After ADMISSIONS Scandal USC Tries to Restore Integrity by Partnering With APARTHEID TRIBE, PECHANGA

 After the Aunt Becky  admissions scandal that sent many to jail, USC now partners with a tribe that violated the civil and human rights of it's own people, THIS CENTURY, not a historical trauma issue.  

In what is being called a "first-of-its-kind agreement in California," Pechanga and the University of Southern California announced a new sponsorship agreement that includes money set aside for students.

Under the agreement, the Pechanga Resort Casino was designated as the official resort and casino of the USC Trojans and an official partner of USC Athletics. But the partnership stands apart from other Pac-12 schools and California casinos and tribes with the establishment of an "education alliance" and annual scholarship fund, according to Pechanga officials. As part of the deal, Pechanga has committed $200,000 per year to further students' higher education goals.   (OP: That's for what, FOUR students?)

"We are very excited about the scholarship fund and the opportunity to establish and deepen a formal relationship between the Tribe and the University," said Mark Macarro, tribal chairman of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians. "This partnership will result in new and meaningful enrichment opportunities for Native youth."  (OP: This from a guy that eliminated scholarships for over 100 Native youth via the unconstitutional disenrollment. Which was against the Pechanga constitution.)   

OH YEAH,  GO IRISH

Manzanita Tribal Corruption: Selling Badges to the RICH

The former chief of a tribal police department in southern California has pleaded guilty to selling $300,000 worth of badges to wealthy Los Angeles residents so they could get concealed weapons permits.

Anthony Reyes Vazquez, 49, admitted he and other officers of the Manzanita Tribal Police Department recruited dozens of affluent Agelenos to join a “VIP Group,” issuing them badges that gave them certain law enforcement privileges but didn’t require them to perform any police work.

VIP for a fee

To join the force, the VIP members were required to pay fees ranging from $5,000 to $100,000, prosecutors said.  Many of the members had no or little law enforcement background and many never visited the reservation at all, prosecutors In exchange for paying the fee, the members would be given a badge which purportedly granted them the right to carry a concealed weapon, prosecutors said. Investigators declined to identify the members of the VIP group.

“This defendant sold law enforcement badges and jeopardized public safety,” said Randy Grossman, acting U.S. attorney for the southern district of California. “His manipulative and self-serving ploy also significantly undermined state laws governing the issuance of credentials to carry concealed weapons.” 

HUD SECRETARY MARCIA FUDGE ISSUES STATEMENT ON FREEDMAN DESCENDANTS

Equal Access for ALL FREEDMAN DESCENDANTS

Statement from Secretary Marcia L. Fudge on the Descendants of Freedmen

Secretary Marcia L. Fudge today released the following statement regarding Tribal citizenship for the descendants of Freedmen:

The legacy of slavery represents a stain upon the fabric of our great nation, and the inequities it created still exist today. Though there is much work to be done, America continues to take significant steps in the march towards healing old wounds and creating a more just, inclusive, and equitable society.

In May of this year, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland approved a new Constitution for the Cherokee Nation. The Nation amended its Constitution to explicitly recognize descendants of the Freedmen – persons previously enslaved by some members of the Tribe – as eligible citizens of the Cherokee Nation. Secretary Haaland acknowledged that “The Nation’s actions have brought this longstanding issue to a close and have importantly fulfilled their obligations to the Cherokee Freedmen.”

I strongly echo Secretary Haaland’s statement, and I am pleased that the Cherokee Nation has enrolled over 8,500 Freedmen as citizens. With this decision, the Cherokee Nation recognizes the Freedmen as Cherokee citizens. Importantly, 155 years after the Treaty of 1866, a unanimous Cherokee Nation Supreme Court affirmed the rights of Freedmen and their descendants, specifically stating that, through these actions, “the Cherokee Nation, as a whole, lifts itself into the 21st century and sheds the heavy weight of antebellum and the pervasiveness of racism and racial injustice in favor of equality and justice for all.”

Unequivocally, this latest action opens the door to access a wide range of services, including assistance under HUD programs, and brings descendants of the Freedman into the fold of the Cherokee Nation family.

As we continue to forge a fairer and more equitable America, it is steps like these taken by the Cherokee Nation that set an example of what we can achieve. Tribes as sovereign nations have the inherent right to determine Tribal citizenship and membership. This is an example of a Tribe exercising its sovereignty to create a more inclusive future for all its members.

I encourage the four remaining Tribal Nations in Oklahoma to follow the lead of the Cherokee Nation and afford the descendants of the Freedmen the equal access to assistance and services under HUD programs as their other Tribal citizens

Rep. Ruben Gallego: Tribal Disenrollment is Frustrating He Tells Cam Foreman, Disenrolled from Redding Rancheria

 

Rep. Ruben Gallego

Cam Foreman, disenrolled from the Redding Rancheria in Northern California has been doing the heavy lifting in getting politicians to go on record on tribal disenrollment. After getting now Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and NCAI President Fawn Sharp on record the same week, this week, Rep. Ruben Gallego answere Cam’s queries.  (Edited to correct spell check )

Cam tells me “Basically I asked him as a Member of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee of Indigenous Peoples if he was familiar with Tribal Disenrollment?”  He said yes and talked about what he's heard In California etc being an tribal internal issue. I replied I agree with A tribe’s right to determine membership but should Tribes have a right to violate their Constitutions & Trust responsibility and their obligation to protect their citizen’s  rights. Who enforces that protection? I spoke about what happened to my Grandfather. 

Basically they want rights enforced but wouldn't want to infringe on Sovereignty. And how it's frustrating.

