Formerly Disenrolled, Snoqualmie Tribe's Carolyn Lubenau Leads Tribe to Donate $250,000 to Fire Relief Efforts.

Snoqualimie is now lead by Carolyn Lubenau, who was once disenrolled from the tribe.  Are you PAYING ATTENTION Indian Country?

The Snoqualmie is donating $250,000 to assist in the relief efforts for those affected by the devastating fires burning in Eastern Washington. In total the Tribe is giving $200,000 to the American Red Cross Eastern Washington region designated to the 2014 fire victims and $50,000 to Washington Animal Search and Rescue.

“WE ARE ALL PART OF A LARGER COMMUNITY, AND FELT IN A TIME LIKE THIS THAT IT IS IMPORTANT TO REACH OUT AND HELP THOSE IN NEED. OUR HEARTS GO OUT TO ALL OF THOSE AFFECTED BY THIS MASSIVE FIRE, AND HOPE THAT OUR CONTRIBUTIONS CAN HELP IN THE RECOVERY AND HEALING PROCESS,” SAID CAROLYN LUBENAU, TRIBAL CHAIRWOMAN.

After extensive research, the Tribe decided to place its donations with the American Red Cross and Washington Animal Search and Rescue. Both groups can directly benefit from the donations and make a difference in people’s lives. Officials including the Wenatchee Red Cross have said the best way for people to assist in the relief effort was through monetary donations.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have suffered a loss due to a fire and also to those working so diligently to put it out,” adds Lubenau.

The fires burning in Eastern Washington are part of an eruption of lightning-sparked wildfires across Washington and Oregon that have scorched to date almost a million acres of land. The largest fire in Eastern Washington is the Carlton Complex fire that is the worst of Washington State’s seven fires.

My Civil Rights Were Violated by My Tribe! Won't Somebody Do Something?!

WHO can we get to HELP US?

I've heard this a few times from many groups, Pechanga disenrolled, Freedmen, Picayune and Snoqualmie. They cry out in anguish, rightfully, about how they were mistreated, screwed, violated and hurt by corrupt tribal councils.

But the funny thing is, there are lots of questions like, WHY won't somebody DO something to help us?   ASK YOURSELF:   WHY aren't I doing something?



Yet, many times, when requested to join in a local picket line, or to fax a letter or to make some calls, it's SILENCE. "uh, I can't make it." "I don't have anyone to watch the kids" "I don't have a fax" "I don't like to talk on the phone" "Can't someone else do it?"

Grand Ronde Disenrolls 86 Members in Shameful Act under BIA's Watch

An Oregon woman says 86 members of her family have been disenrolled from an American Indian tribe that operates the state’s largest tribal casino, as leaders review the tribe’s rolls and enforce new membership requirements.

Read: DISENROLLMENT MATTERS, WHY YOU should care

#

Family spokeswoman Mia Prickett said she’s shocked about being stripped of membership from the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, since one of the family’s ancestors was a chief who signed an 1855 treaty that helped establish the tribe.

#The council that governs the 5,000-member tribe had been considering disenrolling the family for nearly a year, saying they no longer satisfy enrollment rules. The decision to remove the family was made after the council earlier this month changed the enrollment ordinance via “emergency amendments.” The amendments gave the authority to make decisions on disenrollment to an enrollment committee.

#Grand Ronde’s Stacia Martin, executive coordinator for the Tribal Council, declined to confirm the number of people removed or the exact reasons, citing the “confidential nature” of enrollment proceedings.

#Those removed lose health care and housing benefits, educational assistance and about $3,000 annually in casino profits, among other benefits.

#\The contentious removal is part of what some experts have dubbed the “disenrollment epidemic” —€” a rising number of dramatic clashes over tribal belonging in the U.S.  

#

Disenrollment MATTERS, Why YOU Should Care About the Theft of Tribal Heritage and the Crimes Against Indian People

Why YOU Should Care About Disenrollment...

Disenrollment is the purposeful stripping of citizenship and heritage of Native Americans BY Native Americans to steal money, benefits and power.   

Why should we care about disenrollment?

• If one persons rights are violated, any persons rights are violated.  How many does it take to be wrong?   In this case it's 10,000 who have been harmed.
• Tribes promised to take care of their people if voters approved gaming. Disenrollments, Banishments, Moratoriums and levels of membership fly in the face of that promise to make the lives of all Indians better.
• Those tribes also threaten tribal self-governance, giving Indian sovereignty skeptics good reason to believe that tribal governments cannot properly handle membership without outside involvement.

·        It's simply wrong. Sovereignty has become a smokescreen for illegitimate, sometimes unlawful behavior  

·        Shouldn't a Tribal Casino customer think: If Tribes will cheat their own people, won't they cheat me?

Disenrollment untethers a tribal member from his or her ancestral connections. Members are cut off from their cultural identities, religious ceremonies, activities, politics, burials, education and customs. He or she no longer belong to the tribe they were born into. This is the most basic form of isolation and separation  imaginable. It is a life time sentence of imprisonment.

