Tuesday.
In a claim filed Monday, the tribe says Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has refused to allow San Pasqual the 2,000 Las Vegas-style slot machines it was promised in a 1999 gambling compact, The North County Times reported. Valley View currently has 1,574 machines.
"We are just asking for what was established to be ours according to the language of the 1999 compact," San Pasqual Chairman Allen Lawson said in a written statement.
However, the state has a different interpretation of what the compact allows.
Because California gets revenue from slot machine license fees, Schwarzenegger has used a lower number of licenses to draw tribes into negotiations for more cash in exchange for more machines, the Times reported.
A federal judge ruled that there should be a total of 42,700 machines available throughout California but the state has limited the number to 32,151.
The judge's ruling is under appeal.
WATCH THIS VIDEO
The San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians is seeking $550 million from the state over the number of slot machines allowed at Valley View Casino, it was reported Tuesday.
In a claim filed Monday, the tribe says Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has refused to allow San Pasqual the 2,000 Las Vegas-style slot machines it was promised in a 1999 gambling compact, The North County Times reported. Valley View currently has 1,574 machines.
"We are just asking for what was established to be ours according to the language of the 1999 compact," San Pasqual Chairman Allen Lawson said in a written statement.
However, the state has a different interpretation of what the compact allows.
Because California gets revenue from slot machine license fees, Schwarzenegger has used a lower number of licenses to draw tribes into negotiations for more cash in exchange for more machines, the Times reported.
A federal judge ruled that there should be a total of 42,700 machines available throughout California but the state has limited the number to 32,151.
The judge's ruling is under appeal.
WATCH THIS VIDEO
California Indian Gaming Revenues DOWN 5.6%
Gee, and we were promised that if we gave tribes expanded gaming, that our budget would be balanced. Now, with negative growth, we won't even get what we were getting?
NIGC REPORT
NIGC REPORT
Pechanga In Court To Thwart Judgement in Joe Liska Case
HUGE blow to Pechanga...
There will be a court hearing in the San Diego Federal Court on Monday, June 22 at 10:30 am. The Pechanga Band of Mission Indians are asking for a dismissal of a Federal Court Judgement that was awarded to an individual in the Moritorium. This is HUGE!
The individual, Joe Liska, who has been caught in Pechanga's UNLAWFUL moratorium has already won and now the Pechanga Band of Mission Indians, who didn't take it seriously the first time are trying to get it dismissed. He has been fighting this fight alone and quietly and now it is time for all to know!
There will be a court hearing in the San Diego Federal Court on Monday, June 22 at 10:30 am. The Pechanga Band of Mission Indians are asking for a dismissal of a Federal Court Judgement that was awarded to an individual in the Moritorium. This is HUGE!
The individual, Joe Liska, who has been caught in Pechanga's UNLAWFUL moratorium has already won and now the Pechanga Band of Mission Indians, who didn't take it seriously the first time are trying to get it dismissed. He has been fighting this fight alone and quietly and now it is time for all to know!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Beneath the Glitter of Indian Gaming at Chukchansi-Picayune
Issues with disenrollment didn't happen overnight in California, it happened as casinos came up.
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Redux: Pechanga Abuse of It's Senior Customer is Comparable to Redding Rancheria's Actions
Original Pechanga is on vacation, here's a post from November 2008 by Carla Foreman-Maslin, AIRRO member and fighting for justice for ALL in Indian Country.
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
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
Redux: Concerning Disgraceful Actions by the Pechanga Tribal Council
Original Pechanga and Mrs. OP are on vacation. Here is a previous post concerning the Paulina Hunter Family Disenrollment. Thank you all for your continued support of this blog. Please tell your friends.
Concerning Disgraceful Actions by the Pechanga Tribal Council
In a notice dated August 7, 2006, the descendants of Paulina Hunter, an original allottee of the Pechanga Indian Reservation, were informed that the Pechanga Tribal Council and the Pechanga Enrollment Committee had denied their appeal to over-turn the Enrollment Committee's earlier decision to disenroll the family.
The Hunter Family members were disenrolled in March of this year when the Enrollment Committee concluded that their ancestor, Paulina Hunter, was not a Temecula Indian.
Along with disenrollment notices from the Enrollment Committee, a memo from the Tribal Council explained that it had decided that a law passed by the Tribe's governing body in July 2005 to bar future disenrollments applied to all tribal members except the Hunter Family.
