Monday, November 3, 2008

Pechanga Security BEATS ELDERLY customer

Original Pechanga has this post up about violence AGAINST one of their customers!

Brush with Pechanga Security Leaves Senior Patron Nearly Dead!
An elderly Palm Desert man, with a pacemaker, who was patronizing the Pechanga Casino was beaten by Pechanga security and his wife terrorized. This is NOT the first incident of this type at Pechanga, according to what the RCSD told the Swan's. The Riverside Sheriff's Department has take a report on the incident.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Pechanga Chairman Macarro deserves Pathbreaker Award; For Violations of the ICRA

October 15, 2008 Contact: John Gomez, Jr.9:30 p.m. Pechanga@msn.com

MEDIA ADVISORY

Macarro deserves Pathbreaker award … for violations of the ICRA

TEMECULA, CA – Mark Macarro, Chairman of the Pechanga Band of Mission Indian in Temecula, California will be honored tomorrow at a conference commemorating 20 Years of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, the law which legalized gaming on Indian lands. Mr. Macarro, as well as several other tribal leaders, are being honored as Pathbreakers “for their influential impact on gaming in Indian Country”.

Ironically enough, Mr. Macarro’s legacy may not only be measured by his contributions to Indian gaming but by the violations of the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 that have occurred during his tenure as Chairman of the Pechanga Band.

Mr. Macarro, who has been Chairman of the Pechanga Band since the mid ‘90’s, has presided over the disenrollments of over 1/3 of the Pechanga tribal membership. The mass disenfranchisement of nearly 400 duly enrolled members occurred just after the Pechanga Band had expanded its gaming facility in response to the passage of Props 5 and 1A in California. Each of the disenrollments, which occurred in 2004 and 2006, were carried out just prior to regularly scheduled elections for Tribal Chairman. Mr. Macarro won re-election each time.

The mass disenrollments and denial of membership to hundreds of other eligible members, which have been carried out by Mr. Macarro and other tribal officials, have been characterized by the most egregious violations of basic rights, including denial of due process, failure to provide equal protection of tribal and federal laws, and the passage of ex post facto laws.

Each of the growing number of basic rights violations for which Mr. Macarro is responsible for mirrors those acts which led to the introduction and passage of the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 ("ICRA") which was intended to “… protect individual Indians from arbitrary and unjust actions of tribal governments” and to secure for the individual American Indian the broad constitutional rights afforded all other American citizens. Unfortunately, the hundreds who have been stripped of or denied their basic rights are also being denied any recourse against their oppressors as Mr. Macarro and other tribal officials have routinely invoked “sovereign immunity” to escape prosecution for their actions.

While Mr. Macarro may be receiving recognition for his work in Indian gaming, such recognition should be based on the cumulative impacts of his actions- including the gross violations of the ICRA and the termination of hundreds of Pechanga tribal members.______________________________________________________________________________

For more information, please visit: http://video.knbc.com/player/?id=64156. and http://originalpechanga.blogspot.com

Friday, October 10, 2008

Can the MONGOLS CLUB and DOC Cavasos Help Save Bear Butte?

Original Pechanga asks whether the MONGOLS Motorcycle Club can take the lead in saving a sacred site in South Dakota. One of the largest motorcycle clubs certainly could lead the way, in a similar way that bikers for Muscular Dystrophy do.

HELP!


Bear Butte, SD A SACRED Site That Needs YOUR Help
Our friend Tamra Brennan, of NDNews has been working for years along with many other to protect the Bear Butte sacred site in South Dakota.Maybe the MONGOLS and Doc Cavasos can take the lead with bikers on protecting this site

This article on the struggle has many comments from Tamra, who has been so supportive of the disenrolled people of California. Remember her emails to Pechanga cousins Victor Rocha and Mark Macarro, that we wrote about HERE?There are people who are working to protect Bear Butte, but their efforts could be described as loosely organized.