It's been said if good people do nothing, evil people will keep doing it until stopped.  We expect nation leaders to be virtuous, with moral and ethical principles.  These actions of disenrollment, including banishment and moratoriums go against those expectations.

Disenrollment is not the Indian way. It was rarely used by our ancestors, and ONLY in extreme cases. It is being called the new genocide. The destruction of families which is being perpetrated by tribal officials who are elected to protect the rights of their tribal citizens.  Moral & ethical integrity in regards to human rights & the law MATTERS.

American citizens are losing constitutional rights without due process. The fact that they're also Indian shouldn't matter.

Losing constitutional rights inside their tribes or outside of their tribes is wrong.

ICRA was formulated for a reason and should be followed and amended. because what your bringing in is crystal clear. Constitutional rights are being squashed everywhere and that is giving the corrupt band members the feeling no one will say anything to them for breaking internal laws

When we quit fighting for the rights of others, turn the other cheek, refuse to get involved we allow these atrocities to continue. Native Americans have fought hard to obtain and keep what little rights they were given.  Fear is a major contributing factor to why people don't get involved, but what most fail to recognize is that once it has started, it will continue to destroy little by little.

Disenrollment matters,  Council leaders lied to the BIA, lied to the Justice Department.   We have the right and the obligation to hold them accountable for their harmful actions.

People ask what can be done.  As we've written in other posts,  Stop patronizing offending tribe's casinos, hotels, restaurants and their powwows and clubs. Let them know that we do not agree with their system of denying civil rights to their people and until they follow their own tribal law, citizens of our country will NOT support their nation, but will patronize their competitor nations.  Disenrollment matters.

Disenrollment matters, because tribes should NOT benefit from harming their people.  If tribes disenroll en masse, tribes should lose the Federal funding and benefits, including land trusts. The American people are essentially paying tribes who violate the civil and human rights of their people.   Our representatives should shun these tribes.  No attending functions, meetings or concerts.  Use their bully pulpit to fight for the rights of the people that have been beaten by the club of sovereignty.

The Dept. of Interior and the Congress have an obligation and responsibility to uphold and amend the protection our civil rights and to protect tribal members from rogue government's that break tribal laws and constitution's only to fill their pockets with money and political power.

Congress trust responsibility does not end with Chiefs and Chairman, it extends to all native people   Have you ever wondered why Congress only provided ten civil rights and those were based on criminality, yet they made American Indians citizens of the United States, limiting their protection? 

Little EVIL Macarro Defeats BIG Evil Basquez at Pechanga

Mark Macarro the portly Chairman of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians has Defeated felon Raymond Basquez sr. for tribal chair.

Mark Macarro Re-Elected as even Pechanga Tribe wouldn't
Elect a FELON

Mark Luker was elected to council.

Tribes are becoming Disenrollment Clubs PART TWO

As part 2, I'm putting the juxtaposition of two of the comments from the Cedric Sunray article we linked to in part 1.  This from commenter known as ANOTHERVIEW, who is well known for comments designed to ... muddy the waters.

The legal doctrine that a tribe determines its own membership in its own forum governs membership disputes. 

The U.S Supreme Court, the U.S. Congress, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs follow this doctrine. The non-members who become identified as such during a membership dispute will of course either ignore or attack this doctrine or otherwise disparage its application to their case. 

Typically, these non-members will also attack and smear the tribal leadership of a tribe for its removal of non-members.   (OP: Is an attack a smear if it's the truth?) 

In addition, removed non-members will present a list of strawmen as the true motive for their removal: greed, power, money, control, politics, revenge, censorship, and so on.  (OP: The absence of evidence from the enrollment committee, using hearsay rather than sworn testimony, is not a strawman) 

Further, the removed non-members generally use a tactic of accusing others in a tribe of ignoring the facts and information that would prove tribal membership; however, in the process, these same non-members always and invariably question, denigrate, or disregard the set of facts and the pile of information adverse to their claim of tribal membership.  (OP: In the Pechanga case, it was sworn testimony, taken in the Luiseno language through and interpreter and sworn affadavits, vs. "The elders used to say". )


As a result, uninformed outsiders, and especially the news media workers, see a Ping-Pong effect in play, where one side says this and the other side says that. The disposition of the outsider may influence which side he believes or supports. Finally, please know, Dear Reader, that as a rule, these tribal membership disputes only settle longstanding membership issues.   (OP:  Another way of saying this is:  A lie by the tribe is as good as the truth, if you can get people to believe it, and when you can keep them from seeing the evidence themselves)

 

ON THE FLIP side, we have the comments of another, Pechangami who takes down the callous lies and obfuscations of Anotherview:

Pechanga determines its own membership CRITERIA. Pechanga is under seige by weasels who have been illegally enrolled. 

Anotherview is a fabulist who engages in b.s. to deceive readers about what is really happening at Pechanga. Anotherview is heavily invested in protecting the illegal enrollment status of anotherview's clan and will repeat the shuck and jive written on various sites. 

The 'enrollment committee' consists of illegally enrolled related humans. It is common knowledge that this committee's role is to enroll only those who agree to cooperate with this 'committee's criminal agendas.' 