The disenrollment of the Hunter family was initiated when several statements were presented to the Enrollment Committee (Bobbi LeMere, Ihrene Scearse, Frances Miranda, Ruth Masiel) claiming Paulina Hunter was non-Indian or not a member. One such letter came from a convicted felon currently serving time in the California State Prison system for child molestation. (Since original post, he was released to the Temecula area)
In response to the allegations, the descendants of Paulina Hunter provided numerous documents as proof that Paulina Hunter was indeed of Indian ancestry and was an original Pechanga/Temecula Indian.
In fact, a report prepared by Dr. John Johnson, the curator of anthropology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, at the request of the Enrollment Committee concluded that a "preponderance of the evidence" from surviving historical records and census documents shows that Paulina Hunter was a Pechanga member who lived in Temecula and was allotted reservation land. There is no greater authority on this issue than Dr. Johnson.
"My feeling is it's a faulty interpretation of the record to reject this family. Paulina Hunter was definitely a core member of the Temecula Band of Luiseño Indians," Dr. Johnson said. "I don't understand the decision other than it is not based on fact. It is based on conjecture and politics."
The disenrollment of the Hunter family is the second such disenrollment of a large family from the Pechanga Band. Each has occurred just months before scheduled tribal elections for Chairman and Tribal Council.
The expulsions of the 2 families removed significant opposition to the current administration and others running for tribal office. Each "disenrollment" was done in violation of both tribal and federal laws which are intended to protect the rights and privileges of tribal members.
Specifically, the members were denied the due process and equal rights protections provided in the Indian Civil Rights Act, as well as language in the Band's Constitution and Bylaws which mandates that tribal officials uphold the individual rights of each member without malice or prejudice. The disenrollments reduced the Pechanga Band's enrollment by nearly 30%, and each enrolled member, including those responsible for the violations of human and civil rights, could reap additional profits in the tens of millions of dollars.
Here's a story that was in the LA TIMES in 2007:
Clan says tribe dealt it a bad hand - A family finds itself cut off from the Pechanga group and its casino wealth despite long ties to the reservation.
By David Kelly
September 09, 2007
When Pechanga Indian leaders hired anthropologist John Johnson in 2004, they had one request: find out if the Madariaga clan were truly members of the tribe.
Generations of them had grown up on the reservation. Family patriarch Lawrence Madariaga, 90, had built his home there, erected the local clinic, served on tribal committees and lived on Hunter Lane, named after his great-grandmother, Paulina Hunter. He even received a lifetime achievement award from the tribe.
That didn't quiet suspicions among some who felt that family members were frauds unfairly pocketing $20,000 each in monthly checks from casino profits.
Johnson, curator of anthropology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and an expert on Luiseño Indian genealogy, spent months poring over documents and concluded that the family was indeed descended from Hunter. And based on the evidence, he said he was 90% certain she was a Temecula Indian from the Pechanga reservation. Members must show proof of lineal descent from an original tribal ancestor.
Johnson presented his findings to the tribal enrollment committee, explained what it meant and then watched it all be ignored.
Last year the committee voted out the family -- a total of 90 adults and about 50 children.
The monthly checks stopped. The healthcare stopped. The children were forced from the tribal school. Family members were able to keep their homes on the land allotted to Paulina Hunter in 1897 but were restricted as to where they could go on the reservation.
Since their ouster, family members say, payments to remaining members are now about $30,000 a month.
Lawsuit filed
In May, they filed a lawsuit against tribal leaders, including Mark Macarro, the chairman, demanding to be reinstated. They said their lineage was better documented than most and that their ancestor was one of the original residents of the reservation.
The case is now pending in federal court in Los Angeles.
Macarro did not respond to interview requests, but in a statement on the tribe's website he denied that casino money played a part in the disenrollments. He said tribes need the ability to "correct past errors and protect the integrity of their citizenry."
"The responsibility of determining who is and is not a citizen of the tribe falls squarely on Indian tribes," he said.
The same argument has been used across the nation as tribes, nearly all with casinos, have expelled thousands of members.
Concerning Disgraceful Actions by the Pechanga Tribal Council
In a notice dated August 7, 2006, the descendants of Paulina Hunter, an original allottee of the Pechanga Indian Reservation, were informed that the Pechanga Tribal Council and the Pechanga Enrollment Committee had denied their appeal to over-turn the Enrollment Committee's earlier decision to disenroll the family.
The Hunter Family members were disenrolled in March of this year when the Enrollment Committee concluded that their ancestor, Paulina Hunter, was not a Temecula Indian.
