A recent post about the embarrassing way that employees were treated at a surplus sale at Pechanga Resort and Casino, sparked many comments. The Mark Macarro led council may have overlooked this. Apparently one tribal member is unhappy about the way that those of us who were unlawfully terminated from the tribe are fighting back. Here's the money quote:
but of course, YOU don't believe anything I say, because we're all a bunch of "lying, greedy, fake Indians," right?? GOD, when will this end!!!
The poor Tribal Members, having to endure the scorn and tactics of families who were egregiously harmed by both the action and inaction of tribal members. And the fake Indians that he/she may be referring to is the family of Russell "Butch" Murphy, a council member who is NOT Pechanga blood.
The Pechanga Tribal Enrollment Committee acted WRONGLY in terminating the Paulina Hunter descendants. The Pechanga Tribal Council acted wrongly in not upholding the will of the people AND the Pechanga Constitution by not allowing the vote to end ALL disenrollments to stand. Remember, the council stated that the will of the people was proper to initiate the moratorium that kept families OUT of the tribe that rightfully belonged.
Readers, DISENROLLMENT is NOT like getting kicked out of the PTA! This is our family's HERITAGE that others, with less documentation, are ruling on. The inconsistencies are staggering.
Here is MY response to the member's question, "When will this all end?!!!"
It MAY end, Tribal Member, when the tribe does the right thing by bringing the people HOME. The disenrollment/termination/moratorium were WRONG and fighting back is what a person should do in this situation.
The bad publicity, comments, letters to politicians, letters to the editors, joining forces with other tribes, improved relations with the media, Facebook and My Space stories, PBS stories, documentaries will CONTINUE until the tribe does what is right. WHY should we give up, when our cause is just?
Many of YOU are hoping we will go away, but WE WON'T. WE will be here in various strengths until justice is done. You realize what this means don't you?
It means: Less traffic to casino, more scrutiny from news sources, judges who get sick of what the tribal governments are doing and erosion of sovereignty. It means that people will CHOOSE to not go to Pechanga or Chukchansi or Redding and go to another more tribal friendly casino.
It means: We will continue to publish your bad acts, members whose thuggish behavior leads to the shutdown of Pechanga businesses like the Eagle's Nest. We will continue to inform our legislature, the BIA, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs of the injustice that Pechanga has done on HUNDREDS of Pechanga people.
But MORE importantly and CRITICAL to tribes like Pechanga: The more you mistreat our people, the MORE LIKELY that statewide gaming will happen SOONER, rather than later. And THAT will be more expensive to you that bringing the people home.
Tribal Members, remember, Pechanga had to spend $50 MILLION MORE to defend their proposition for more slots than the other 3 tribes COMBINED. That means that the bad press/publicity WORKED against you. Richard Milanovich only had to spend $14 million for his Prop, because the tribe gets good publicity. What would having that $50 million have meant for the tribe.
The Pechanga Tribal Council can make ALL of this GO AWAY. They can revisit the incorrect ruling on the Hunter family disenrollment, they can bring the family of Pablo Apis and Manuela Miranda BACK to the tribe and the can TURN away the moratorium.
THINK about this tribal members! THINK of the excellent publicity this would generate. Newspaper articles about how the tribe has done the right thing and brought ALL it's people HOME. Do you think KNBC might do another 9 minute segment on how Pechanga has done right by it's people? I believe they would and take some credit for it too.
This is a very simple fix. Do you not think that those of us who are restored wouldn't tout that to our politicians, media? Or, you many continue to reap the negative press, the attention and the lack of consumers. And by acting like thugs, the employees will begin to let the stories fly.
STAND UP FOR WHAT IS RIGHT, and good things will come to you. Continue this bad direction and we will continue to FIGHT AGAINST you. THAT is the INDIAN WAY!
20 comments:
Thank you so much for these accurate and well thought out comments.
As would any HUMAN whose rights are being VIOLATED, the Pechanga Indians who have been unlawfully terminated WILL continue unto the end to FIGHT!
Not only for our own individual REINSTATEMENTS, but for our children and our grand children whose HERITAGE we WILL PROTECT from the violation we have experienced.
The Pechanga band has been hyjacked by a corrupt faction of the tribe. The CPP Concerned Pechanga People AKA Corrupt Pechanga People have denied equal protection to all tribal memebers, in direct violation to its constitution. By inserting families members in key positions within the government they have been succesful in terminating over 25% of the band, and in an illegal moritorium have been able to keep another 30% out of a rightful place within the band.
Some of the CPP even say we were givin a chance to prove this within the framework of the band. It was a kangaroo setting and they know it.
We believe there are many good hearted Indian people still in the band. Unfortunetly they will do nothing while this corruption continues.
I wish the best of Luck!! I know what it is like to deal with the same thing. You get "friends" that you grew up with a little power and they don't know how to handle it. It prob was feelings of not being loved and cared for by their mother and there was no father in the picture. So the only thing they can do is to impress their mother that never have and never will love them. I can't wait till the day when ALL tribes will stop being greedy and go back to the old was of sharing......
