Interesting article in the Sacramento Bee:
What is a ‘California Indian tribe’? How a proposed law unearthed a decades-old wound
BY HANNAH WILEY
AUGUST 05, 2019
Excerpt:
Ramos used a legal definition for “tribe” outlined in the 2001 California Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which states a “California Indian Tribe” must be federally recognized. If it’s not, the tribe must be in the petitioning process for recognition or be eligible to apply for the status.
That definition contradicts laws from 2004 and 2014 that define a California tribe as federally or non-federally recognized, as long as it’s on the contact list maintained by the Native American Heritage Commission.
There are only 109 federally recognized tribes in California, with another 55 without the status, according to a 2016 commission report. Many of the unrecognized tribes either had their status terminated beginning in the 1950s under a handful of congressional acts, or were never federally recognized.
READ FULL ARTICLE AT LINK ABOVE
60 comments:
What’s this rumor about an order on Robs desk from a federal judge that he must re-enroll the illegally disnerolled?? The judge stated no evidence was provided by the tribal council to support their reason for dis enrollment. I didn’t think there were any court hearings in process? Just the approval of acknowledgment for the Agua Caliente members breaking off from their partnership from Pala. This is going to affect everyone at Pala but not worse than smith and Nieto have and will continue to. I say get rid of them and fix what’s left of Pala so members won’t want to break away.
I also heard about this letter and Rob and Nieto are saying that no federal judge can tell them what to do concerning membership issues.
Also they said that the only way that the Britten family will be re-enrolled is when hell freezes over or they are no longer in control of the Band.
Also said was that when they are no longer in the EC that they could give a shit less what a new EC tries to do
because neither of them will be living on the Reservation
after they retire or voted out.
By that time there will be nothing left to fight over.
Yeah....uhm....a federal judge cannot tell a tribe who and how to determine, change, alter, or amend their membership rolls, criteria, eljgibility, and history. The right to determine mebership is a protected inherent right as a soverign nation.
But the Tribe wasn't the ones that disenrolled.
It was Smith, Nieto and Perez.
The tribe was not aware of the disenrollments until after it was already done.
So by condoning this action which was done illegally just gives the EC the power to do the same to another family that they want gone.
Just like the family that they are thinking of targeting soon.
Let me lay it down for you! This is how it works, smith donates the tribes money to many organizations in turn they place him on the board and in some cases he holds the seat of chairman of the board. He gets payed for sitting on all these boards and now has several paychecks coming in from percap, EC, 12 boards. By smith making all this legitimate income it makes it easier to hide or cover up his stolen money from Pala. He is legitimately making hundreds of thousands a year so he can justify his purchases and most people won’t notice him spending extra money he has stolen from Pala. Including his daughters who he puts items under their names as well. We have all noticed the several cars he and his daughters drive around. His daughters only receive percap which has consistently gone down so they cannot afford the things they have without fathers help. He spreads the money around through the family so it’s divided up between several people and harder to notice. He also has accounts that he hides money in to save for later or when they go on vacation. These accounts have millions. This is his runaway money and what his family will use as a safety net when things go under. Smith and nieto are driving Pala’s finances into such a mess that when things go under there will be so much money missing gone here and there and bad investments and payments that several millions over the years will not be accounted for or traced. This is the plan.
Why don't Smith,and Neito look into the Lovatos roll and family tree,and fix it.And take Cindy Leal off the rolls,the e.c. have proof thay Cindy is not a Lovato,Mel took dna with Cindy Leal,is is not a Lovato.
@ 3:35 PM
True what you say and the fact that Cindy Leal is using something against Rob to keep her and her kids on the
rolls.
There were rumors a few years ago something about Rob
taking off Cindy's cloths when she passed out at his house from drinking and he tried to have sex with her but she woke up before he could get it in.
But she said that she would tell everyone that he raped her if he didn't put her kids on the Roles.
So when Mel gave them the DNA results that proves that she is not a lavato Rob lost the the test results in one of his trash cans.
She is not the only one that he has tried to rape at his old house, one of them still works at the Admin with him.
He raped the other one when she was 12 or 13. The guy is as crooked as they come. I wondered how her kids got enrolled seeing how her blood was the end of the line, supposedly because her kids father was enrolled somewhere else, by Pala's rules she wasn't supposed to be able to use his Pala blood which is 1/32. If that's the case then my grandchildren who have more than enough Pala blood should be able to be enrolled.
