This will be going to Riverside County Supervisors:
The Temecula Indian Cemetery is not a Pechanga cultural site. The Temecula Indian Cemetery is indeed a sacred and holy site, but based on Pechanga Tribal documents, its establishment and use by individuals who predate the Pechanga Indian Reservation would preclude the site from being a "Pechanga" site.
The County of Riverside should not sell the Temecula Indian Cemetery to any group
who has deprived and/or denied individuals of their human and civil rights. Actions taken by Pechanga Tribal Officials -denial of due process, failure to provide equal protection of the laws, establishment of ex post facto laws, etc. - mirror those which led to the introduction and passage of the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 ("ICRA") which was intended to ". protect individual Indians from arbitrary and unjust actions of tribal governments" and to secure for the individual American Indian the broad constitutional rights afforded all other American citizens.
While the ICRA clearly spells out actions which tribal governments are prohibited from participating in, Pechanga tribal officials have failed to comply with the ICRA and have routinely invoked "sovereign immunity" to escape prosecution for their actions. No entity that participates in, supports, or otherwise partakes in human and/or civil rights violations should d be allowed to purchase a site in favor of those of whom they have victimized and who also have legal and cultural ties to the site.
Sale or management of the Temecula Indian Cemetery should include participation of all parties who have cultural ties to this significant site. The Temecula Indian Cemetery contains the burials of many Temecula Indians whose descendants are not or are no longer members of the Pechanga Band. Sale of the cemetery to the Pechanga Band would discriminate against these Indians and could violate our/their religious freedom and access rights. All Indians with ties to the Temecula Indian Cemetery should have ownership and access to the cemetery and should be consulted with regarding any sale, disposition, or use of the site.
In closing, I would request that the Board of Supervisors meet with individuals and/or groups that have ancestral ties to the Temecula Indian Cemetery to further discuss the issues above, and re-state our opposition of the sale of the Temecula Indian Cemetery to the Pechanga Band.
Here are some email addresses to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors:
district1@rcbos.org
district2@rcbos.org
district3@rcbos.org
district4@rcbos.org
district5@rcbos.org
lparrish@rceo.org
raysmith@rceo.org
Please add your voice.
12 comments:
Pechanga sounds a lot like China. What Pechanga has done to their own people is the same thing The Chinese are doing to the people of Tibet. Shame on Pechanga!!
So the tribe wants to claim its roots as the Temecula people after all by getting ownership of the Temecula Indian cememtary, a culturally significant area to the people.
Well in kicking out hundreds of their rightful living citizens they claimed that being of the Temecula band is not good enough that Pechanga is a subset of the Temecula people.
Yes, Temecula and Pechanga are the same people but the tribe can't have it both ways as if they will not bring back hundreds of living people back into the tribe and claim them as their own, then they should not be able to lay sole claim to the bones of some of the ancestors of the very people the Pechanga tribe disowned when they disenrolled the living.
It is covenant for the Pechanga tribe to be the Temecula Band when they want something such as land or things of cultural significance such as this cemetary but then to be the "so called" subset of the Temecula Band, the Pechanga Band when it suits their needs in trimming the membership rolls.
COME ON PECHANGA, BRING THE LIVING HOME THEN WE CAN ALL SHARE OUR COMMON CULTURE TOGETHER!
Should the Federal Gvt ask for their money back? You know, the money they gave the tribe when the tribe was happy to have so many people? Of course, Hunters have been tribal members since the reservation began, unlike, say, Juan Macarro.
What about all the Hunters who died as Pechanga members? Members who are buried at Pechanga cemetery on the rez? They must be rolling over in their graves watching what has happened in the past few years to the tribe! Shame on you Pechanga. Culture, Tradition, or History, yea right! The only traditions Pechanga will pass on are GREED& CORRUPTION!
Historic FACT:
Hunters were members in the tribe before they were forcibly moved and dumped at the place knoen as Pechanga (files on record at the BIA in Riverside).
Historic FACT:
Hunters are listed on the FIRST Pechanga indian census as members of the tribe files on record at the BIA in Riverside).
Historic FACT:
Paulina Hunters father is the ONLY indian listed in the origional mission records as being born at the area known as Pechanga just outside Temecula (before there was a Pechanga reservation).
FACT: The Pechanga Casino sits on the land grant of Pablo Apis.
FACT: Many current Temecula Band members are descended from Pablo Apis.
FACT: Butch Murphy has no Pechanga blood.
FACT: Ruth Masiel is not smart enough to understand the facts of each case.
RIGHT ON!!!
FACTS NOT LIES!!!
Pechanga Well $$$$$$$$$$$ Talks!!!
Looks to me like this Tribes leadership is very corrupt. Why can't this tribe get rid of this guy Mark Macarro and elect a new Chairman. Who the hell is he, Gods gift to the Tribe? Surely there must be some one that has qualifications and a moral and ethical aptitude to stop this bull crap. Now i read in the news that this guy was appointed to the Democratic National Platform Committee, as what? to show them just how much more corrupt a person can get? I wonder just how much of Pechangas money was "donated" to the DNC FUND. Could that have been the money that was supposed to have been used to take care of the sick and elderly this tribe disenrolled? This whole thing is so disgusting.
The Hunters tried several times to get rid or Mark Macarro, it was awful close a couple times. This so enraged Mark that I am sure it played a part in the reason to have them disenrolled. They also tried to remove from the enrollment committee the corrupt CPP members, but Mark shot that down right away. The Hunters were disenrolled just prior to the new ellection that reelected Mark.
I am sure this plays a part in the reason those who are left wont take a stand.
Both familys tried to take care of the corruption in the tribe, and they were both disenrolled right after there attempts.
Hunter's trying to get rid of Macarro is not totally true. Hunters voted for who they thought the best candidate was and many, I'm sure voted for Macarro.
Macarro is more interested in his profit and that's why he violated tribal law by overruling the will of the people.
Don't be fooled the "little guy macaro" loves the power too! "Little guy" made promises that he went back on, as well. Promises to the Hunters, to protect his skin from petitions for his removal. Meeting cancelled out of fear. His dad must be crying in the sky. Nice ponytail blue eye's(your brother J is a joke coward too-nice work punk) . Arn't they Mexicans(j.m.'s family too) after all? What about the land issue M.M. had with the Hunters? More fuel for his hatred of the Hunters?
Truth if it would ever be heard would be real painful to the tribe. At this point the truth is paid for. Facts are being ignored. Sad.
To the Hunter's it is not about the money, it's about who we are & the future generations to know the truth. Our kids & their kids deserve that!
I hate to say it, I did vote for Mark Macarro twice (back in the prop 5 and 1A days), when a lot of us believed he really was the man in the prop 5 and prop 1A commercials, taking Indian country forward.
We didn't know he was the skunk that he turned out to be.
However, the Hunters did back his opponent in the last election before their disenrollment and it gave Mark more than a little worry for his job.
But we didn't have the Manuela Mirandas to side with us on that one otherwise we may have gotten rid of Mark then.
Elections did have something to do with disenrollment because when the Manuela Mirandas and Hunters were both still in the tirbe, we put a Hunter family member on the PDC board, that oversees the casino business for the tribe, defeating CPP member Jenny Miranda and the politcal threat of a shift in the balance of power was a factor.
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