Pechanga, Pala and Redding kick out lifetime members and allows druggies and child molesters, Hoopa banishes one who harmed the tribe.
“This is the center of the world for Hupa people,” says Jones, whom everybody call Arty. “This is where the creator put us. We’re as much a part of here as that tree over there, or that river over there.”
With his dark eyes still fixated on the sweep of land, the 58-year-old Hupa tribal member vows to never leave. It’s his home forever, he says.
But he doesn’t have a choice.
Jones was convicted of felony drug charges late last year in Humboldt County Superior Court. Last week, the Hoopa Valley Tribe banished Jones through Title 5, its controversial exclusion ordinance. He’s been ordered to leave the reservation and to never come back. If he won’t go voluntarily, tribal police will swing by, slap cold handcuffs on his wrists and escort him over the boundary. Where to? It doesn’t matter. Just not here.
Hoopa Valley Tribal Chairman Leonard Masten Jr. promised to clean up the valley’s drug problem — particularly methamphetamine, a drug that plagues reservations across the country — when he successfully campaigned for the position in 2009. He’s already kicked out one non-tribal resident since being elected, and has enforced strict pre-employment drug testing for all tribal employees. Forcing people to pee in a cup and exiling drug dealers has made him both a loved and loathed figure in Hoopa.
Jones has some unusual supporters for a notorious and self-acknowledged drug dealer. Even Masten’s predecessor, Lyle Marshall, is staunchly against the banishment. Jones contends that Masten and the tribe illegally alt
OMG, Pala leadership should take a cue from this person. Hoopa is lucky to have him and people who will actually enforce it. Pala is infested with druggies, drug dealers, drug runners, etc. Take your pick per cap day, for them its like running to the candy store for the daily flavor.
ReplyDeleteGood article!!!!!! It addresses a problem for ALL RESERVATIONS! Too bad Hoopa is the only Tribe with balls to enforce it and clean up their reservation.
ReplyDeleteFinally, a tribe using sovereignty to do something right.
ReplyDeleteBesides Pala, here in So Cal, there are druggies at Pechanga, Soboba, Rincon, and others.
What an uproar they would have if they faced banishment.
At Pechanga the only people who have been banished have been a guy who wants to pray at his father's grave site, some family members who are allottees who were picking sage on the land, and a man who made a comment that was spinned as making a threat where he was actually banished before he even made the comment.
Even rapists and a convicted child molestor are still members of the Pechanga community.
Sad to say, but I could name a few of those "individuals" living on my reservation that collect full per cap. Hopefully with our elections coming up we will have a new EC on board to address the drug and other "lovely" individuals.
ReplyDeletethese rapists and molestors go around with the cultural center speaking for the pechanga tribe--call places and let them know how you feel---even the city of temecula knows who these people are--so does murrieta and they turn there city heads!!
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