OP:  there are a lot of frustrations in this issue of course there is the frustration of the disenrolled and not getting any help from our politicians on the protection of our civil and human rights. 

And for those who purport to care about our issue there’s the frustration about them not being willing to stand up against the rich and powerful corrupt casino tribes.

For those like me who have been fighting to get this issue out onto the front burner for over 14 years there’s the frustration of not having everybody who’s affected by this abuse to continue to fight for their own rights.  It is good to have young warriors fight for their ancestors and their elders like Cam Foreman if I had to say one thing I would say BE LIKE CAM FOREMAN and keep bringing the issue up.

NCAI Elects Abusive Tribal Chairman Mark Macarro To Leadership

For decades, the National Congress of American Indians has purported to advocate for Native Americans. Decades of good  works can be injured by missteps.  I feel that time has come with the selection of Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians chairman Mark Macarro to their board.

Tribal disenrollment has been a stain on the morality of Indian Country, or to be more precise, casino Indian country. I have been detailing the issues of that disgraceful action, stripping the tribal citizenship from those who rightly belong for 14 years on this blog.  I have never been more ashamed and disgusted with this election.

What makes an organization elect someone without vetting them? Mark Macarro has lied to Congress, abused our ancestors, destroyed the heritage of our children denied civil nd human rights, runs an apartheid system, segregates reservation residents including alottees who have lived there for their entire lives.  He speaks with the tone of a cheater, but is he looks good in a bolo tie and donates to his lobbyist wife with tribal money he is a good choice

You have made a poor choice NCAI, unless your goal is to continue your decades long policy of nor protecting and supporting the over 11,000 Native American Indians harmed via Disenrollment.

The Paulina Hunter Disenrollment at Pechanga Was Started With a LIE Please Read About the INJUSTICE

 As many young people are discovering the bad acts of their elders and other relations, I'm bringing forward information for them to learn about what happened at Pechanga in the disenrollment of Paulina Hunter and her descendants.   The records, oral and written are CLEAR, Paulina Hunter was an Original Pechanga Temecula person.

Payomkawichum

My late cousin, who used the nom de plume of Luiseno laid out how a "witch hunt" was started by a lie, perpetrated by Yolie McCarter and Basquez Crime Family Members.   The lies were easily disproved which should have halted all disenrollment activity.   Please read.

There were several statements that were stated as "fact" in the letter provided to the enrollment committee. This "information" was said to be enough to start the disenrollment process going.

1). They stated as a "fact" that a search of the public record revealed that Paulina Hunter never lived on the reservation, and that she was not on any of the reservation census records.

This statement is so silly and foolish I don't understand why the enrollment committee even gave it any weight at all. As a search of the public record revealed to the committee that she not only lived on the reservation, but that she was on all the census records until her death, recorded as a Temecula/Pechanga Indian.

NCAI Nomination of Mark Macarro For VP IS A DISGRACE

 Mark Macarro is. KNOWN ABUSER OF elders, children and the ancestors.  

This is the typ of person the NCAI would consider?  From their announcement today.

Unbelievable.

Forget Columbus, Learn Some Indigenous History Today

I AM FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLE'S DAY replacing Columbus Day.  If you want to celebrate Italians, celebrate Chef Boyardee, who did MORE for America. 

In 2017, the city of Los Angeles voted to drop Columbus Day. It drew a lot of comment during that meeting. Some commenters claimed Italians did a lot for this country, uh,  including bringing spaghetti. Let me say, I love Italians, and spaghetti.  

But this issue is much different than it being anti-Italian.   

Arguments against Columbus:

SEMINOLE FREEDMEN Gaining Some Rights With Indian Health Services

 

NO BLOOD degree for many

Indian Health Service announced earlier this week that Freedmen citizens of the Seminole Nation are now eligible for health care services.

“It says 0/0 Indian blood, but it says Freedman,” LeEtta Osborne told News 4 back in March, talking about her tribal card. “They told me that they do not recognize their citizens there.”

That’s what happened in March when Osborne-Sampson tried to get a COVID-19 vaccine at the Indian Health Service clinic in Wewoka.

Indigenous People's Day is NOW A THING Thanks to President Joe Biden. Still Honoring Columbus, However.

 

After continues failures for his administration, a glimmer of brightness as President Joe Biden on Friday issued the first-ever presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, lending the most significant boost yet to efforts to refocus the federal holiday celebrating Christopher Columbus toward an appreciation of Native peoples.   Los Angeles had joined other cities in renaming the holiday years before.

Tribal Sovereignty = Tribal Justice Is NOT ALWAYS FAIR or Just

Pechanga had families on the disenrollment committee that were part of a group that tried to split up the tribe rule on families they publicly admitted they wanted out of the tribe.   Fair, or not fair?  Why give a tribe that mistreats their people the reward of Billions of dollars?

Read this old article from the San Diego Union Tribune
Tribal justice not always fair, critics contend Reservation's courts include members as lawyers, judges By Onell R. Soto

 

While Pechanga and Pala HAVE STOLEN MILLIONS ViA DiSENROLLMENT, SAN MANUEL Continues to Be Charitable

The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians continues its charitable ways as they just donated $100,000 to Three Square Food Bank in Las Vegas.   

In comparison, Pechanga and Pala have STOLEN over $700 MILLION in per capita from tribal members they disenrolled.

The donation helps boost the BackPack for Kids program, which gives food to children on weekends and breaks from school who would otherwise go hungry.

In a statement, the tribe said it has given over $9.3 million to educational institutions and charities in Las Vegas since January 2020. It said Wednesday’s donation “will provide over 300,000 meals to individuals and families who are being impacted by food insecurity in the Southern Nevada community.”