How did this faction manage to engineer its iron grip on Pechanga? $$$$!  Politicians, Congress, and most especially The Bureau of Indian Affairs follow only the 'doctrine of corruption.' They 'play for pay.' There are politicians who are 'to channel' agendas by criminals to parties along the 'chain.' 

People would be stunned by how high up the chain of command corruption is. Corruption is now institutionalized. Anotherview..should we present our individual documents proving our lineal lines? Start with DNA which would reveal frauds from the start. Documents would reveal which lines; clans are frauds illegally enrolled and responsible for many injustices;crimes. (OP:  Funny, they never seem to want to do this, and they never take any further, because they know WE have the evidence to A. Back up our right to belong and B. Prove they don't have the same documents.

How about a public forum to provide a real forum for victims of crimes to speak openly about what really is happening in Indian Country? (Benie Campbell's parting gift before he left Congress under a cloud was ensure that 'Internal Matter' became law. Internal Matter is smoke and mirrors to hide criminal acts in Indian Country. (Political cover for 'gifts.' Another 'gift' to aid and abet injustice is promoted by 'Indian Law.' Indian Law is designed to abrogate the rights of Indians; not to protect the rights of Indians. 

It is interesting that Carole Goldberg (OP: Wife of Duane Champagne, who's recent treatise of disenrollment was widely panned and deliberately misleading) promotes Indian Law and speaks against the enforcement of Public Law 280 which would protect the rights of Indians. Why would Goldberg object? 'Not good for business!' (paraphrase) Bureau of Indian Affairs is, for all intents and purposes, really working against the best interests of the victims of crimes perpetrated by lawless thugs like those posing as 'the government.' 

The history of Pechanga and how it has come to this point is convoluted, and an on-going tragedy. I do agree that greed, power, money, control, politics, revenge, censorship, etc; have everything to do with the lawlessness that rules Pechanga today. The force and effect of corruption that holds Pechanga in an iron grip has many hidden hands and agendas. 

 It is Anotherview who blathers untrue comments. It is Anotherview who cannot meet criteria for legal enrollment and continues to attempt deflect attention away from his clan's illegal enrollment. There is no due process; no justice for victims of Pechanga. In fact, anotherview, it is you and the rest of your parasitic clan who are deceiving readers.

 

AND THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is HOW you smackdown your opponent's lies and misstatements.   Challenge them with the facts, offer to have a debate with the evidence for both sides.  Only ONE side is confident that their evidence is more than enough, and it ain't the side that's disenrolled.

Are tribes losing their credibility as Nations? Cedric Sunray: Tribes are becoming Disenrollment Clubs PART ONE

I'm moving this post up from 2011 as the disenrollment issue is gaining traction. 

Cedric Sunray's column in Indian Country Today has a strong argument that tribes are becoming more "social clubs" that the nations they purport to be.

Since the Cherokee Freedmen have been in the news this past month, his column focuses on them, righfully so. Here is what one Cherokee person who is 1/256th Cherokee has to say:

This is not a club; you can’t just claim to be Cherokee and show up and be included,” says Cara Cowan Watts, a vocal member of the Cherokees’ tribal council.

The Cherokee Nation is the largest of three federally recognized Cherokee tribes.
“This is absolutely something that we have to defend. And the Cherokee people overwhelmingly voted in the Constitution that we want to remain an Indian tribe made up of Indians,” Watts says.

“It appears that Marilyn Vann [one of the leaders of the Cherokee Freedmen] is a non-Indian insurgent terrorizing Cherokee nation families, children, elders and leadership. She and her allied terrorists attack the Cherokee people with weapons of mass disinformation and falsehoods. Marilyn is aligned with anti-Indian sovereignty groups and inside self-serving malcontents who seek to destroy the Cherokee Nation if the Cherokee Nation doesn’t give them what they want…her fellow Indian Freedmen allies want $50,000,000.00, allotment land, and apparently the right to operate gaming facilities

Cedric points out:

Sovereignty.. a word that many of these tribe’s officials couldn’t spell ten years ago, much less manipulate into its current genocidal form. Sovereignty demands ethical practice for it to hold any merit.
We continue to stand on the sidelines when we define disenrollment as an internal issue. “Internal Issue” has become the coined phrase for the removal of many people who have been generationally involved in their tribal communities. These removals are not paper resolutions batted around in the council chambers of various tribes regarding which new firm to hire for the new “addition to the casino”. These decisions directly impact the social, cultural, and at times economic well-being of actual people. If the decision of Indian country is to place sovereignty over humanity, then we all stand condemned.

OP: Our California Senator's Boxer and Feinstein have steadfastly refused to get involved, even using the term "internal matter" in correspondence back to constituents. One of our commenters wondered what their position was on South Africa? Did they side with the white Botha government against Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu? Or were their vocal about the issues of THAT SOVEREIGN NATION? The Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians practice apartheid practice apartheid on their reservation and what do we hear from Boxer and Feinstein? Crickets chirping


Read the article at the link above. The list of tribes that have stripped the citizenship from their people is painfully long. They are not worthy of your respect, nor the respect of the U.S. government. And certainly, they should not recieve government funds when they use sovereignty like a club to batter the weak and helpless.

