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Tribal Disenrollment Media Press Kit
Tribal Disenrollment Media Press Kit
Tribal Disenrollment Media Press Kit
Native American tribes have betrayed their cultural heritage and have violated basic human and civil rights of their fellow tribal members. They use sovereignty as a club to beat the weak and helpless. Spending millions to curry favor with politicians at the local, state and national level to ensure a blind eye is turned to their abuses. The Redding Rancheria, The Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians, The Enterprise Rancheria, The Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians, The Mooretown Rancheria, The Pala Band of Mission Indians, some of our richest gaming tribes have stripped the citizenship from tribal members to ensure power and money are controlled. Promising to lift all Native Americans from poverty, tribes have sent thousands away from their tribes. This is NOT what we thought self-reliance meant. Can you name ONE American that has lost their citizenship in the last 50 years? Tribes have cut their membership rolls by a percentage equal to 28 million Californians! The theft of per capita and benefits have reached the $500 MILLION level. Its a story that MUST BE LOOKED INTO. This is News.
Contact Rick Cuevas rcuevas235@yahoo.com http://originalpechanga.com or see Original Pechangas Blog:
4. Organization: The CPP, includes adopted member Butch Murphy and gadfly Ed Burbee, pushed for disenrollments. Murphy had previously tried to splinter the tribe. Burbee was concerned about increasing his income from the stolen per capita. Mark Macarro stacked the enrollment committee with those prodisenrollment families, even allowing families to be brought up out of turn, so that more enrollment committee members could vote for disenrollment. Families who were cleared from disenrollment out of the order the cases were taken were cleared by only three members of the enrollment committee, less than a legal quorum of the committee so they were never lawfully cleared. Mark Macarro also overruled the will of the people, claiming a lawful petition was invalid. 5. Polarization: The CPP pushed for disenrollment with numerous flyers and vocal shouts at meeting of you dont belong here even though Hunters had an allotment from 1890s when the reservation was created and vaunted elder Antonio Ashmans sworn deposition stated he knew Paulina Hunter as a tribal member. The tribe believed Ashman about the eviction of 1875, but did NOT believe him about Paulina Hunter, whom he KNEW personally. The Macarro-led tribal council did nothing to stop the tactics, not using the bully pulpit to bring the tribe together. They preferred the separatist view, because it meant more money for them. 6. Preparation: The enrollment committee forced all Hunter paperwork to be certified, yet accepted handwritten notes, not notarized as evidence against the family. They refused to answer when questioned if there was anything missing or were there any other evidence against us. They paid the highly respected anthropologist John Johnson to trace Paulina Hunters ancestry and he proved Paulina Hunter was Pechanga. They did not use his report. There was a quid pro quo with enrollment committee member Bobbi LeMere, enrolling members of her family, despite a moratorium on enrollment. 7. Extermination: Macarros goal was to wipe the opposition votes out, to control his chairmanship. Extermination of families was no big deal to this man, who was a member of the Democratic Partys platform committee. While the genocide against the Manuelas and Hunters is "paper genocide" the reality is there. His goal was to make sure the Manuelas and Hunters no longer exist as Pechanga. We lost all voting rights, right to attend and speak at meetings, health benefits, educational assistance, per capita distribution, elder assistance. Tribal members, who get a huge per capita check per month (As high as $30,500 at one point)that went up each time families were disenrolled still get benefits from the federal government that they dont even need, but we who need those benefits cannot get them because we were disenrolled. 8. Denial: Macarro had stated that there would be no more disenrollments after the Manuela Mirandas were terminated. He also said what goes on in the tribe is no business of the white man. He claimed it was not about the money yet the total lost to terminated members is over $250 Million. "Lost" to terminated members, means found by those remaining. He claimed that all parties had due process, when if fact, we were herded into groups, denied writing implements, denied attorneys, denied copies of charges and denied the right to question our accusers. We were given 30 minutes to appeal and again were forced into groups. While not the ovens of Nazi Germany, the implications were clear, we were exterminated.