Among them is Tamra Brennan, who lives near Bear Butte and identifies herself as a Cherokee tribal member. She runs Protect Bear Butte, an offshoot of Protect Sacred Sites. Both organizations are grassroots in nature and lack official nonprofit status.Protect Bear Butte's activism has so far taken the form of public information campaigns.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Nighthorse Campbell Honored Where they violate Civil Rights

Apparently, Campbell has no qualms about being honored at a location that is a known civil rights violator. The Pechanga Tribe has abused their members civil and human rights. Senator Campbell, a change in venue should be requested.

Bill Cosby avoided Chukchansi because of disenrollments and violations. Take a cue from Mr. Cosby and get a clue.


Casino Enterprise Management magazine will recognize Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell as the "Indian Gaming Advocate of the Year." Campbell will be presented with this award Sept. 10 during CasinoFest7, held at Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, Calif. National Indian Gaming Association Chairman and previous Indian Gaming Advocate of the Year award winner Ernie Stevens Jr. will preside over the ceremony.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Pechanga Resort and Casino announce MASS LAYOFFS

First, Pechanga destroyed 25% of their membership and now, they will terminate 9% of their workforce.

Amy Minnear, the lovely director of the PDC. (no really, she's a cutie) announced it today and Original Pechangas Blog has it. Teetilawuncha had the news today also.

Sad for the employees. First, a tribal member Larry Miranda was stealing their tips, now, they are losing their jobs. When will the FBI and DOJ get the indictments done?

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Pechanga Elections: JUST SAY NO to Masiel

I think it's time for new leadership at Pechanga. But Andy Masiel is NOT the person.

Vote for Mark Macarro. He's smart and he knows enough not to trust Salazar people...

Thursday, June 5, 2008

What is an Expert? To Pechanga, it's someone they pay to do the work

AND if they don't like what he finds, they IGNORE it.

Dr. John Johnson is the foremost authority on California Tribes, hired by Pechanga to do ancestry background on Paulina Hunter.

HERE is what he says.

What is Pechanga Thinking? Crime Pays?

Shortly, there will be indictments handed down to criminals from the Pechanga Tribe and other employees.

Is Pechanga's Empire crumbling? What started out promising, the entire tribe working to gain from tribal gaming has descended into a pit of greed, bad behavior and criminal enterprise.

The Pechanga people were united more when there was only a sand pit generating income than now, when there are billions generated.

It's amazing the change over the reservation, the evil that is present there, or should I say, prevalent?

Pechanga has spent over $50 million trying to convince Californians that they are still good people. But when the indictments come out, the story will change. How much more will Pechanga have to spend to keep themselves from being portrayed as they really are?

People of Temecula, THIS IS NOT what you voted for, this is NOT what self-reliance is. Restrain yourselves from spending your dollars at Pechanga. Support another tribal enterprise, or a local business.

Sovereignty Cracks By Tribes Own Hands

Original Pechanga's Blog is saying there will be news on court case that weakens sovereignty? When will these tribes learn that it's THEY who are attacking sovereignty. When they abuse it, they weaken it.

Read it at OP's Blog.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Snoqualmie Tribe TERMINATES 43: Shameful Act of Degradation