What EVIL Would A Felon Bring as Chairman of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians. Is Basquez Right for Role?

Quite simply, Mark Macarro is the lesser of two evils and we believe that Raymond Basquez Sr. is EVIL.

Let's look at what this elder member of the Francisca Leivas Crime Family might bring to Pechanga.

Mark Macarro's Legacy: Harming Indians, Lying to Congress and APARTHEID at Pechanga

The elections for Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians are this month, and as Chairman Mark Macarro, the diminutive long term chairman may lose to a felon, we thought we'd look at his legacy.

While most in California will know Macarro as the face of tribal gaming, having appeared in many commercials promising increased benefits for California, most may not know of what he has done to his own tribe.

• Oversaw the illegal termination of 25% of his tribal membership, in order to consolidate power and increase the monetary gains for he, his family and the remaining tribal members.  While tribes determine enrollment, the council overruled the people's desire to end all disenrollments.

• Refused to lead in handling the corruption of the Pechanga Enrollment Committee, which shuffled papers around so rightful members could not get enrolled. A quid pro quo was exposed.

• Hired his 2nd wife's lobbying company without a vote of the General Council. Her company has received over $1,250,000 of tribal funds.  As a spouse, Macarro would benefit.

Littlefield: Clarifying The Cherokee Freedmen Issue

Director of the Sequoyah Research Center, Dan Littlefield makes it simple as to why the Cherokee Freedmen are citizens of the Cherokee Nation



The controversy over Freedmen citizenship in the Cherokee Nation has led to misunderstanding and misstatement of historical facts. These misrepresentations come from various sources: citizens who are simply unlearned in Cherokee history, politicians who tend to rewrite Cherokee history to serve their own purposes and out-and-out racists. 

No matter who causes the misunderstanding or makes misstatements, all promote a distortion of the historical facts, which must be clarified if Cherokee citizens are to make informed decisions. It is time for them not only to face the facts, but honestly to re-evaluate their positions in light of them. Because so much attention focuses on the work of the Dawes Commission and the Dawes rolls, they should consider the background for making Cherokee rolls and what the Dawes Commission did. 

Pechanga Disenrollment Story #1 On Macarro Family's Website

Yes, we were pleased to see that our story debunking the false Pechanga disenrollment story in Indian Country Today was #1 at the Pechangdotnet site:

#1 Article Exposing Pechanga Corruption

Find that Indian Country Today Article here

Indianz.com Picks up Story on Pechanga Disenrollment and Mark Macarro's Shameful Acts.

Another SPOTLIGHT shining on the corruption at Pechanga and it's Tribal Chairman Mark Macarro.

Indianz.com put the story up:  Pechanga Disenrollment is Political :  http://www.indianz.com/News/2014/014381.asp

Take a look and add your voice to the comment

Indian Country Today Publishes My Article REBUTTING UCLA Professor's FACTUALLY INACCURATE STORY on Pechanga Disenrollment

I am proud to say I have been published in Indian Country Today!

It's a takedown of UCLA Professor Duane Champagne's article on disenrollment, which, using Pechanga as an example was so wrong, it had to be DELIBERATE.  PLEASE read it at the link here, at like it for Facebook and Twitter AND GOOGLE PLUS.

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/07/14/rebuttal-duane-champagnes-recent-piece-disenrollment

Shining a spotlight on the corruption is critical.

Pechanga Water Rights Bill Stalls In Senate. TRUTH wins out over corruption of Macarro Regime

After meeting and speaking with staffers of Senators Boxer and Feinstein, it looks like the Pechanga Water Rights bill is stalled.

We were able to expose the bill as an attempt to steal water rights from allotees on the Pechanga Reservation.  The Tribe attempted to change the definition of allotee to being a tribal member. That wasn't going to fly with us, so we fought back, as we did three years previous in another attempt by Mark Macarro.

Here's the latest water rights bill story:

Seeking to hear directly from tribal leaders on the important issue of land and water rights, Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Chairman Jon Tester (D-Mont.) held a hearing on five bills that would strengthen tribal land and water rights and increase economic development on tribal lands July 9.

“Land and water are two of the most essential resources for tribal self-sufficiency and economic development,” Tester said. “We must seriously consider the needs of these tribes who have advocated for solid solutions to some of their challenges.

MR. MACARRO, please stop trying to cheat rightful allotees from their heritage on the Temecula Indian Reservation. We have our allotment, YOU DON'T. You have PURCHASED land, we have our family's original allotment. 

Cherie Lash Rhoades to Stand Trial in Cedarville Rancheria Murders. Death Penalty Case

A judge in California ruled there was enough evidence for Cherie Lash Rhoades, the former chairwoman of the Cedarville Rancheria of California, to stand trial for murdering four people and attempting to murder two others at tribal headquarters.


Rhoades, 44, is accused of killing her brother, Rurik Davis, 50, who succeeded her as chairman. He died after being shot in the head, prosecutors said in court today.
Sheila Russo, 47, the tribe's administrator, also died. She was shot twice, also in the head, prosecutors said.

