CUPENO People and Pala People Were Federally Recognized TOGETHER, NOW ONLY ONE Has The Recognition

The Federal Government has allowed the de-recognition of the Cupeno people, while still recognizing Pala's right to disenrollment them.   The Feds PUT THEM TOGETHER, should they have all the information needed to RECOGNIZE the Cupeno people. 

WHY would the Department of Interior delay in giving the Cupeno people  their rights?   The same reason a dog licks its balls: Because they can.

They restored the rights to the TEJON BAND, they can easily do that with the Cupeno people.  In fact, the Pala Tribe could probably give them all the information.  In fact, President Joe Biden could make this happen:   Historically, federal recognition could arise from treaty, executive order, or course of dealing

Reorganization Act (9th District Appeals)

The Reorganization Act did not apply to any reservation where a

majority of the adult Indians voted against its application “at

a special election duly called by the Secretary of the

Interior.” Id. § 5125. Interior held a single election for the

Indians residing on both tracts of the Pala Reservation—the

Cupeño and the Luiseño. The Indians overwhelmingly

rejected the Reorganization Act. While the Indians residing

at Pala considered themselves distinct, Interior considered it

“one reservation and no distinction [was] made between the

lands acquired at different times.” Some other federal

government records from that period distinguish between the

Cupeño and the Luiseño at Pala.

Feds Pick Winners and Losers
As far as the federal government is concerned, an

American Indian tribe does not exist as a legal entity unless

the federal government decides that it exists,”

Read this history below.

ACEE AGOYO of INDIANZ has the FULL STORY   Robert Smith of Pala eradicated the Cupeno Indians...but only from the Pala band via disenrollment.  They are FIGHTING BACK.

The tribe's unique history had long been reflected in how it appeared on the BIA's annually-published list: as the "Pala Band of Luiseño Mission Indians of the Pala Reservation, California." With the Cupeño descendants largely out of the picture, though, there was no need to remind everyone of the distinct communities on the reservation. Starting in 2016, as the last of the anti-disenrollment lawsuits was defeated in the federal courts, the tribe became simply known as the "Pala Band of Mission Indians."

BACKGROUND for PALA Disenrollment/Injustice


Pala Disenrollments from LA TIMES
Pala dispute leads to extermination of Indians
Pala Band of Mission Indians Terminates 154
Pala Disenrolls families
Pala disenrollments led to hardship     PALA WATCH

But while though the BIA was intimately involved in the disenrollment dispute that preceded the request, officials in Washington, D.C., felt little sympathy toward the descendants of the people who were forced to walk that Trail of Tears back in 1903. They refused to add tribe to the list, arguing that the bad blood with the Luiseño wasn't enough to acknowledge the separate status of the Cupeño.

In the final full year of the Obama administration, the BIA wrote that “the people now seeking federal recognition as the Agua Caliente Tribe of the Cupeño Indians of the Pala Reservation are, or were until recently, members of the Pala Band of Mission Indians, a federally recognized tribe.”

See the link above for the rest