UPDATE: THIS is NOT a Pechanga only demonstration. San Pascual members who have been disenrolled, Freedmen, and AIRRO members are expected to attend. Bring a sign that you feel expresses the injustice against your family and friends. There will be a documentarian doing interviews. Don't miss this chance to get your voice HEARD.
Bring a friend or two to stand with you and let your candle be the light that shines on this injustice!
Candlelight Vigil Saturday
January 24, 2009 @ 5 pm
Pechanga Resort & Casino
Temecula, CA
Thousands of individuals from throughout Indian Country have been denied or stripped of their basic human and civil rights.
Join family, friends, and supporters in a peaceful vigil for equality and justice. Stay tuned for updates on this event.
16 comments:
I will be there.
Wild horses coud'nt keep me away.
This is a vigil for justice FROM OUR GOVERNMENT AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS THAT HAVE BEEN DENIED TO INDIVIDUAL INDIANS, BUT AFFORDED TO EVERY AMERICAN CITIZEN WHOSE ANCESTRY IS NOT AMERICAN INDIAN.
Everyone that has been denied equal rights and has experienced the injustice from this Tribe should be out there with you.
You should be standing shoulder to shoulder against this group of corrupt Individuals.
You should speak as one voice...
if you do you will be heard...
I WILL BE THERE TO SUPPORT YOU.
Short addition,
Refusing to recognize a government is not the same as refusing to recognize a people. One government could choose to recognize another government of the same people that it feels it has a better chance of retaining or establishing relations with.
I will stand with you if I can get transportation. It is a good thing when we can practice the rights given to all citizens of the country. Sovereignty was never meant to be used in the way that the corrupt governments have used it. The threat to sovereignty comes from the abuse of immunity granted to the tribal nations. It was never meant to hide behind
We are coming and bringing some extra candles
This is so ironic when you have EX BIA employees coming into a Tribe to help a faction to kick out tribal memebers who have the most historical connection because of gaming and the Tribal Government is standing strong to keep ALL the members who have filled out and proved lineage to the Tribe and the BIA in Sacramento is siding with their Pals (ex bia employees) to disenroll half the Tribe. The BIA is ignoring the reccognized government that is being inclusive and doing things to support the faction to take control and disenroll. A Tribe willing to keep all MEMBERS who have a lineal tie and have proof and a faction of Tillie Hardwick who say because they were the last ones there only have a right to be tribal members and want to over throw the government because they wont disenroll half the Tribe because they wont vote for them to purchase property for 500% over the worth of the land.
"In 2007, a tribal member filed an official challenge against the family, saying that they did not meet the necessary requirements to belong in the San Pasqual tribe.
It said that their ancestor, Marcus R. Alto Sr., was adopted by his parents, Jose and Maria Alto, and was not their biological son.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/12/news/sandiego/z1135d029c33d2f278825753c007b5ea4.txt
"The Pechanga authorities say they are just belatedly enforcing long-standing rules regarding descent and historical residence, the specifics of which are outlined here...John Gomez's case hinges not on his ancestor's blood, but as the ruling examines here, on where precisely Manuela Miranda lived at a specific time"
https://eee.uci.edu/clients/tcthorne/Hist15/disenrollmentatpechanga2000.htm
"The tribal officials would require his family provide DNA from his deceased mother and his "Nano" if they were to retain their tribal status as Indians. With Indians having no civil rights protections, all 76 Foreman family members were disenrolled from the tribe even after providing tribal officials DNA test results greater than 99% that proved the two women were mother and daughter.
http://www.airro.org/main.html
"...Following the referendum vote to remove the black Seminoles from tribal rolls, the Interior Department reviewed the action and deemed the disenrollments illegal. Interior said it would not recognize any tribal government that did not include the black Seminoles who have been allowed to serve on past tribal councils.
...While the cases are pending, the shared history of the black and blood Seminoles has changed forever. Donnell Davis, an 18-year-old black Seminole, told the New York Times, "It takes your pride away. You know they don't want you to be part of them. They tell you you're nothing to them."
http://bellevuecollege.edu/diversitycaucus/AIFF/CBE.htm
"That happened to 14 members of the Las Vegas (Nevada) Paiute Tribe who received letters in July 1999 notifying them they had been removed from the tribal roll because they no longer met the blood quantum requirement for membership. The tribal council had changed the enrollment criteria and retroactively applied new rules to longtime tribal members.