Rhoades' niece, 19-year-old Angel Penn, died from a single shot to the chest, prosecutors said. Her nephew Glenn Calonico, 30, was shot eight times, including two shots to the chest that caused his death, KRCR-TV reported.

Two other people were also injured -- Melissa Davis was shot four times, and Monica Davis was shot once, prosecutors said. They are daughters of Davis.
The incident occurred on February 20. Authorities say Rhoades was motivated by eviction proceedings that the tribe was taking against her. She was also under investigation for allegedly stealing from the tribe.

If convicted, Rhoades faces the death penalty.

Galonda: Reframing the Debate over Disenrollment

Gabe Galonda does an excellent job in going against the grain on disenrollment.  It's time to change the debate and call out the tribes who have harmed their people.

It is with great admiration for my colleague Professor Duane Champagne that I must disagree with some of the underpinnings to his recent column, “The Debate Over Disenrollment.” Here, I hope to help reframe that “debate.”

Professor Champagne suggests, like legions of others, that the 1978 Santa Clara v. Martinez bestows upon tribal governments some form of absolute power to disenroll Indians. Most notably the U.S. Department of Interior has proclaimed, time and again, that Santa Clara requires “‘a proper respect’ for tribal sovereignty” and “‘cautions’ that [the Fed] tread lightly” in the realm of disenrollment, even in the face of related federal illegality. Reliance on Santa Clara is outdated, and frankly, unhelpful in the face of what Professor David Wilkins rightly calls a “disenrollment epidemic.”

Although Professor Champagne is correct that federal courts generally “do not have jurisdiction over tribal membership rules,” they do have jurisdiction over various Tribal disenrollment-related actions that implicate federal law and thus raise federal questions under 28 U.S.C. 1331. For example, the trend of faction-driven Secretarial elections that further the targeted disenrollment of Indians under the guise of the federal Indian Reorganization Act, implicates the federal judiciary’s jurisdiction. Likewise, the trend of denying proposed disenrollees tribally and federally guaranteed equal rights, such as gaming per capita distributions, implicates the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

It is only a matter of time before federal judges, in the spirit of judicial realism, begin to tackle disenrollment on the merits. A recent Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel recently commented that “membership disputes have been proliferating in recent years, largely driven by the advent of Indian gaming, the revenues from which are distributed among tribal members.” Alto v. Black (9th Cir. 2013). Reading between the lines: the federal courts are tired of per capita-driven mass disenrollment disputes. The United States’ judges will eventually intercede to help put a stop to those disputes’ proliferation, with the judges’ hook being the rampant federal civil rights violations that accompany any mass Indian disenrollment.

Professor Champagne suggests that “[o]ften Indian disenrollment debates focus on specific membership rules particular to a given tribe, such as their traditional kinship system[s].” The reality, though, is that trending mass tribal disenrollment efforts have little to do with tribal tradition-based membership requirements. They instead involve artificial, federal membership constructs, like U.S. censuses and rolls, which can be “traced to the United States’ paternalistic assimilation policies of the 1930s.” As Dr. Jay Miller observes, “no census was fully effective and portions of tribes were always missing both by accident and by malicious intent of U.S. or tribal officials.”

Disenrollments rooted in such non-indigenous constructs really do not “require deep understanding of tribal community, history, culture, and identity” as the professor suggests. In fact, disenrollment typically has little to nothing to do with such Indian ideals. Disenrollment is “predominately about race, and money.” Even if a particular disenrollment dispute is not driven by those non-indigenous values—I do not know of one mass disenrollment that is not—“non-Indians may view such controversies as indicators of greed and corruption.” And of course perception is reality, especially for Indians.

Indeed, Professor Champagne’s main argument seems to be that “the whole of Indian tribal membership issues should not be brought into question because of the perceived actions of some.” Yet as Jared Miller correctly observes, “tribal governments abandoning members en masse . . . harm their own bottom line by engendering negative media and investor perceptions. More critically, they threaten the bottom line of Indian businesses everywhere.” Those tribes also threaten tribal self-governance, giving Indian sovereignty skeptics good reason to believe that tribal governments cannot properly handle membership without outside involvement.

In other words, the disenrollment actions of some nations do affect all tribal nations. Among much other negativity, “there is a real risk that Congress or the U.S. Supreme Court might one day make new law in the area of tribal citizenship”—a risk that we can ill afford to take. As such, Native America should make the whole of Indian tribal membership issues our collective business. “Too much is at stake to remain silent.”

Mark Macarro's Reservation: What Makes A Pechanga Indian? Do FACTS Matter to Macarro?

One of my cousin's wrote this a while back, and another cousin thought it would be good to be brought forward.


I wanted to bring this question up because I am sort of at a loss to answer it myself.
I thought I knew the answer, but it seems I am in error in my judgment. Let me start by first stating a few facts that both the enrollment committee and myself agree upon.

