Because the opposition is weak. And that opposition is US.
The Unions say the compacts don't allow for organization, but are they trying to organize? The teachers say that there is no allowance for eduction, as if, getting money for education would make expanded gaming alright. Fabian Nunez and other elected officials just want to stay in office and the tribes said they would through their money on No on 93 (term limits).
California's disenrolled tribal members which number over 3,000 people, have never been organized. We sound like a small group of whiny people, rather than a growing (sadly) populace. Of the Pechanga Band's members who were kicked to the curb, there are probably less that 10% who are actively fighting back on a regular basis. Passivity killed us. We thought that by doing the right thing, going through the processes we would be okay. Truth would win out. Fools we were, why would truth win out, when liars are in charge? Our elders did not take charge in our fight.
In Pechanga's latest infomercial, Butch Murphy said it all, "My parents said don't let anyone take anything away from you" and he won. He kept true Pechanga people out of the tribe, something he had been trying to do for 25 years. And this is after the tribe adopted him in. Instead of gratitude, he turned on the people of Pechanga.
Have you heard much from the Chuckchansi disenrolled people? NO? Me neither. The Picayune Rancheria is even more despicable that Pechanga, in terms of numbers. Bill Cosby REFUSED to perform there because of what the have done to their people. Have you seen any articles where, say 200-400 comments are there? No? Makes you wonder why those disenrolled aren't more vocal.
If we don't stand up for ourselves, why should others stand up for US? We should be able to send at least 3,000 faxes to our state legislators every week. We only need send an email while sitting on our asses, yet, we can't even get much cooperation on that.
Some of my family will say, "where were YOU when we were doing the research?" Or, "why didn't you come forward before?" Those are valid questions for some of us. I told one of my cousins, that if she hadn't been so secretive about what some were doing, more of us could have gotten involved. But, she wanted to play the hero and "save" the family, while in the end, she withheld some information that could have been useful earlier, but she was unable to see the big picture, and of course wasn incapable of gaining the trust of all of us. Still, she worked hard which is more than many of us did.
That being said, is giving up after taking a beating the right thing now? Right now, we have forced Pechanga to spend $15 million dollars trying to convince the populace of CA to believe that they are good. THEY ARE NOT. Their infomercial showed them crying, when in reality, the cruelty of what they did, greatly overshadowed what happened to our ancestors at the middle of the 19th century. (When, by the way Paulina Hunter, born of Pechanga People, lived with many of their ancestors. This was proven by the Pechanga Band's hired expert). The other tribes have kicked in another $15 million.
That seems like a victory to me. We must stand for something and it is not too late. Disenrolled Natives can check in on this blog and help build it's prominence. It's being seen by state government officials, those in Wash DC and other tribes. It's being linked to from GOOGLE and other sites.
From the comfort of our own homes, sitting on our asses, we can make a difference. We aren't forced to stand in the snow, holding a sign. Linking here, visiting here daily will help add a voice. If there are other sites that need attention, feel free to comment on that here. But most of all, sharing this site with friends and other relatives will help quite a bit. If the Chukchansi disenrolled have a site I'm not aware of, they can contact me and I'll post a link.
The unions are weak and the No Unfair Deals team is even weaker, they need to move now, to build momentum.
Otherwise, expect the tribes to get $27 Billion for themselves and not for you or your kids. Allow them to win, without effort. But then, speak no more on what has been done to us, if you won't lift a finger (or ten) now.
16 comments:
Maybe the unions just haven't gotten started yet. There's still 5 weeks to go.
Maybe the family's will wake up soon too. Or maybe, those disenrolled don't deserve any better if they won't fight for it.
Although, it's hard to maintain the fight sometimes.
Pechanga and the other three tribes atarted spending months ago.
We didn't 'deserve' to be disenrolled. Some Pechanga members, led by Murphy, Basquez and Burbee and McCarter couldn't stand not having more money.
Some people feel that Pechanga has just gotten away with what they have done.
That the tribe can just buy off anyone to get what they want.
But if we don't keep up the fight, then they have gotten away with it.