Her kids dad is a Mexican and not enrolled on any reservation.Her husband is the one that kissed Rob on the lips at the Casino bar.
Maybe it was a thank you kiss but was more like a passionate one.
*********** WARNING TO PALA MEMBERS******************
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, DO NOT TRUST THE SO-CALLED
ENROLLMENT SPECIALIST THAT WORKS FOR THE PBMI.
SHE IS JUST AS CORRUPT AS SMITH AND NIETO AND WILL FIND A WAY TO LOWER YOUR BLOOD LINE, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.
SHE THINKS THAT SHE CAN CHANGE GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS THAT HAVE BEEN RECORDED FOR DECADES BUT ACCORDING TO THE BIA SHE DOES NOT HAVE THAT POWER TO DO SO.
No they’re not.
Why won't the BIA issue a CIB when requested by the Pala
members.
The BIA is supposed to issue them upon request by Tribal Members.
I have one for my father and the Pala EC refuses to look at and will not let me use it for my kids for enrollment.
More than likely its because my Dad was the grandson of Margarita Britten.
@3:35 Better yet why doesn't the EC look into Robs and Nieto's bloodline?
Why is there no pressure coming from the rightful members to take down Smith? He's only human with many false. I'm just an outsider looking in. Why is he constantly the head chair of your tribe?
Elections are rigged at Pala. That is how Smith keeps getting re-elected.
The only way he will be out is when he is dead, then and only then will things change in pala.
then the members can live without fear of being ousted
and get the answers to all the questions that have been asked for the last 20 plus years.
Then watch the per capita go way up like it should be.
And all the bonuses will be restored and everyone will be treated with respect like it used to be.
The members will be proud once again to say they are from the PALA INDIAN RESERVATION.
No more hurt only happiness.
Rob is able to keep passing his agenda because he has illegally enrolled so many people in trade of their support. He disenrolled 164 so how do we still have the same amount of members? I don’t think 164 new members were born in the past 6 years? He is enrolling people’s kids and entire families and keeping some enrolled that should not be as long as they keep supporting him. Why do you think some people are so hard cores Robert supporters because they know if he is out of office they or their kids will be off the rolls. Robert rather have non qualified members that support him than rightful members that don’t.
That’s probably not true.
It is 100% true.
It is absolutely true. When I have gone to meetings there is sometimes people there that I have never seen before. Pala is not that big and everyone knows everyone. It is 110% true.
And more so when the EC wants something approved for their own personal agenda, there are so many people that
no one seems to know who they are.
Some of them don't bother to sign in they just go get a voting machine and sit down.
I have personally witnessed this at more than one meeting
and have asked people sitting near me who is guy or lady and always they say they don;r know.
They come in get a voting machine and when the subject that they are there for comes up for a vote they vote and then a few minutes later they leave.
Even on the sign in sheet sometimes the sign in but don't put their roll number down next to there signature.
There is a new website called shameonpala.com.
someone is pissed off because he got ousted from the casino and has now started a website and is badmouthing
the pala casino.
You can see his site @ shameonpala.com
I heard that someone got caught throwing rocks at the lady driving her pickup in Temecula with the billboard on the back that read shameonpala.com on it.
She was also parked on highway 76 near horse creek road going east bound on 76.
Those people better watch out or someone will end up kicking their asses.
Especially if they go onto the Reservation.
To shameonpala people, if you have the balls, come on the Pala Reservation with you billboards and see what kind of welcome you will get.
At 7:49, you don’t even have the balls to stand up to Robert much less the shame on pala people.
How come the Asian gangsters that cheat at the Casino don't get banned?
@ 4:33
Because they pay Robert to let them cheat.
Blah blah blah Rob Rob Rob, the people of pala are yellow, chicken, and greedy, they let those Sob's. In committee do everything they did because the were afraid of being targeted and losing their percap. They sold their family out, lugos, Trujillo, Magees, blacktooths, sibimoots, cuevas, Ortega, nolasquez, lovatos, smiths, Scott,and every other Mexican chingadera sold out. Don't blog here unless your ready to do something about it. I'm sick of listening to you guys belly ache about Rob when you twofaced
Robert lovers chose money over family.
I am ashamed 9:45 but I'm afraid of what they will do to me an my family.
Exactly 10:14 your a coward, caring only about money. I hope your not the next family on the list to be disenrolled.