1). Both the enrollment committee and myself agree Paulina Hunter and all her descendents were/are of Indian blood (Paulina being 100%).
2). It is not disputed that she was a Luiseno/Temecula Indian (they have pretty much gone so far as to agree this also).
3). She moved with her fellow Indians when they were kicked out of the Temecula village to the place known as Pechanga to live there with them.
4). She was given a land grant on that reservation as a Luiseno/Temecula Indian.

UCLA Professor's Debate over Disenrollment is an EPIC FAIL in Indian Country Today Article

In a recent piece for Indian Country Today, titled "The Debate over Disenrollment" by UCLA sociology and Indian Studies professor Duane Champagne, also a professor at the College of Law, we who have been disenrolled from the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians were aghast at the inaccuracies.  Champagne was so incorrect, we can only believe he took the word of fraudulently enrolled tribal members, without checking the facts and doing the research.

I'll link to the story, but will address the Pechanga issues in bold here.

For example, the BIA prohibits Indians who are descendants of more than one nation to take membership in multiple nations. Some of the most publicized disenrollment issues, like the highly publicized Pechanga case, are the result of long standing issues within the community and BIA rules affecting enrollment.

During the 1890s, through the General Allotment Act, California Indians were encouraged to take small allotments of land and turn to farming. If they did so, they also were asked to sign documents that said they accepted U.S. citizenship and rejected tribal membership.

Are we supposed to take this statement at face value with no offer of proof?  No Temecula Indians were required to reject tribal membership for an allotment on the reservation. There is no evidence of any rejection of tribal membership.     Membership was NOT a country club or PTA.

Pechanga Chairman Mark Macarro Challenged by Felon in Upcoming Election. Is He LOSING his Luster?

Word coming from the Pechanga Reservation that Chairman Mark Macarro is being challenged by Raymond Basquez Sr. an elder from the Masiel-Basquez Crime family.

It's curious that the elder Basquez, chooses this time to raise his challenge to Macarro's leadership. Does he believe that Macarro is weak and may not feel he has to campaign for his position?

Macarro, who is well known in Indian Country for presiding over the disenrollment and genocide of 25% of his tribe, was the subject of a recall attempt by a group known as the CPP (Concerned Pechanga People).   This group allied themselves previously with the diminutive chairman in eliminated two large voting blocs from the  Manuela Miranda and Paulina Hunter descendents.
Miranda was a descendent of Pablo Apis, on whose land grant the Pechanga Resort & Casino is on, and Paulina Hunter is an Original Pechanga Person, who received an allotment on the reservation as a tribal person.

Reprise: Disenrollments and Banishment Are Nothing Short of TRIBAL TERRORISM

For the 4th of July weekend, we are running some past articles.  We have new Readers and this will help catch them up.  PLEASE Share on Social Media, and let your friends know about this site.


UPDATE:   The Sierra Star News prints the editorial on TRIBAL TERRORISM.  (link fixed) Thank you to Sierra Star for keeping the spotlight on the corruption. Indianz.com has also picked up the editorial. Pechanga.net hasn't put it up...wonder why?


The Fresno Bee, North County Times and Sierra Star News have done an excellent job in bringing the shameful acts of disenrollments  and and Tribal Cleansing of members of the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians, Pala Band and San Pascual to the public.

Chukchansi leaders have forgotten tribal membership is about heritage. It’s the corrupt tribal council of Chukchansi, along with those from the Pechanga tribe of Temecula, and Redding Rancheria that are tossing aside the history of their tribes with a dismissive attitude that should be alarming to the people of California.  Pechanga ran ads for expanding gaming claiming 10,000 years of history; yet quickly shed two large families with more historical ties to the land, proven by the tribe’s own expert, than one of their sitting council members who has NO Pechanga blood.

Corrupt tribal councils are using sovereignty as a weapon to beat the weak and helpless, and terrorize them into submission. Our federal and state governments are happy to stay out of the issue by saying, that membership is a tribal matter. Fair enough, but what about the government’s trust responsibility to Indians, to see that tribal constitutions are followed? Forced evictions, such as what happened at Jamul Indian Village, and those expected at Pala shortly are acts of tribal terrorism that belies the calm peaceful face that Mark Macarro presented in his commercials for expanded gaming. Now, Macarro’s tribe practices apartheid, and recently presented his plan for segregation on the Pechanga reservation.

Good governance requires fair legal frameworks that are enforced impartially. It also requires full protection of human rights. Impartial enforcement of laws requires an independent judiciary and an impartial and incorruptible police force. That simply is not what is happening on tribal reservations.

On reservations across our state tribes are using fear tactics and yes, terrorism to keep members in line for fear of losing their land, homes, per capita shares and health benefits. More critical they also lose their rights to choose a representative government and to vote on issues that pertain to them. Imagine if the Republicans were able to eliminate 25% of the Democratic vote? What if anti-union proponents were able to eliminate 70% of the union votes? Well, that’s just what happened at Pechanga, Redding and Chukchansi.

Currently at Pechanga, the tribal council is threatening allottees with fines, banishment and restricted access to their property. One family is taking it upon themselves to try to force another family who was given an allotment with the creation of the reservation, off their land. They’re using their family members on the council to issue the threatening letter that is published on Original Pechanga’s Blog.