I have a feeling that something could be happening, no proof just a feeling, that influential people are watching the situation and that Pechanga's invincablity of themselves will be the corrupt officials downfall.
I have a positive attitude in that regard,but hey, the reality is that we, as disenrolled people aren't doing enough.
This blog is getting about 100 visits per day. The Hunter family has over 100 people of internet usage age. The Manuela Mirands family has 150. Why aren't we getting 250 visits per day here? Couple us up with Chukchansi disenrolled plus other visitors and we should be near 1,000 visits a day. That shows interest.
We can't hope someone will help us if we don't help ourselves.
DUDE DON’T TALK ABOUT THE MIRANDA FAMILY! AT LEAST WE ARE ORGANIZED ! YOU GUYS AREN’T EVEN ON THE SAME PAGE.
WHAT ABOUT PRIOR TO US BEING DISENROLLED WERE AT THE METTINGS BEFORE WHEN WE WERE TRYING TO STOP THIS SHIT? PROBABLY NOT!
AND BE HONEST ! LOT OF YOUR FAMILY DIDN’T CARE! NOW YOU DO!
WIIWISH!
No, the Hunters aren't on the same page, but the Manuela's are organized either, otherwise, you have comments and views galore on your www.pechanga.info site. There should be 130 views on every subject on the site and their isn't. There should be 130 Manuela comments on each news article, and there isn't. John Sr and Jr. are carrying much of the weight. WHERE is the rest of the family? There were 15 Gomez' and about 20 Hunters at the last Democrt caucus in Anaheim. That's 35 out of 250. That is NOT organized.
As I've told Guero and others, we were there strong, and if YOU were there, you should know that. 93 of 94 Hunters were there for YOUR family, sorry about the other one, he was in the hospital. We lost by 4 votes, were you missing some relatives? Ours came from all over the country, Missouri, OK,CO,VA,KS,TX to be there for YOUR family.
Honestly, we did care, that's why we were there to support you.
People like you always bring up the past, instead of focusing on the present. We are all in the same boat. Squeal about 3 years ago, and be silent about right NOW?
And readers, there you have it. WIIWISH is from the Manuela Miranda family, the first family disenrolled en masse in the history of Pechanga. His anger is focused on the wrong target, and provides additionl reasoning as to why the tribes will win.
Fight the Hunters! That'll help the cause!
Thats how weak we are. What WIIWISH should be doing is telling his whole family that I called them out, (even though the post is mostly about MY family) and to come take a look, at least the blog would benefit.
I don't see WIIWISH's comments on any of the articles I've linked to, or the NO Unfair deals website so basically, he's shooting blanks.
WIIWISH, feel free to keep posting comments, and also, if you want to write a story as to how this is affecting YOU and your immediate family, feel free.
Wiiwish, of course we care about what happened to you and most of us were there for the key votes regarding trying to change the disenrollment procedures to make them fairer and to keep biased people from voting on yours and our cases.
We lost by three or four votes on one issue and about ten votes on another key issue regarding disenrollment.
You may not be aware but some of us from the Hunter Clan when we were still in the tribe donated money to your family's legal fund.
It is not our family or your family it is all of us being wronged.
Anyway, I am glad you posted and I hope you continue to do so.
O Pechanga was not knocking your family he was pointing out there should be more of us involved as if we don't stay involved, those officials who did us wrong will have gotten away with it.
'Amo'kat (Hunter)
Amo'kat speaks the truth. It hasn't been brought up enough, but many of us gathered over $20,000 for the Manuela Mirandas. It paid for their process service I believe.
Hmmm, I guess that comes under the category of caring. I guess WIIWISH should have went to more meetings, or looked around.
Yes, we did donate to the Miranda's legal fund and at the time, still being tribal members, we were making ourselves bigger targets for those that wanted us out, not that it mattered as if we had done nothing, they were still after us.
Sadly, there are probably tribal members still in the tribe who know what was done to all of the disenrolled and moratorium people who wouldn't buck the tide for fear of retribution and there are others that think we are hurting the tribe by continuing our fight as if we have done something wrong.
BUT TO SOME PEOPLE DOWN IS UP AND UP IS DOWN.
