Guess being number 66 doesn't have anything to do with the crimes against his tribe.
The casino money has afforded them a pretty slick public relations identity. I remember when he appeared in the news piece by Colleen Williams on channel 4....you can view it here. ... Mr. Macarro appears to be a soft spoken individual who wears his hair in a long ponytail. The visuals are great... we are supposed to pick up the subliminal signals of his walking beneath the Pechanga Great Oak and bending to pick something from the ground and believe he is a grounded individual, sensitive to the history and nature of what is, once again, Indian land. Oh, by the , Mr. Macarro is in a commercial just before the show where he misstates the facts about the courts and the disenrollments.
Colleen Williams interviewed him about the civil rights violation of some tribal members.. well.. ex-tribal members... seems Macarro and his government committee decided to ignore the report of Dr. John Johnson, who is also seen in the video, curator of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History with over 40 years experience in tracing the history and lineage of California Indians... anyway.. they hired Dr. Johnson to look into the background of some of the folks who'd been Pechanga for over 120 years... because it seems these folks were not lining up to vote the way Macarro wanted them to... Dr. Johnson researched and came back with a report that said yes, they really were Pechanga so the committee ignored it... stay tuned.. I've more to say about that in other entries... but... this brought the total dis-enrolled to over 300. I've seen various figures relating to the total membership of the tribe, but the general consensus is that 25% of the tribe has been dis-enrolled...by Macarro, the membership committee and tribal counsel that violated their own constitution to do so.
Check out more dis-enrollment stories here
The land Pechanga chairman Mark Macarro promised the United States Congress and the U.S. Dept. of Interior not to do any changes to if it was put into trust and made part of the reservation, the Great Oak Ranch property, is now where the Journey at Pechanga golf course sits.
ReplyDeleteFROM THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD APRIL 17, 2002 RESOURCES COMMITTEE:
Mr. Hayworth: "Thank you, Mr. Avery.
Chairman Macarro, does the Pechanga Tribe have any plans
for development of any kind on the Great Oak Ranch property?"
Mr. Macarro. "No, we don't. As stated in our application to
Interior/BIA, we stated or have designated there is no change
of use in the property, and the intended use and purpose is to
preserve and protect the resources that are there.
The cultural resources in particular are also very
significant. Along the base of all the foothills there are
significant old village sites, dark midden soil area, cremation
areas and associated sacred sites"
Mr. Hayworth. "Without objection, we would welcome that.
Just one follow-up, and for purposes of the record, Mr.
Chairman, does the tribe plan to use the Great Oak Ranch for
gaming purposes or any purposes other than what you have just
outlined?"
Mr. Macarro. No, the tribe does not.
So the Pechanga tribe can say one thing to get a hold of a piece of land and do the exact opposite once they get the land?
I guess that is the kind of people who get to influence how things are run in our state.
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ReplyDeleteI'd have to look up the year that land was put into trust, but I do know the month... April... by June plans were in the works for the golf course... guess the idea NEVER came up until two whole months after the land became theirs....
ReplyDeleteI left out part of Macarro's testimony to the congressional committee as it was rather long but the part I left out was him talking about keeping San Diego Gas and Electric from putting a power line through the property and he argued about the negative ecological impact the power line would have on the land.
ReplyDeleteSo it sounded like the tribe was concerned about protecting ecologically sensitive wildlife habitat but how does tearing up the foothills and putting a golf course there protect irreplaceable land resources of the of the Pechanga and Luiseno people, resources Mr. Macarro pledged to protect?
But I guess those resources have now been replaced by golf.
Of course there are kicha, tradtional Luiseno huts, that can, from what I understand, be viewed from the golf course by the golfers to give a sense of atmosphere but the natural beauty of the land has been lost forever.
I don't know as I have never been to the golf course and I won't go there anytime soon but if that is the case, it sounds kind of like Disneyland to me.
Pechanga's response from critics of land transfers to local tribes was in the form of a statement by Macarro's brother John Macarro from the legal office for the tribe.
In response, Pechanga's General Counsel John Macarro, wrote, "Once the land is placed in trust, a tribe has complete zoning and planning authority over it and can change land uses just as a county or city can change or update its general plan or zoning designations."
So in other words he is saying, once we get the land we can do anything we want with it regardless of past promises to not do any changes whatsoever.