Excellent point, "go back to the way it was' there was no corruption and disenrollment back when we were growing up on the Rez so where did it come from? Who brought it? The Corrupt Pechanga People did, but Pechanga is not the only Reservation inflicted with corruption. Every tribe that is fighting corruption, stay strong! That is the Indian Way!
Yes, while it is true that most tribal members do not mistreat the employees of the casino, it was wrong that the tribal members were given first choice to purchase the surplus items.
The sale should have been for tribal members and employees getting the same chance on the first day of the sale, first come, first serve.
I wonder what this tribal member thinks about kicking us out of the tribe when, as O.P. says, we have more documentation than some of the people who ruled on our, the Hunters' case.
We have a lot of documented proof through census and probate records including eye witness testimony from tribal elders from the time the Pechanga reservation was created.
Fact: Paulina Hunter is listed in all of the Pechanga census records of the late 1800's until the year of her death in 1899.
Fact: Paulina Hunter is an original Pechanga allottee, allottment #62.
Contrast that with the Masiel/Basquez family, the people who led the charge on getting us disenrolled, who claim their membership through Josepha Garcia.
So why was Josepha listed as married to Felipe Cascara in the census records of the late 1800's and not to someone named Leyvas (or other spelling variations) during the year of Masiel/Basquez ancestor Francisca Leyvas' birth?
Also, why does Francisca suddenly show up on the census records in 1902 (she was reportedly born in 1898) as a child and why isn't she listed with any particular household at that time and why wasn't she listed before then?
This is not an attack on the Masiel/Basquez family as I am just showing that their claim, no matter what they say, is not stronger than our (the Hunters) claim of being true Pechanga people.
I have many friends in the Indian community and what the Pechanga members do not realize is that almost everyone knows that they are lying about the disenrollments being legitimate. Everyone knows Mark Macarro's comments to Colleen Williams on NBC were a load of crap. Pechanga has become a joke because of the disenrollments. Nobody in Indian country agrees with it or respects it. There has been a systematic boycott of Pechanga and they are now seeing that come into play. They are paying a price and will continue to pay a price for their actions whether they realize it or not. It will never end until they do what is right!!!
Could it be that the Masiels and Basquez, who have been strong supporters of oral tradition for deciding tribal membership over documentation, it is because they don't have the documenation to back up their claim of being Pechanga?
It would appear there are some questions about their linage that were not answered in their disenrollment cases including the fact that they were cleared by only three members of the enrollment committee, far less than the legal qourum of six out of a ten member committee.
Are these people, who led the CPP purge of the tribal membership, the cause of most of the problems at Pechanga?
What are the Pechanga enrollment requirements? Do they have a blood quantum cut-off, or can anyone enroll as long as they have a Pechanga ancestry? I'm curious as to if there is still a strong Pechange blood line flowing. Do they have any 4/4th Pechanga members or are they a rainbow tribe? I am personally against adoptions, especially of non-ndns! I think tribes that adopt non-ndns are going to be the demise of Indian Country. Sometimes what you do today, affects tomorrow.
Pechanga is not a blood of the band tribe. Memebrship is supposed to be lineal descent from and Original Pechanga Temecula Indian. However the corrupt faction twists this wording to suit its on ways.
CPP members should realize that they are weakening sovereignty by allowing elected officials to trample their own constitution.
And, their pocketbooks will be hurt when liberal politicans realize that they can get MORE money from enterprises in high population zones.
Those who have been kept on the outside should push this theme. Other tribes should separate themselves from tribes like Redding, Picayune and Chukchansi and treat them as pariahs. Nations should be judged on their own merits and you can't compare a Pechanga Tribe with tribes like San Manuel or Agua Caliente. Or Redding with Hoopa.
What Indian tribe do you have to be from to have a lineal descent from to be enrolled into Pechanga? I'm thinking that you don't even need Indian blood in you to be Pechanga Ndn, all you have to be is a great, great, great great grandchild of someone from a Pechanga/Temecula, whether you have any Indian blood or not. That explains a lot, b/c I went to the Casino, and damned if I couldn't find a Native American! If you see the Eddie Murphy movie, Imagine That, the part about the Indian man reminds me of the man you call Butch. See the movie it is a big lmfao.
I dont know about San Manuel...didnt they allow the MM to live on the reservation?..or maybe they still do??
euro americans and the spanish tainted the blood of the california indians back in the 1800's. fair skin light hair indians are very common today on california reservations. some even die their hair now trying to change their apperance. if you have children w/ mexicans you produce darker complected children, but their blood is still thin.
I agree !00% with your fight. The moratorium is morally wrong and at the most recent meeting several enrollment applications that predated the moratorium were discussed. Since the enrollment committee could not follow the directives under the first moratorium passing which was to process applications prior to the moratorium date they brought it back to the membership for direction. Why? Because when they processed a few applications that were dated before 1995, they were questioned and scrutinzed for enrolling those few adult members by the mouthier general membership. Guess what? Those applications will never be processed because it was voted not to process them.There was actually "cheering" over that "win". I pray you find a legal loop hole to fight this. Please do not give up.