We were disenrolled, but we are still here and we are still fighting. We have been through hell, but we are survivors and some of us have used this to better their families, to show them right from wrong. This is about our identity, and our heritage.The EC thinks they have destroyed us for whatever cruel reasoning they have, but we will not go down, we will always fight, we know we are right. We are not vengeful, we are not hateful. Rob's hate is destroying him, he could have been an impressive leader, and the EC could have made Pala a good name with great leaders and members. Why didn't they do this? All they have done is spread hate amongst the people, control the members activities and friends, and put the members in dire situations. How many security cars, cops, or undercovers used to be around Pala pre-Casino, a metal detector at the meetings, what the heck? Sad what Pala has become. You live in fear of your own leader.
The thing that keeps me going is the fact that Robert Smith, Thersa Nieto and Dion Perez will not be in charge forever.
Some day soon, i pray that they start dying off one at a time, or maybe all three at the same time in a plane crash or something.
Then a new EC will form and Pala can heal all the bad that these three evil bastards caused.
Start by bringing back the people that were disenrolled and kick out the ones that should not be enrolled.
This one task alone show how corrupt the current EC really is.
Then get rid of the workers in the Admin that cheat and lie to please Smith and his corruption.
Get the so called enrollment specialist out of the Admin she has been bought by Smith to evil to the PBMI.
Even the BIA says that she has no authority change bloodlines of anyone on the Governments list of degrees 0f Indian blood, which she has done just lately.
She is out to continue the destruction of the people of Cupa.
I intend to bring this up at a meeting and motion to get rid of her asap.
Now Smith is taking her word over the word of the U.S. Governments Investigation into blood degrees and the people don't question that in any way.
She needs to questioned by the FBI and the BIA asap as to who gave her the authority to lower blood degrees.
And I have made that request in writing and sent off on Thursday certified mail.
That’s how Smith enrolls his supporters that don’t have the blood. He has her say she found a document or something that states they have more blood than previous posted then they change their blood degree for Pala but they can’t change it at the BIA or government level because they have their own records they go by and will do real research. Even tho all the BIA and outside documents state other wise only in Pala can the members have different blood degrees than what the rest of the world and other tribes have logged. He enroll’s his supporters kids and grandkids to get votes. This is what happen to the Brittains. Rob says Margaritas blood was lower with no evidence other than because he knows, even tho the BIA and other tribes that enroll their members using Margarita as full blood but only in Pala and no where else is she listed as half. So either the BIA specialist and Morongo, Soboba, and TM are all wrong and Robert is right since they all have MB listed as Fullblood for all their enrollment purposes and history. That on top of what Kilma came out and said on Pala Rez that during all this disenrollment process Robert did everything himself and had it done through his office than asked the rest of the EC to vote on it. Kilma even said Robert was targeting King and Willy. The disenrollments have nothing to do with blood degree that’s how I know they will be reinstated once Robert is out.
So the bottom line her is that the enrollment specialist was hired by Smith to serve his own agenda and the PBMI members are the ones that pay her to fraud the Tribe and the U.S.Government.
My question is what makes her an enrollment specialist.
Where was she trained and what degrees does she have.
My guess is that Smith created a job opening to sweep the toilets in the Admin and decided to to label the job as enrollment specialist instead of piss clean up.
She makes big bucks for her corrupt actions.
The General Membership should motion to fire her, however Smith will do everything possible to keep her under his wing.
Being that she works for the people, the people should request that she do an investigation on the blood line of Smith and Nieto and see what she comes up with.
My bet is that she will say that Smith and Nieto are 3/4
Cupa,even though the records show other wise.
I also just found out that Tessa Smith was hit by a car this morning while riding her motorcycle and is awaiting Surgery at Palomar Hospital.
It was a hit and run by some lady that was 86 from Pala Res.
She has been hanging out at Pala anyway because Robert hasn't taken any action against her from being 86.
Security just writes her a ticket and that's it.
I guess it is possible that she is one of Robs suppliers
for Drugs so he lets go.
I always thought that if you were 86 from the Res that you could be arrested by the Sheriff's for trespassing.
Bur it's not who you know but who you blow as far as Smith is concerned.
@ 4:57 PM
According to the BIA the enrollment specialist in Pala
"CAN NOT CHANGE ANYONE'S BLOOD DEGREE".
The only one's that have that authority is the BIA.
So don't get upset because according to the records at the BIA nothing has changed in anyone's degree at the office of the BIA.
This is just another tactic used by Robert Smith to serve his own agenda.