Affairs, led here in California by Amy Deutschke, buries their heads in the sand to avoid. We first wrote about this story in January 2011: Follow the Money.... From the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians in Temecula CA: The Hunter family has lost $1,561,000 per person, in per capita payments alone. We arrived at that figure by taking the last full year of per capita $268,000/12 months and multiplying that loss times 70 months of disenrollment. 95 adults at the time of disenrollment equals: $148,295,000 The Apis/Manuela Miranda family was disenrolled two years prior in 2004; our previous posts mistakenly put their disenrollment in 2005. The per capita was slightly less, about $17,000 per month times 94 months of termination: $1,598,000 times 135 adults equals: $215,700,000 Moratorium People NEVER shared in what was rightfully theirs. The per capita went up to $360,000 per year for those remaining after elimination of tribal citizens. From the Picayune Rancheria in Coarsegold, CA: In the case of Chukchansi Gold, the casino had been averaging $5 million per month in payments to the Tribe over the past 48 months (as reported to me by a former Tribal Council member). The tribe disenrolled 625 members whose share would be $3,200 per month. This equates to $104,000,000 stolen. They are now disenrolling an additional 300 members Lets add what we have so far: Pechanga: $388 MILION includes additional $17.4 Million in Health Insurance. Corrected Insurance due to coverages, some double covered as family. Per capita losses are $200,000 PER DAY. These totals do not include lost education assistance nor does it account for family members that attained the age of majority. Picayune: $ 104.0 MILLION Money is from share of dollars casino sends to tribe per person will grow with 200 just receiving ejection letters.. Total disenrolled equates to 22 MILLION Californians. Redding Rancheria: $ 35.3 MILLION Per capita only. Totals being tabulating but includes tribal JOBS lost. Mooretown: $12 MILLION Enterprise: $2.9 MILLION No Per Capita. Tribe gets revenue allocation. Losses include housing help. Pala $24 MILLION. Amount includes one year projection of losses of 160 tribal members ejected. $14K per member in per capita and benefits PER MONTH. United Auburn $2 MILLION per year projection is for one year. and growing by 180 K per month San Pascual $6 MILLION in losses for the first year of Alto familys ouster. $560 MILLION but, the tribal councils will say, it's NOT about the MONEY! The Truth IS it IS because so many have lost homes, health insurance because their rightful per capita was taken away
Contact Information
John Gomez, Jr. www.airro.org pechangajg@msn.com Phone: 951-9414943 He can discuss all issues on tribal civil rights violations and abuses in Indian Country. This is a must contact. Cathy Cory hotshots@ocsnet.net Cathy can discuss Chukchansi with you and put you in contact with some latest disenrolled. Carla Maslin maslincarla@earthlink.net She is the daughter of Robert Foreman of Redding Rancheria. She can tell you about the DNA testing issue and about the politics of the tribe. Carolyn Lubenau carolyn.a.lubenau@gmail.com Can fill you in on the Snoqualmie Tribe of Washington State. Which has refused to comply with a Federal judges order to restore members rights. Nikki Harris nharris16000@gmail.com or 812-617-6000 A disenrolled member of the Pala Band of Mission Indians. They recently terminated 160 members of their tribe. Kenneth N. Hansen, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Political Science Former Co-Coordinator, Africana and American Indian Studies Program, 2007-2010 Co-editor of The New Politics of Indian Gaming: The Rise of Reservation Interests (2011, University of Nevada Press)Board member, Many Lightnings Indian Legacy Center, a 501(c)3 organization (w) 559-278-2260 (c) 559-999-2175 kennethh@csufresno.edu
Media Contacts:
Elizabeth Larson elarson@lakecountynews is a reporter who can put you together with disenrolled from Robinson Rancheria, whose tribal chair was just arrested for embezzlement. Carmen George cgeorge@sierrastar.com has written 3 stories on the Chukchansi Disenrollment and has contacts with disenrolled members.. Edward Sifuentes esifuentes@nctimes.com has written on Pala, Pechanga, San Pascual disenrollments. Contact Rick Cuevas rcuevas235@yahoo.com http://originalpechanga.com or see Original Pechangas Blog:
Original Pechangas Blog: Pala Watch: AIRRO: Tribal Corruption: Freedmen 5 Tribes: Pechanga.info
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/Pechanga_Membership_Battle_Los_Angeles.html
In California, Indian Tribes With Casino Money Cast Off Members New York Times discovers disenrollments 10 years late. Details Chukchansi issue.