THEIR PERCEPTION IS TWISTED.
I DO, AS I HAVE STATED, HOPE WIIWISH CONTINUES TO GIVE INPUT.
WE ARE ON YOUR SIDE MY FRIEND!
O Pechanga, you are right. We need to organize and blast everything out into the open. PECHANGA IS CORRUPT. THEY ILLEGALLY DISENROLLED TWO FAMILIES TO INCREASE THE PERCAPITA CHECKS FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE TRIBE. IT WAS ABOUT MONEY (TO FATTEN THEIR POCKETBOOKS). INCREASING THE SLOTS IN THEIR CASINO WILL FATTEN THEIR POCKETBOOKS EVEN MORE. THE GOVERNOR IS VERY NAIVE TO THINK THAT PECHANGA WILL GIVE THE STATE THEIR FAIR SHARE AFTER THEY HAVE DISGRACED ALL OF INDIAN COUNTRY BY THEIR ACTIONS. WE ARE RELATED TO CHAIRMAN MACARRO AND THIS IS WHAT HE DID TO US. HE HAS SAID WHAT GOES ON WITHIN THE TRIBE IS OF NO CONCERN TO THE WHITE MAN AND I AM SURE THAT INCLUDES THE CASINO. BUTCH MURPHY AND JENNIE MIRANDA ARE THE MOST CORRUPT AND ARE DEFINITELY NOT DESCENDANTS OF ORIGINAL PECHANGA/TEMECULA PEOPLE. THEY CAN PRETEND ALL THEY WANT, BUT THEY KNOW THE TRUTH.
Are Butch and Jennie even ON the 1979 enrollment record? Does anyone know what their enrollment numbers are?
The 1979 enrolled members of the Pechanga Band do not include the names of Russel Butch Murphy or/and Jenny Miranda. THEY ARE WANNABEES who took part in the ouster of the APISH & HUNTER FAMILIES,the true Pechanga Descendants.
Creeper, while descendants of Pablo Apish were disenrolled, there are many of his descendants who are still in the tribe.
Only the descendants of his granddaughter Manuela Miranda were kicked out.
What do tribal members with the names Calac, Luker, Magee, Pico, and Barrientos have in common?
They are all descendants of Pablo Apish, the chief of the Temecula Indians from the mid 1800's.
So why were some of the descendats of the chief determined to supposedly not be Pechanga people when there are many of his family line still in the tribe?
By the way, the people kicked out are undisputedly legitimate desecendants of the chief.
One more thing, Francis Miranda an enrollment committee member who voted against the Manuela Mirandas' membership is also a descendant of Pablo Apish and a blood relative of the Manuelas.
Go figure?
Here's the deal. People do not want to broch this subject for two reasons. Most people see all these tribal disenrollments as greedy indians. They do not want to get involved. The war has not been brought to their doorstep. Second, tribal members, enrolled or disenrolled, do not want to be seen as gold diggers or live in fear of being next. It is an on going problem. I think we need to have the government step in and abolish a sovern nations right to disenroll legitament members. Like you, I am sure, I am SICK of having to prove I'm Snoqualmie Indian every time Cheryl Mullen, our enrollment officer, gets a stick up her ass, which is to frequent in my opinion.
I am writing daily and faxing my letters to Patty Murry, Washington state Senator. I will write daily until I get results.
Here is my letter:
Dear Ms. Murry,
Tribal disenrollments and banishments. In light of casino operations tribal councils/tribal governments all across the nation have taken to disenrolling life long members. Indian rights are violated and it is time for the federal government to step in. New laws protecting enrollment need to be placed in effect immediately. Members of sovern nations should not have to continously prove their heritage only to have their blood quantums questioned every time a monotary exchange takes place. BIA refuses involvment aiding Indian Genocide to continue. Federal action is required. Enrollment must be taken out of the hands of the sovern nation and placed into a nuetral parties authority. There is no tribal justice system to oppose the greed of tribal governments.
And there needs to be.
Action is required.
If everyone floods their senators inbox we can stop this from happening.
We can not lose hope. Sometimes it is all we have to live on.
Chrissie
Post a Comment