This is not what we voted for when we approved gaming to tribes in our state. This was not what was meant by self-reliance. I urge the readers to stand up for civil and human rights and not patronize casinos that violate them. Bill Cosby stood up and refused to perform at Chukchansi because of these issues. By telling tribes you won’t go to their casinos, you can nudge them into acting justly.

Don’t let the tribes get away with terrorizing their own people into silence. Don’t go to tribal casinos owned by tribes that abuse their people. If they will cheat their own people and violate their OWN Constitution, they will cheat YOU.

Pechanga's Moratorium People: From Pechanga, Not OF Pechanga

Pechanga's Moratorium People: From Pechanga, But Not OF Pechanga

The Rios/Tosobal Family has ties to the Pechanga tribe, from his mother back to his great-great-great-grandmother, born in 1811. (That’s when Abe Lincoln was 2 years old!)

So, when his mother died in 1978 and left him a piece of reservation land, Manuel Rios Jr. began trying to make arrangements to bring water and electricity to the plot so he could set up a home there. 30 years later, he has yet to get tribal approval to do anything with the land.

Tribal officials had told him he and his family are not on the rolls, he said, and they won’t get considered for membership until a moratorium on new enrollments is lifted now extended past 2010. His family members, who number more than 100, have stacks of documents that they say they submitted to the enrollment committee 15 years ago.

The Tosobol descendents belonged in the tribe.   Two enrollment committee members were concerned that the right thing be done and brought this family's paperwork forward.  This led to the families of those two members being terminated from the tribe.  Over 300 men, women and children, losing an estimated $300 MILLION in per capita, which the remaining members divvied up amongst themselves.   Imagine that, denied your heritage for honoring the ancestors of the tribe.

In 2003, new members of the Enrollment Committee, including family members from the Hunter and Manuela Miranda famlies, who had been elected to the committee in 2002 sent a letter to the tribal council informing them of corruption on the Enrollment Committee.


The letter detailed how members of the Enrollment Committee had acted to deny enrollment to lineal descendants of enrolled members. These members would require DNA tests, delay meetings, and misinform parties before the Enrollment Committee.

So the Enrollment Committee prior to 2002 dominated by people from the CPP faction very well could have sat on applications of people who ended up in the moratorium and these and other irreularities were pointed out to the tribal council by people who ended up being disenrolled.

And the fact that those Enrollment Committee members who had been accused of not doing their duty by members of disenollee families were then allowed to vote on the fate of those families is a violation of Pechanga's own constitution that says under Article V, "It shall be the duty of all elected officers of the Band to uphold and enforce the Constitution, Bylaws, and ordinances of the Temecula Band of Luiseno Mission Indians; and also, TO UPHOLD AND ENFORCE THE INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS OF EACH MEMBER WITHOUT MALICE OR PREJUDICE."

Any reasonable person can clearly see that those Enrollment Committee members who had been accused of wrong doing by family members of the families who ended up being disenrolled should have been made to step aside from ruling on the disenrollees cases
As  nonmembers, the Rios family has no recourse against the sovereign nation.  He can’t sue the tribe in an outside or tribal court, and he can’t vote on the moratorium or cast a ballot against the elected tribal leaders.

The reservation has changed dramatically since Rios’ mother was a girl there, thanks to the opening of a $262 million resort and casino and other businesses. Now that tribal members collect a reported $30,000 in gaming profits a month, disputes over membership are commonplace.

Rios and others insist they once were members, and they allege that someone removed their names in order to ensure larger shares of gaming profits for the other members.
Tribal Chairman Mark Macarro has said tribes work hard to make sure that there’s due process in enrollment matters, yet, in reality, there is no due process.
He also contends that many recent applicants had no interest in the tribe until it was rich. ‘‘Where were these people before there was a casino?’’ Macarro asked.
Rios’ 53-year-old son, Manuel Rios Jr. of Riverside, said he’s glad his grandmother left the reservation, and her descendants avoided being mired in reservation poverty because of it. ‘‘I was out getting an education so I wouldn’t have to suck the money from the state of California to support me,’’ he said in an interview in Fontana. ‘‘We were paying for their (tribal member’s) welfare.’’

The Rios family members contend that the Pechanga tribal leadership is using sovereignty to improperly deny them membership and is acting like a dictatorship. In fact, Pechanga’s own constitution provides for OPEN ENROLLMENT every January. In the most recent disenrollment of the Hunter family, which occurred in 2006, the tribe stated that the membership, which voted to stop ALL disenrollments, had no authority to do so. That would mean, they have the power to keep people from getting IN, but no the authority to keep people from getting thrown OUT. That makes no sense at all.

The ETHNIC CLEANSING of the NOOKSACK TRIBE

For the 4th of July Weekend, we are reprising some articles on tribal disenrollment, particularly on the west coast.  Some links may not work or have expired.   This from April 2013  Please tweet out and share on social media.