Snoqualmie Tribe banishes nine members, disenrolls 43

Posted: May 26, 2008
by: Babette Herrmann / Today correspondent
SNOQUALMIE, Wash. - In November, the Snoqualmie Tribe will open the doors to a brand-new casino about 30 minutes southeast of Seattle. But instead of the media spotlighting pre-opening news on the $330 million project, the focus has shifted to the banishment of nine tribal members and the disenrollment of about 43. The decision to banish former Chairman Bill T. Sweet and several of his family members, among other supporters, was made final during a closed-door general membership meeting at the Issaquah Hilton April 28. In addition to voting on the banishments, the tribal council announced that the 43 individuals purged from the rolls failed to meet the blood quantum requirement for membership. According to a tribal press release, some members have already appealed the decision, while others have accepted it.
Councilmember and Chief Nathan Patrick Barker said that Sweet and some of his supporters recently attempted to seize control of bank accounts, shut down health and social programs, fire the entire staff and reach out to the BIA in an effort to receive backup on the effort. They are accused of running a ''shadow government.'' ''They tried to undermine the tribal government in every shape and form, and that was what they were judged on,'' he said. Sweet, who was suspended as chairman in August 2007, has his own take on the events that led to his fate. And Barker was elected to the council during a general membership and emergency election meeting in September. For those facing banishment, the punishment is harsh. They are purged from the rolls and no longer eligible to receive benefits or dividends from future casino revenues. And those banished are no longer allowed to participate in tribal government and events, or even claim Indian identity.
Sweet's problems began during elections last May. He recalled that the election went according to protocol, and those that were nominated and elected are the true tribal council to this day. Barker, who served as the sergeant-at-arms during that election, said that a nomination to move the election process to the beginning of the meeting after the agenda was the first inconsistency to take place that day. He claimed the real eyebrow-raiser occurred when Sweet closed nominations while four tribal members stood waiting to nominate their person of choice for the council.
He also said that a former councilmember was forbidden to vote because she forgot to bring her tribal identification. The rule requiring members to present their IDs during elections was approved at the last meeting in 2006. Those minutes were not ratified by the council prior to the election, which Barker said makes that rule unenforceable. ''I think he let the room get away from him as far as the election process went,'' he said. ''It's unfortunate and, in hindsight, I think he would have run things differently.'' Over the course of the next three months, Sweet said that tribal business proceeded as usual and he felt no inclination that something big was going to happen. He said that he felt blindsided when, during open forum at an August council meeting, a tribal member stood up and read a letter written by Honorary Chief Jerry Enick. The letter stated that he was suspended and that the May elections were null and void. ''It was very emotional and I am still torn up inside,'' he said.
Sweet added that Enick and his supporters have spearheaded the process that ultimately caused his banishment and the disenrollment of numerous members of his family. A tribal press release stated, ''Many of [Sweet's] relatives were revealed to not meet the 1/8th blood quantum requirement for membership.'' Barker said that a tribal attorney, who was present at the August meeting, sent out a certified letter stating that Sweet had 30 days to file for an open meeting to discuss the charges. Yet Sweet claims never to have received the certified letter. And he further claims that his attempts to meet with Enick and other tribal council members fell upon deaf ears.

Save the Cogged Stone Site

Some additional info:

The Cogged Stone site (CA-ORA-83) is an extremely important archaeological site that once covered over 17 acres on the Bolsa Chica Mesa. The site dates to 8500 years ago and is the last remaining prehistoric coastal village and cemetery dating to the Early Holocene in the region. Sites of this time period are rare and the life ways of the earliest settlers of California are largely unknown. The name for this site is derived from the recovery of over 1000 of the stone sculptures known as “cogged stones”. It is the only known location for the production of these unique circular artifacts that to our modern eyes, resemble cogged wheels. The site served as the center of a complex ritual interaction sphere in which the cogged stones were manufactured at the site and distributed among prehistoric Native Americans in southern California . Interestingly, a few cogged stones have been found at a 9,000 year old site on the northern coast of Chile .

Hearthside Homes owns the property now and plans to build 349 houses on it.
In a memo from the developer’s archeologist dated 11/5/07 it reads
There are 87 human remains that need to be reburied
There are 83 prehistoric features that were uncovered with the burials
There are 4217 artifacts that were found during grading monitoring on ORA 83
There are 1622 artifacts that were found during the grading monitoring on ORA 85
There are approximately 2,000 boxes of materials
There are over 100,000 artifacts that have been collected.