"When I got the letter stating I was disenrolled, I couldn't believe it," says Debra Faria, a 45-year-old mother of three and sister of former Paiute chairman Billy J. Frye. "I've been a Paiute all my life. It was the worst day of my life. It was like they took part of my heart and ripped it out."
http://bellevuecollege.edu/diversitycaucus/AIFF/CBE.htm
"March 3, 2007
The new Constitutional amendment is approved by 77 percent of the vote. To be eligible for Cherokee citizenship under this amendment, one must trace back to a Cherokee, Shawnee or Delaware ancestor on the Dawes Rolls. Citizenship is colorblind and has nothing to do with race and everything to do with whether one is an Indian."
http://freedmen.cherokee.org/HistoryofFreedmenDescendants/tabid/724/Default.aspx
"In some cases, particularly Oliver Cromwell and John Bradshaw, the Bill of Attainder was served posthumously and the corpses of the offenders were exhumed and symbolically executed.
http://www.family-ancestry.co.uk/history/stuart/law/bill_of_attainder/
Im getting to the point of the descendants being punished for the alleged newly devised illegal status of an ancestor. This position can not be sustained by any U.S. action or official because it is in violation of the U.S. Constitution:
"U.S. Constitution: Article I
Clause 3. No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed .
Bills of Attainder
Every law, which makes criminal an act that was innocent when done, or which inflicts a greater punishment than the law annexed to the crime when committed, is an ex post facto law within the prohibition of the Constitution.
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/article01/47.html
This article makes it unlawful for any descendant to be punished for the status or acts of an ancestor.
Even if federal government officials choose not to intervene for sovereign reasons, they can not actively engage in any way that supports it without acting in conflict with the U.S. Constitution. I think that might include that Sheriffs contract with San Pascual.
Many of the dis-enrollments are clearly a punishment based on a newly determined illegal status of an ancestor.
This is one of my main arguments I have been saying all along that the decision to disenroll both the descendants of Manuela Miranda and the descendants of Paulina Hunter from the Pechanga tribe was biased and illegal in violation of Pechanga's own costitution according to Article V which states, "IT SHALL BE THE DUTY OF ALL ELECTED OFFICIALS OF THE BAND TO UPHOLD AND ENFORCE THE CONSTITUTION, BYLAWS, AND ORDINANCES OF THE TEMECULA BAND OF LUISENO MISSION INDIANS; AND ALSO, TO UPHOLD THE INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS OF EACH MEMBER WITHOUT MALICE OR PREJUDICE."
According to Gomez, he and his
cousin found that the committee was not processing applications filed before the moratorium and was failing to enroll some members' children. Only after he called for an investigation, says Gomez, did questions about his own ancestry arise.
A descendant of Paulina Hunter was also involved in pointing out to the tribal council the irregularities of the enrollment committee.
And those same enrollment committee members who had allegations made against them were allowed to rule on the disnenrollment cases of both the Manuela Miranda and Hunter families.
Both the Manuela Miranda and Hunter families asked the enrollment committee and the tribal council that those enrollment committee members who had allegations made against them be ordered to step aside from ruling on the disenrollment cases of the M. Mirandas and the Hunters.
But those enrollment committee members were still allowed to rule on the M Mirandas and Hunters cases.
Clearly both the tribal council and the enrollment committee were in violation of Article V of the Band's constitution in the disenrollments of the M Mirandas and the Hunters.
Adolf Hitler said that if a lie was told enough times that people would believe it as being the truth.
But I believe the opposite is true that if we keep stating the truth, that people's eyes will be opened to that truth.
PECHANGA OFFIICIALS CAN SAY A THOUSAND TIMES THAT THE DISENROLLMENT PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THOSE OF US WHO WERE DISENROLLED WAS FAIR AND IMPARTIAL BUT IT DOESN'T MAKE IT TRUE.
Come on tribal members or officials come here and defend what was done to us but you can't because all you can really do is hide behind sovereignty.
That is a huge mountain for us to climb but it still doesn't make you right and deep down you know it.
Who will be responisble for the corrosion of our sovereignty....
Pechanga Reservation
Dry Creek Rancheria
Redding Rancheria
Enterprise Rancheria
San Pasqual
Robinson Rancheria
Table Mountain Rancheria
Jamul Indian Band
Santa Rosa Reservation
Pinoleville Rancheria
Picayune Racheria
Mooretown Racheria
Laytonville Racheria
To all the current tribal members stop sitting around. Stand up for whats right!!! Be Real indianz!!
We are coming with three people, and candles!
Hope to see you there
I hope to see a lot of you there, most of my family will be there at 5.pm at the corner of
Pechanga Parkway and Via Eduardo.
WE are bringin xtra candles, just in case some Pechanga Tribal Members want to join us.
WE WELCOME ALL TO STAND WITH US.
In the past we parked all up and down Via Eduardo,easier to do.
C U there!
Although I will not be able to travel from an Eastern state at this time to be with you, I will be with you in Spirit. Please all who can go to the candlelight vigil GO!!!!
My prayers will be with you to go mightily! God bless the pure in Spirit and may God’s justice prevail upon the wicked.
I love all the insightful thoughts, ideas, and truths shared in this Blog; where within America can watch the rise and fall of the unjust Indian Nations and witness the recreation of mighty Native Americans. Stay tuned America!
Tell your friends that THIS is the location to help spread the word of what is happening in California's Indian Country.
I'll light a candle tomorrow in Oregon for the cause.
“My proposal for a solution to continue and foster government-to-government relations between Native Nations and the U.S.”
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
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