Thursday, July 17, 2008

San Pascual Membership fight to Mediation

Maybe it's time for the Casino to be shut down. With a government that's cheating it's people, whom the BIA determined were San Pascual decades ago, maybe they should have a casino. Is the loss of an income producer an incentive to keep the peace? Is greed at the heart of the matter like it was at Pechanga?

A dispute over membership in the San Pasqual Indian band is threatening its government and its operation of the Valley View Casino, which has created hundreds of jobs and earned millions in revenues.
The disagreement has split the tribe into two camps, which the Bureau of Indian Affairs is working to reconcile.
The sides met yesterday with James Fletcher, the BIA's Southern California superintendent, and agreed to mediation, he said.
Without a resolution, Fletcher said he's at a crossroads. Each side is asking him to recognize it as the true tribal government.
Fletcher said he has three options: recognize one group, the other, or neither. If he chooses neither group, then there is no tribal government. And without a government, the tribe can't run a casino, Fletcher said.


Funny how Fletcher takes an interest in this case, but when his own tribe's (Pechanga) council violated their constitution, he did nothing.

Link to story: Here

1 comment:

Luiseno said...

What is interesting is that he seems to have all of a sudden had a change of heart and no longer conciders tribal enrollment an internal matter only. Maybe he has come under investigation for his previous actions (ie changing BIA records and using his position to dissuade others in helping us). He seems to be bending over backwards (to myself) to appear fair and impartial.