Along with disenrollment notices from the Enrollment Committee, a memo from the Tribal Council explained that it had decided that a law passed by the Tribe's governing body in July 2005 to bar future disenrollments applied to all tribal members except the Hunter Family.
The disenrollment of the Hunter family was initiated when several statements were presented to the Enrollment Committee (Bobbi LeMere, Ihrene Scearse, Frances Miranda, Ruth Masiel) claiming Paulina Hunter was non-Indian or not a member. One such letter came from a convicted felon currently serving time in the California State Prison system for child molestation. (Since original post, he was released to the Temecula area)
In response to the allegations, the descendants of Paulina Hunter provided numerous documents as proof that Paulina Hunter was indeed of Indian ancestry and was an original Pechanga/Temecula Indian.
In fact, a report prepared by Dr. John Johnson, the curator of anthropology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, at the request of the Enrollment Committee concluded that a "preponderance of the evidence" from surviving historical records and census documents shows that Paulina Hunter was a Pechanga member who lived in Temecula and was allotted reservation land. There is no greater authority on this issue than Dr. Johnson.
"My feeling is it's a faulty interpretation of the record to reject this family. Paulina Hunter was definitely a core member of the Temecula Band of Luiseño Indians," Dr. Johnson said. "I don't understand the decision other than it is not based on fact. It is based on conjecture and politics."
The disenrollment of the Hunter family is the second such disenrollment of a large family from the Pechanga Band. Each has occurred just months before scheduled tribal elections for Chairman and Tribal Council.
The expulsions of the 2 families removed significant opposition to the current administration and others running for tribal office. Each "disenrollment" was done in violation of both tribal and federal laws which are intended to protect the rights and privileges of tribal members.
Specifically, the members were denied the due process and equal rights protections provided in the Indian Civil Rights Act, as well as language in the Band's Constitution and Bylaws which mandates that tribal officials uphold the individual rights of each member without malice or prejudice. The disenrollments reduced the Pechanga Band's enrollment by nearly 30%, and each enrolled member, including those responsible for the violations of human and civil rights, could reap additional profits in the tens of millions of dollars.
Here's a story that was in the LA TIMES in 2007:
Clan says tribe dealt it a bad hand - A family finds itself cut off from the Pechanga group and its casino wealth despite long ties to the reservation.
By David Kelly
September 09, 2007
When Pechanga Indian leaders hired anthropologist John Johnson in 2004, they had one request: find out if the Madariaga clan were truly members of the tribe.
Generations of them had grown up on the reservation. Family patriarch Lawrence Madariaga, 90, had built his home there, erected the local clinic, served on tribal committees and lived on Hunter Lane, named after his great-grandmother, Paulina Hunter. He even received a lifetime achievement award from the tribe.
That didn't quiet suspicions among some who felt that family members were frauds unfairly pocketing $20,000 each in monthly checks from casino profits.
Johnson, curator of anthropology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and an expert on Luiseño Indian genealogy, spent months poring over documents and concluded that the family was indeed descended from Hunter. And based on the evidence, he said he was 90% certain she was a Temecula Indian from the Pechanga reservation. Members must show proof of lineal descent from an original tribal ancestor.
Johnson presented his findings to the tribal enrollment committee, explained what it meant and then watched it all be ignored.
Last year the committee voted out the family -- a total of 90 adults and about 50 children.
The monthly checks stopped. The healthcare stopped. The children were forced from the tribal school. Family members were able to keep their homes on the land allotted to Paulina Hunter in 1897 but were restricted as to where they could go on the reservation.
Since their ouster, family members say, payments to remaining members are now about $30,000 a month.
Lawsuit filed
In May, they filed a lawsuit against tribal leaders, including Mark Macarro, the chairman, demanding to be reinstated. They said their lineage was better documented than most and that their ancestor was one of the original residents of the reservation.
The case is now pending in federal court in Los Angeles.
Macarro did not respond to interview requests, but in a statement on the tribe's website he denied that casino money played a part in the disenrollments. He said tribes need the ability to "correct past errors and protect the integrity of their citizenry."
"The responsibility of determining who is and is not a citizen of the tribe falls squarely on Indian tribes," he said.
The same argument has been used across the nation as tribes, nearly all with casinos, have expelled thousands of members.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Pechanga Indian Removal Acts
I'll be on vacation for a week, and I'd like to offer up some previous posts that our new readers can catch up on. Time constraints wouldn't allow be to organize these better. Please tell your friends about this blog and come back often! Here's one from January 2008.
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.
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.
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