Casino Tribe Outcasts Claim They Were Unfairly Expelled Over Greed KCBS Los Angeles and Cristy Fajardo report on disenrollments at the Pala Band of Mission Indians and Pechanga.
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/05/16/casino-tribe-outcasts-claim-they-were-unfairlyexpelled-over-greed/
Link to editorial at Indianz.com: http://64.38.12.138/News/2012/004643.asp Link at SierraStar.com http://www.sierrastar.com/2012/02/16/57423/disenrollments-are-nothingshort.html Contact Rick Cuevas rcuevas235@yahoo.com http://originalpechanga.com or see Original Pechangas Blog:
Finally, follow the money. Those of us who find the actions of the sovereign Cherokee Nation disturbing or morally questionable also have some economic options. Again, sovereign nations take these actions against other sovereign nations all the time. Witness the economic embargos against Cuba and North Korea, and the sanctions that were placed by many nations against South Africa in the last days of apartheid. In none of these cases was there overt intervention (setting aside for the moment the Bay of Pigs invasion) by other nations in the internal affairs of another nation and the legal sovereignty of the target nations was respected. Following this model, we have a right to boycott all Cherokee businesses and still respect the sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation. Even the U.S. federal government could conceivably express its outrage at the decision of the Cherokee Nation, not by intervening directly and exercising colonial authority as it has usually done, but rather, by cutting off or threatening to cut off non-treaty-based federally funded programs to the Cherokee Nation. In fact, the federal government did exercise this option by withholding funding when the Seminole Nation disenfranchised its freedmen. Through all of these avenues, we cannot only find our way out of what appears at first glance to be a moral dilemma, but we also advance our own sovereignty in the process. We do not have to sit back and accept all the decisions of a fellow sovereign in order to respect their sovereignty and show solidarity with them. Nation-states in the international system do not; and we should not, either. We have options available to us that allow us to register our moral protest at another state's actions which will, at the same time, help us act more like the self-determining sovereign nations that we are. Sheryl Lightfoot, Keweenaw Bay Ojibwe, is a Ph.D. candidate, International Relations and Comparative Politics Department of Political Science, University of Minnesota, and chair of the American Indian Policy Center, St. Paul, Minn.
How would it harm the leader of a sovereign nation to uphold the Constitution and notify the accused of their alleged offense? How does the denial of our right to a defense serve the Tribe? How does your refusal to conduct a fair hearing before our peers prove that right is right and wrong is wrong, as you said in a KCBS television interview? We submit that you acted out of a desire to harm us and to get revenge for some imagined wrong you suffered in the past. We submit that you intimidated or lied to the other members of the tribe to cooperate with your capricious and despicable decision. We submit that you disenrolled us to eliminate opposition to your failed leadership. Never has it been more evident that you have failed miserably as a leader. You have failed to bring the people together, and instead have split us apart into the haves and have-nots. You have failed to act wisely, and instead have foolishly pursued your own interests to the detriment of the Tribe. You have failed in your duty to protect and preserve the culture, tradition and heritage of the people by casting out descendents of an original allottee. You have failed to uphold the Constitution, and to treat all the members of the tribe equally. You have ignored the superior evidence of the BIA, and rejected the truth in favor of your manufactured lies. You are a massive failure, with nothing to support your position but your claim of sovereignty. We too are resolute and defiant. We will not cease to speak out against you and your failed leadership. We will continue to show the evidence of our right to belong; we will uncover the collusion between the parties that led you to believe that you could get away with this illegal action. We will use the lawyers, the courts, the press, and public opinion to make our case. We have joined together in this fight, and will not go out quietly. We will prevail because there is justice and fairness for the persistent and you will fail because you know not justice. Signed, Margaritas Children
www.palawatch.com