Indian Country Today has a piece up on ETHNIC CLEANSING.  We've been telling that story here for over half a decade.
Ethnic cleansing – the forced removal of a population from a designated piece of territory – is nothing new in America. The earliest example was the forced transfer of upward of 46,000 Indigenous Peoples from their homelands in the south during the seven years following the passage of Andrew Jackson’s 1830 Indian Removal Acts. The forced removal of tens of thousands of people an odious act by the dominant white settler society that was eager to grab indigenous lands. (Related story: The Battle for Hickory Ground)

But during the past decade or so, a growing number of American Indian tribes have implemented a new kind of ethnic cleansing – tribal disenrollment. Most often tribes try to eject members in order to maximize per capita payments from casino profits for the remaining members. But the Nooksack Indian Tribe’s council members have been accused of “cultural genocide” in a lawsuit challenging their attempt to disenroll hundreds of Nooksack citizens.

On March 15 attorneys from the Seattle firm of Galanda Broadman filed a complaint for equitable relief in the Nooksack Tribal Court against Chairman Robert Kelly, five other council members and other tribal officials for “act[ing] beyond the scope of their authority as tribal officers in their official capacities” in their attempt to remove 306 Nooksack enrolled tribal members. According to the tribe’s Constitution, members must be of Nooksack ancestry and have one-quarter Indian blood, the lawsuit says. “This is an action to prevent cultural genocide on 306 enrolled members of the Nooksack Indian Tribe, each of whom is of Nooksack ancestry and each of whom possesses at least one-fourth degree Indian blood,” the court document says. The attorneys also filed a request for an emergency injunction to stop the tribal council from implementing the disenrollment. The court will hold a hearing on the request on May 1.

Read the Rest of the ICT article here


Learn More on Disenrollment, Ethnic Cleansing in Indian Gaming Country at these Links:

Gaming Revenue Blamed for Disenrollment
disenrollment is paper Genocide
CA Tribal Cleansing
Tribal terrorism
TRIBAL TERRORISM includes Banishment

BIA Gives Tacit Approval for Tribal Cleansing in CA

California's Tribal Cleansing: Tacit Approval from BIA and Federal Government (we can't do anything, we are impotent, but keep giving us budget dollars)

In this reports from 2010, Brian Frank has the story of Tribal Cleansing and the Struggle to be hear by those whose civil rights have been violated.

As California Tribes Continue To Purge Members, Dissidents Struggle To Get An Audience
by Brian Frank |


TEMECULA, Calif. — John Gomez Jr. reads to his sons in a near-dead language. He wants them to grow up listening to the language of their ancestors and hearing the creation stories, which are tied forever to natural landmarks here about 90 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

Gomez identifies strongly as a member of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians. He even named his sons after prominent figures in the history and lore of the Temecula Indians, who now call themselves Pechanga. To his youngest he gave the middle name Ano de Apis, after the merger of two clans through the marriage of his own ancestors Casilda Ano and Pablo Apis (pronounced “Oppish”), who was a prominent chief. The older boy he named Chexeemal, or Kingbird, who plays an important role in the creation stories.

The boys are supposed to learn about their cultural heritage at the Pechanga tribal school, which was set up for that very purpose, but instead they have been barred from attending. In 2004, the Pechanga Band expelled Gomez and much of his extended family—some 130 adults total, along with their children—stripping them of their tribal citizenship and all the rights that go with it.

Happy Fourth of July/Independence Day!

Greetings to all our readers, we hope you have a terrific holiday weekend.  We will be reprising some of our earlier post, bringing new Readers up to date on some history across the termination spectrum.   

Please take a look around the archives, share with your family and friends and subscribe to the blog.  Help spread the word of the injustices that tribes are heaping on their people.

Pauma Tribe LOSES it's ANTI-Union Attempts. NLRB Rules Employees CAN wear UNITE union pins

Pauma tried to claim history of poverty...it didn't fly.  NO more threatening employees.  UNIONS are happy...


ORDER
10
The Respondent, Casino Pauma, Pauma Valley, California, its officers, agents,
successors, and assigns, shall
1. Cease and desist from:
15
(a) Maintaining or enforcing a rule that prohibits employees from wearing any union
buttons or insignia.
(b) Threatening to discipline employees, either orally or in writing, for wearing any union
20 buttons or insignia.
(c) Surveilling employees to see if they are wearing any union buttons or insignia.
2. Take the following affirmative action necessary to effectuate the policies of the Act:
25
(a) Rescind its handbook rule banning employees from wearing any union buttons or
insignia.
(b) Furnish all current employees with inserts for their current employee handbooks that
30 (1) advise that the unlawful rule has been rescinded, or (2) provide a lawfully worded rule on
adhesive backing that will cover the unlawful rule; or publish and distribute to all current
employees revised employee handbooks that (1) do not contain the unlawful rule, or (2) provide
a lawfully worded rule.
35 (c) Within 14 days of the Board’s order, rescind and remove any reference from its files
to the April 18, 2013 email it sent to employee Victor Huerta about violating the rule, and, within
3 days thereafter, notify Huerta in writing that this has been done and that the email will not be
used against him in any way.
40 (d) Within 14 days after service by the Region, post at its facility in Pauma Valley,
California copies of the attached notice marked “Appendix” in both English and Spanish.
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