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.

2) Also stated as "fact" that public records found no evidence that Paulina Hunter had no Indian ancestry, much less Pechanga Temecula Indian ancestry (they stated that she was some white woman from Ohio) has also been PROVEN as WRONG, not only by certified documents showing her on the Indian census rolls for Temecula Pechanga for many years from 1893 until her death in 1899, but by deposition given by Dolores Tortuga and Jose David Rodriguez in 1915 that they knew her as a member of the tribe. I won't even address that the person THEY hired, they hired not us, also came to the conclusion that she was 100% Temecula/Pechanga Indian.

3). The deposition given by one of the oldest members of the Pechanga tribe Antonio Ashman in 1979 that he knew Paulina Hunter to be a member of the Band should not be taken lightly. As our chairman stated so well in the tribal meeting on June 2005 we should listen to elders when they say something, and when someone as old and respected like Antonio Ashman speaks we should listen (our chairman's own words).

The CPP repeatedly state that it is oral tradition of tribal recognition not written documents (of which we have provided in abundance), they say oral unless the person who gives the oral statement is dead or disagrees with there own stand.

The Hunter Family has been members of the Pechanga Band from its very beginnings, even before they were forced to relocate to the area known as Pechanga. We were members in the Original Temecula Village before the relocation to the area known as Pechanga (this is easily verified from official certified documents on file).   It has only been recently that the Hunter family has been put into question by a very small minority in the tribe.

You might ask me if its a very few why hasn't the rest of the tribe put a stop to it. Well they did try a little over a year ago, in the largest gathering of our tribe in history they voted to STOP the disenrollment of the Hunter Family and to remove the disenrollment process from tribal law. Well this so shocked the small minority who had been trying to wrest control of the tribe from its members that they canceled all meetings for the next few months, and in secret behind closed and locked doors decided to overthrow the Tribes vote and continue with the disenrollment process. Once they had the Hunter family out they now have pretty much insured there control and takeover of the tribe as they further pad tribe membership with those new members whom they secretly enroll who will agree with there agenda.

How can they disenroll the Hunters when there was no disenrollment process in Tribal law? It was almost a year after the Tribe voted to end all disenrollment processes, and remove it from Tribal law that we were disenrolled.

It seems to me that since there was no disenrollment process in Tribal law, and it was voted to make it illegal to disenroll anyone (the disenrollment of the Hunters coming almost a year after this was passed into Tribal law) that this would make their disenrollment illegal 

MORE from the comments, from another nom de plume A'amokat (Hunter)


When Hunter family members brought the notarized signed deposition of Antonio Ashman to the enrollment committee that was taken prior to the first open enrollment in 1979 in which Mr. Ashman said he knew Paulina Hunter as a member of the Band, three members of the committee, Irehne Scearce, Ruth Masiel, and Francis Miranda, refused to acknowledge that it had been submitted as evidence.

This document was acknowledged as evidence by the other members of the committee but in the Record of Decision against the Hunters it is referred to as, "regarding recognition" but even though other documents submitted by current tribal elders were listed as being either for the Hunters membership or against their membership, this key document clearly supported their membership and should have, in addition to the other testimony in their support, answered any questions any reasonable people may have had about the Hunters truly belonging or not.

Because if the statement that Mr. Ashman made, that he remembered Paulina Hunter as a member of the Band, had been quoted in the ROD it would have contradicted the conclusion of the ROD that Paulina wasn't a member of the Band.

The enrollment committee in the ROD said they could disregard any evidence if it was contradicted by other more credible evidence.

So what was more credible?

1. Vaunted elder (called so on Pechanga's own official Website) Antonio Ashman who lived in the historical period of the late 1800's who knew who was and who wasn't an original tribal member, who said when he was asked, "do you you remember Paulina Hunter as a member of the Band?" Answered, "yes, I knew her as such."

2. Elder Dolores Tortuga, who also lived in the historical period of the late 1800s, who said when she was asked during the 1915 probate, "did you know or were you aquainted with the deceased PECHANGA INDIAN allottee Paulina Hunter during her lifetime?" said, "yes, I knew her as a neighbor when WE PECHANGA INDIANS lived on the Pauba Ranch near Temecula, Caifornia." which was backed up by elder Jose David Rodriguez who added he knew her as a neighbor on the original reservation.

OR

1. People alive now who stated in their initial challenge to the Hunters membership that Paulina Hunter wasn't on any of the reservation census records of the late 1800's, a statement made either without checking the historical records or a bold faced lie, take your pick.

2. Elders alive now, all from the CPP faction of the tribe, who stated that the Hunters were never recognized as a members of the Band that was contradicted by other current elders not from the CPP faction of the tribe who said they have always considered the Hunters as legitimate tribal members.

By the way, in the supplement for the original written enrollment application of 1978 two of the ways listed as proving tribal membership included a recognized tribal member vouching for an applicant, which was met by Antonio Ashman's endorsement and being a direct lineal descendant of an original allottee, which the Hunters also are.

Thank you for reading and sharing.

 disenrollment ILLEGAL.