Hunter was born sometime during the 1830s or 1840s, and lived on the reservation in Temecula, Johnson's research shows. That is the tie her descendants point to show they are Pechanga descendants. Determining exactly who Paulina Hunter's parents are is not cut and dried without those primary record books, Johnson said. With that, he made his determinations using other various baptismal and marriage records, California census books, Pechanga Indian census records, genealogical evidence and other sources, he said. He determined that Paulina Hunter was an original Pechanga Indian based in part on the fact that the man most likely to be her father, Mateo Quasicac, was the only person listed from "Pechanga" in census books from that time. Moreover, he said, Hunter was listed on tribal rolls in the late 19th century and was the recipient of Pechanga Reservation allotment No. 62. "Paulina Hunter would not have been given an allotment if she was not of the Temecula Indians," Johnson said. "So, why was she given an allotment?" What's more, anyone currently enrolled in the Pechanga band whose ancestors were born between 1835 and 1852 would have the same trouble proving their heritage using primary resource books, he said. "They are all in the same boat as Paulina Hunter," Johnson said. "She is not unique." Johnson said he wrote a lengthy report to the tribe detailing his results in 2004, and sent a letter to them reiterating his findings a few months before the enrollment committee's August ruling. Pechanga Tribal Chairman Mark Macarro would not comment on Johnson's remarks. He did not respond to requests for an interview. In an August statement, Macarro said the decision to deny the Hunter appeal was reached after months of investigation and hearings. "This is a very complex intertribal matter involving Pechanga history and genealogy," he wrote. "Questions about citizenship, therefore, are resolved by the Pechanga enrollment committee, the government body with the proper authority and ability to determine if a person meets criteria for Pechanga citizenship. "The insinuation that these actions are motivated by politics or profits is reprehensible. The fact is that disenrollments occurred long before Pechanga ever opened its gaming facility." One Hunter family member who asked not to be named because she said she would face retaliation as she lives on the reservation, said Pechanga enrollment committee members are taking the word of former Tribal Chairman Vincent Belasco Ibanez, who is finishing up an eight-year prison term for child molestation, over Johnson's findings.
Ibanez was known as a local expert on the preservation of American Indian artifacts and for conducting nature walks and seminars on native plant species for the Dorland Mountain Arts Colony east of Temecula. The Hunter family member also said that because records show Paulina Hunter's mother was baptized at the San Luis Rey Mission, enrollment committee members are taking it to mean she was from there. But everyone traveled to that mission to be baptized during that century, she said. "These people are targeting certain families," said the Hunter family member. "They are just throwing out all the facts. It's all about financial gain. It's all about more money." The ousted members of the Apis family turned to the courts to plead their case, but have not won a verdict. Indian sovereignty and disenrollment have taken on a new significance around the nation, with the rise of Indian casinos and the money and political clout that accompany them. Pechanga is not the only tribe to disenroll some of its members. "I don't agree that it was an unfortunate mistake. In my opinion it was a premeditated decision to disenroll the Paulina Hunter descendants," said John Gomez Jr., a spokesman for the 130 disenrolled adult Apis family members. "We've been proud of (our heritage) and participated in the different aspects of being a tribal member, an Indian person -- and one decision has all that taken away. We can't participate in tribal affairs, we lose our health benefits, and the children lose their culture. That's the most devastating because that is your identity."
The Pechanga Band paid the foremost expert for his opinion and detailed work and they ignored his findings. They did not ask for a refund. The Hunter family still resides on their allotment that has been in the family since 1895. Tribal Chairman Macarro has NO allotted land, nor does two council members, Russell Butch Murphy or Andrew Masiel.
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 irregularities 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 disenrolled 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." Contact Rick Cuevas rcuevas235@yahoo.com http://originalpechanga.com or see Original Pechangas Blog:
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 cant sue the tribe in an outside or tribal court, and he cant 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 theres 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 hes 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 wouldnt 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 members) 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, Pechangas 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 not the authority to keep people from getting thrown OUT. That makes no sense at all.