The legal loophole is the fact that Pechanga has followed no clear legal precedent regarding enrollment issues.
1. In 1986, after having their enrollment applications turned down by the enrollment committee the heirs of Rose Murphy appealed the decision to the General Membership and the the General Membership voted on April 20, 1986--40 yes's, 14 no's, and 1 abstension to accept the lineal descent of Rose Murphy.
2. The tribal council ruling of March 14, 2006, as evidenced by the letter that was sent to the Generl Membership, concluded that the Hunters were not included in the petition to end disenrollment as a part of tribal law that was justified on June 19, 2005 and passed by the General Membership on July 18, 2005.
In allowing the Hunters to be disenrolled on March 16, 2006 the tribal council stated the following:
"THE GENERAL MEMBERHSIP, THROUGH ITS OWN AUTHORITY, MAY NOT INTERRUPT OR QUESTION THE ACTIONS OF THE ENROLLMENT COMMITTE, CONCERNING ENROLLMENT OR DISENROLLMENT. THIS IS ILLEGAL AND IN VIOLATION OF ESTABLISHED PRECEDENT IN TRIBAL LAW."
3. So fast forward to 2009 and the enrollment committee goes to the General Membership on whether they can process applications of people who clearly had their applications in before the start of the moratorium and who have been unfairly kept out of the tribe?
I thought the March 14, 2006 ruling said that only the enrollment committee can make enrollment decisions and not the General Membership.
Oh wait a minute, I forgot, the General Membership voted on April 20, 1986 to overrule the enrollment committee's decision to not enroll the Muprhys and to allow the Murphys to be accepted as tribal members.
I think the real loophole is that Pechanga is showing they can't govern themselves and the only real precedent now has become what the greedy people want.
One more thing Anonymous July 27, 2009, 6:15 pm, do you also think the disenrollment of hundreds of legitimate Pechanga people and their families is morally wrong?
One more thing, in this instance, even though the General Membership is the final authority in tribal law, the enrollment committee should not have had to go to the General Membership for any claification at this recent 2009 membership meeting as I am sure the moratorium that was passed says nothing about not allowing people who had their applications in on time before the moratorium was in place only that people after the deadline would be in the moratorium.
It is my bet that the unholy CPP majority on the enrollment committee was trying once again to use illegitimate means to make their actions appear lawful.
That way, in their minds anyway, they will not have to right the wrongs done by the committee in the past.
Ironic that they claimed in disenrolling us that they were correcting past mistakes made by the committee so why can't they correct other past mistakes made by the committee and let people into the tribe that made the deadline before the moratorium?
But I don't think it was unintentional on the part of the past enrollment committee to not enroll those people now stuck in the moratorium who had beaten the deadline.
I believe it was a deliberate attempt to defraud true Pechanga blood descendants of what is rightfully theirs.
Sound familar?
GOOD POINTS COUSIN. DEFRAUDING TRUE PECHANGA PEOPLE.
As an ordinary citizen, I really winced when I saw that Pechanga kicked out some of their elders. Many people comment about this during everyday conversations when talking about the casinos. Californians did take notice. I hope soon the Pechanga tribe realizes that by kicking out their own people, they are being judged by the court of public opinion. Next time they may want support for a proposition, and many of us will vote no because we don't like seeing old people kicked out, young people being escorted out of their school, and their heritage yanked away.
Yes cousin it is defrauding true Pechanga people.
And in some cases blood relatives probably just voted to keep out their own blood who rightfully should now be in even though there is a moratorium on new adult members because their applications were in before the deadline but not processed by an enrollment committee who were either incompetant or at the very least dishonest.
Since I don't want to insult the enrollment committee by calling them idiots, what does that make them?
Frankly the moratorium should not have been allowed in the first place as the Band's constitution says open enrollment is every January.
But let's assume for a moment that the moratorium is a legitimate law.
So doesn't that mean that it would keep out only those people who didn't get their applications in on time?
But again I would also like to ask, if disenrolling us (without basis of fact though) was supposed to correct past errors made by the enrollment committee, then why can't they correct an obvious mistake of not enrolling people who beat the moratorium deadline?
But I guess the common factor is that the the tribe will side with keeping people out of the tribe.
Wrongfully kicking us out of the tribe but also wrongfully not letting in people who can prove they beat the moratorium deadline.
Another irony is that there are Hunter family members who joined during open enrollment between 1980and 1996 before the moratorium was in place who had official date stamped enrollment papers signed by some of the very same people who years later in 2006 voted to kick them out of the tribe or who submitted letters or statements opposing the Hunter family's tribal membership saying that the tribe had never recognized the Hunters as being Pechanga.
So if the tribe had never recognized the Hunters, then why did they sign their enrollment papers when they were enrolled?
So what changed bewteen 1980 and the 1995/96 time period?
Answer: the tribe got the casino.
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