All of this hidden from the Coastal Commission and the Native people

In peace & solidarity,Tamra BrennanFounder/DirectorProtect Sacred Sites Indigenous People, One Nationwww.protectsacredsites.orgwww.protectbearbutte.com

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Open Letter on Pechanga to David Stern and Jerry Buss

Original Pechanga has an open letter to NBA Commissioner David Stern and Laker Owner Jerry Buss:

http://originalpechanga.blogspot.com/2008/05/open-letter-to-nba-commissioner-david.html

Go Original Pechanga.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Life as a Mixed Blood Ute

Earl has the story of living life as a mixed blood Ute HERE

There are still many barriers facing the terminated Uintas that seem extremely difficult to over come. In the white communities adjacent to; along with the Indian communities on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, and some individuals within our own group; there exists a foundation of prejudice which inexorably target’s the mixed-bloods efforts at regaining their Indian identity.

While the full-blood Indian feels a need to marginalize the terminated mixed bloods and their descendant’s because of dogmatic tenets within the Ute Tribe; the tribe supercilious believes all mixed bloods must be held prisoner behind invisible bars and malevolently feel that to allow the mixed blood to escape this prison will be the very death of the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in Utah.This kind of mindset is nothing more then a 1970’s colloquium on South Africa and the Coloureds.

California's Indian Country Suffers from Casino Squabbles

http://originalpechanga.blogspot.com/2008/04/casino-revenue-causes-tribal-squabbles.html

Original Pechanga has the post of how the advent of casinos in California have cause problems that aren't getting the media coverage that they should.

A powder keg in a match factory.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

What Keeps Disenrolled Tribal Members from Pechanga - Chukchansi- Redding- Enterprise From Standing United?

So many people have so much in common, being on the receiving end of violations of civil rights, elimination from their rightful place on tribal rolls, inadequate representation from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Yet, each group has only a few members who are vocal, and active. Where are the rest? How can acceptance of stripping us from what is rightfully ours, be good?

Does ANYONE think laying down like a dog is the right way to gain back what is ours? Will PRAYING be enough? Will HOPING be enough? Will WATCHING a few others be the right thing?

How many of the 600 Chukchansi Disenrolled are together in their fight? I only know of TWO and they aren't even together.

How many of the 500 Pechanga disenrolled/moratorium people are together? 60?

Will AIM of the Central Valley stand with those in the south or far north, like Redding and Enterprise? What is the goal of AIM, AIRRO and individuals? Aren't they the same? Why not stand united. One twig is EASY to break, 10 is harder 1,000 will be difficult to break.

All of us who have been damaged by our own tribes need to come together. Who will lead?

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Hoopa Valley Tribe, the ANTI-Pechanga way

Excellent action by the Hoopa Valley Tribe in bringing rightful members back into the tribe. Original Pechanga has it here:

http://originalpechanga.blogspot.com/2008/04/unlike-pechanga-and-picayune-hoopa.html

Pechanga can learn quite a few things about doing what is right? Why are YOU still going to a casino that treats its people so badly?

Some History of Pechanga Disenrollments

You can find much background information on this blog, but it's weak compared to other spots on the web:

http://originalpechanga.blogspot.com

www.pechanga.info/forum

http://blog.myspace.com/paulinahunterofpechanga

Please, take a look at the sites above.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Media Breafast Club of Los Angeles Backs up MabuhayRadio.com with NO on Prop 94!

Original Pechanga has the story! This is very good news for the No on Pechanga, No on Props 94-97.

Thank You MBCLA and Mabuhay Radio. They are even considering a Filipino-American BOYCOTT of Pechanga!

Pechanga Ad Spend is Not Generating Results

According to the latest Field Poll, Pechanga and the other three tribes $82 MILLION dollar spend has not help to widen the gap between Californians who vote NO.

It must be that people are starting to educate themselves to the fact that our legislators can do better for us. Make that NEW legislators. When we get rid of Perata and Nunez, we can tell the Governor to make a better deal.

