The history of Pechanga (A PLACE, not a people) begins with the ancestral home village of Temeeku. Now under Redhawk, where Margarita road cuts south through a bluff, the Temeeku Village was home to the Temeekuyam and a center for all Luiseño Tribal peoples.
Eviction
After the establishment of the state of California in 1850, a group of Temecula Valley Ranchers petitioned the District Court in San Francisco for a Decree of Ejection of Indians living on the land in Temecula Valley, to which the Temeekuyam could show no clear written title on April 15, 1869. The court later granted the decree in 1873. Several attempts by the Temeekuyam captains to stay the decree were unsuccessful, and our fate was sealed.
In 1875 a posse led by the sheriff of San Diego County, Mr. Hunsaker, began three days worth of evictions. Among those in the posse were Jose Gonzalez, Juan Murrieta, Francisco Sanjurjo, Pujol, and Louis Wolf. Murrieta and Sanjurjo were two of the ranchers— sheep farmers— who successfully petitioned for the decree.
The Temecula Indians were advised and warned by our friends that, for our own protection, rather than resist any longer we should submit. We complied, and our possessions are carried away in wagons while we walked behind. We were taken into the hills south of Temecula River. The location is now near the west end of Loma Linda Road on the Temecula Creek Golf-course's fairway. The late Antonio Ashman, a vaunted Pechanga Tribal member born three years after the eviction recounted how the eviction-trek ended: "They just dumped them here"— pointing to a low hill near the golf-course. "Just dumped them!"
Being strong of spirit, most of our dispossessed ancestors moved upstream to a small, secluded valley; they built new homes and re-established their lives in this valley. A spring located 2 miles upstream in a canyon provided them with water; the spring we have always called Pechaa'a (from pechaq = to drip). This spring is the namesake for Pechaa'anga or Pechaanga, which means "at Pechaa'a, at the place where water drips."
Creation of the ReservationOn June 27th, 1882, seven years after being evicted, an Executive Order of the President of the United States (Chester A. Arthur) was issued, thereby establishing the Pechanga Indian Reservation. Several subsequent Trust Patents were issued in 1893, 1931 and 1971, each one increasing the size of Pechanga. In 1891, 1,233 acres of the reservation's lands were allotted to adult heads of household in 20 and 10 acre plots. Read more about Traditional Sites.
Mr. Ashman, who was born in 1875, swore under oath that our ancestor, Paulina Hunter was a Pechanga Indian, also proven by the allotment she was given by President McKinley's order.
In subsequent depostions taken in the Luiseno Language, true,sworn ORAL history, in 1915 three Pechanga members, including a relative of current tribal chairman Mark Macarro, swore Paulina Hunter was a member.
Sadly, modern-day Pechanga people didn't believe anyone who knew Paulina when she was alive, choosing instead to believe hearsay of people who were born decades after Paulina Hunter died.
According Pechanga's own anthropologist hired by the Band, Paulina Hunter’s maternal grandmother, Restituta, was born at the original village of Temecula. Thus, Paulina Hunter descended from an original Temecula family. This information directly contradicts the statement asserted in Conclusion 4 of the Record of Decision that “Paulina Hunter is not of Temecula Descent.”
ReplyDeleteAlso that Paulina’s father was the only Indian listed in the early San Luis Rey mission records who was actually born at Pechanga.
That would make people like Frances Miranda and Ihrene Scearse, who ignored that evidence of their own expert, evil and vindictive?
ReplyDeleteIf they were "real" Pechanga, would they do that to other tribesmen?
"Sadly, modern-day Pechanga people didn't believe anyone who knew Paulina when she was alive, choosing instead to believe hearsay of people who were born decades after Paulina Hunter died."
ReplyDeleteActually only some current Pechanga tribal members don't want to believe that tribal members from the historical period recognized the Hunters as Pechanga but not all current members agree with this.
Several current tribal elders, including the recently deceased tribal elder Norman Pico Sr, gave legal notarized testimony that the Hunters are Pechanga.
So in addition to elders who were alive in the late 1800's who would know who is and who isn't a legitimate tribal member, there are elders not from the CPP faction of the tribe, who also agree the Hunters are Pechanga.
But the slight majority on the enrollment committee got their way by just ignoring facts that contradicted their foregone conclusion that the Hunters were going to be disenrolled.
Add on to my last post:
ReplyDeleteThe enrollment committee claimed they could reject contradictory evidence if more credible evidence was available.
So they think convicted child molestor Vincent Ibanez, who wrote a hand written letter from prison, was more credible then vaunted (much praised), called so on Pechanga's own official web site, elder Antonio Ashman?
Also, they think current elder Raymond Basquez Sr, who listed deceased elders who allegedly said the Hunters are not Pechanga, with no proof other than Mr. Basquez saying they said it, is more credible than tribal elders Dolores Tortuga and Jose David Rodriguez who gave testimony in the 1915 probate for Paulina Hunter's land allotment that had to be translated from the Luiseno language?
To quote a member sitting on the enrollment committee was sitting in judgment of the Hunter family "you are going to be disenrolled, no matter WHAT evidence you provide".
ReplyDeleteThat member was Frances Miranda wasn't it? If it's the truth, you can publish the name. She'd be proud to be associated with what she's done to the tribe, don't you think?
ReplyDeleteHow about it Frances, are you proud to have destroyed families?