SF Chronicle says NO
Sacto BEE says NO
Modesto Bee says NO
Bakersfield CA says NO

Original Pechanga is doing a great job keeping us updated

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Mabuhay Radio Says No to Pechanga

Bobby Reyes, editor of Mabuhay Radio has put up an editorial that says NO to Expanded gaming.

Take a look at the website here: http://www.mabuhayradio.com/ This is the voice of Filipino America. Thank you Bobby, for your support for NO on Props. 94.97;

Mabuhay Radio, San Francisco Chronicle, Bakersfield Californian, Sacramento Bee ALL say NO to Pechanga and NO to expanded gaming

Sunday, January 20, 2008

NAACP Endorsement is FOR SALE. Pechanga buys them off

Wow. So much for the NAACP's concern of civil rights. I guess for Huffman, it's all about the Benjamins.


NAACP head is paid by tribes, backs their plan
By Shane Goldmacher - sgoldmacher@sacbee.com



The president of the California NAACP has been paid more than $40,000 in consulting fees – and the organization itself has received $60,000 – from a coalition of Indian tribes at the same time the civil rights group has endorsed four ballot measures pushed by its tribal benefactors.
The payments to Alice Huffman, who has served as president of the state conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People since 1999, continue a three-year pattern in which Huffman's political firm has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by special interest groups.

QUESTION: What is it that Huffman does that's worth $40,000? How many hours has she spent on consulting?

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

The Pechanga Indian Removal Acts

http://www.apoliticalblog.com/?p=146

Pechanga follows Andrew Jackson's lead in getting rid of Indians.

Original Pechanga is writing at another blog? What a story he has up at A Political Blog.

Vote NO on Props. 94-97.

Sunday, January 6, 2008

NO on Prop.94: Handling of Gambling Compacts Merit Investigation

Editorial: Bungling? Or ... Handling of gambling compacts at state and federal levels merits an investigation

www.sacbee.com


Dueling campaign ads alternately denouncing and praising four new Indian gaming compacts began hitting airwaves across California weeks ago. Opponents and proponents of four initiative referenda on the Feb. 5 ballot – Propositions 94, 95, 96 and 97 – are spending millions to persuade voters to ratify the compacts or to repeal them. Despite the campaigns, the compacts could well be in effect already. In a series of curious – if not downright suspicious – actions, the disputed compacts were ratified by the U.S. secretary of the interior last month and their approval published in the Federal Register.
Here's what happened. After the Legislature approved the compacts last summer, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sent them to the California secretary of state's office. Even though the compacts were not set to become law until Jan. 1 and opponents were collecting signatures to place initiatives on the ballot to repeal them, Secretary of State Debra Bowen forwarded the agreements on to the U.S. Department of Interior in September.
Under federal law, the interior secretary has 45 days to review tribal state gambling compacts and accept or reject them. Given the fact that the compacts were being challenged, it's unclear how the secretary would have acted. But he never had a chance to review them. When the California compacts arrived at Interior, they were misplaced for 80 days.
They then appeared one day in the in-box of a key Bureau of Indian Affairs official. (We're not making this up.) Because they had been lost for a period well beyond the 45-day deadline for review, they gained automatic approval when they resurfaced. This peculiar saga does not end there. To officially become law, the compacts had to be published in the Federal Register. Given the pending referenda and the mysterious disappearance of the compacts, Interior officials initially said they would not publish them right away, which was sensible because there was no deadline for publication.
Then on Dec. 19 Interior officials reversed course and published them anyway. The sequence of events merits a thorough investigation, beginning in California. Why did Secretary of State Debra Bowen send the compacts to Washington before they became law? Where did they disappear for 80 critical days before they showed up in a federal bureaucrat's in-box?
If they stand, the gambling compacts will allow four of the richest and most powerful tribes in California to triple the number of slots at their casinos.
These deals are worth billions of dollars.

It's very hard if not impossible to believe that the series of events which led to their becoming law prematurely grew out of innocent bureaucratic bungling.