If this so-called specialist wants to do her job according to her title then wow about she investigate the blood line of Smith and Nieto and turn her findings over to the General Membership, after all we are the one that are paying her.
She can change blood degree at the Tribal level for Pala which is what matters. The BIA still has Margarita Britten descendants listed as their correct unchanged blood degree but that didn’t stop Pala EC from changing it and disenrolling. It doesn’t matter what the BIA has listed for blood degree only what the tribe says someone’s blood degree is. They have raised several people later blood degree to enroll their kids. No of this will or can be fixed until Smith is out.
Well then just let that low life bitch try to change my family's blood degree and she will get whats coming to her.
If they want to fuck with peoples blood degree then that should apply to every enrolled member and not just target the family's that believe in the customs and traditions of the band and oppose the EC and their corrupt agenda.
There are so many people enrolled in Pala that don't even have a drop of blood that would qualify them to be enrolled.
People need to do something about this bullshit before there is nothing left but a boarded up building that was
once a Casino to help the PBMI to prosper.
By sitting back and waiting is not going to solve the problem, it is making it worse as the days click on.
And the real blame will be the Members of PBMI whom have the power to make that change no matter who is in charge
or who the EC members are.
But it seems like every enrolled member has a broken arm
and and can't raise it because they are afraid of Robert Smith and Theresa Nieto.
These two people have destroyed every thing that was supposed be a nest egg for the future and turned it into there own personal bank account.
They tell one family NO there is no money for that and turn around and tell another family that they need on their side YES we can help you.
I have never ever hated or wished death on anyone in my entire life but these two people have changed my way of thinking on that, i do wish that they were both dead and gone so we can move forward instead of backwards.
The right to determine tribal citizenship is a protected soverign right under Santa Clara v Pueblo, which details how tribal soverignty is crucial to tribal nations abilities to define themselves. The realitybof Indian Country is that tribal nations are dependent domestic nations, nations within a larger natiin, that are regulated, defined, and oftwn redefined within a larger political-legal institutionalized discourse grpunded in Supreme Court law, Congressional legislation, and Presidential acts. Since the creation of the US, tribes have been legal-political pawns. Tribes resisted, and many of those resistance aftereffects have been challenged in Court, legislated through Congress, and approved/dissaproved by the President. My point is, that the idea of tribal membership today is bound by an underlining ideology within federal law, that looks at sovering rights within a specific set of rules and procedures. Santa Clara Pueblo v Marti ez is one example of how the "cannons" playbout through Indian Country. That being said, I think a tribe has every right to determine whontheybare themselves, rather than be chained to governmental oversight and racialized ideologies of what and who constitutes an Indian. The problem is not the BIA, an outside specialist, or the EC. The problem is that tribal citizenshio is engrained in a colonized ideology of blood quantum which is seperate from traditional ideas of views of how tribal people belong to eachother and how they recognize who they are. Change needs to come from within, the ideology of how people belong to eachother and how to preserve tribal resources, government, culture, history, and identity for futurr generatiins without destroying the integrity of tribal identity is a hard pill to swallow. The tribal citizenshio will need to find a solution based on there ideals, values, and future outlooks. Once that idea is agreeded upon, than the tribe can define themselves. My point is that every decision thatbis made thatbdeals with tribal governance can never be fully right nor can it be fully wrong, because in order to please some, you have to upset others. Tribal governance and its consequences, either good or bad, needs to be maintained without outside interference and reaolved from within.
Easier said than done because first you have to fight the corruption that is a force in Indian country today.
It's even harder to fight in today's time because the corrupt one's have found away to get the Feds puzzled
and they cover up their tracks so that even the best
investigators have a hard time proving the wrongs that they do.
And that in it self is a major problem on the reservations today.
And people get upset and turn to violence as a remedy to fight these corrupt leaders.
The EC's in today's world have been taught how to get things that they want at any and all cost no matter who they hurt, even their own family members.
Has Robert and Theresa died yet? So we can get our tribe back and receive our fair share and not live in fear and have our money stolen from us by those two lying thieves. Karma or the Feds need to hurry up!
It sounds like people are finally getting fed up with Robert and Nieto.
It wouldn't surprise me if someone tries to do something to either one of them.
They deserve whatever they get whether it be a total ass beating or a stray bullet by a hunter.
When does deer season open up around here.
Don't forget the nominations for "NEW" EC members tomorrow night.
I heard that Nona Niejo wants to run for Vice Chairman
And Pete Trujillo sr. will run for EC member at large if he is nominated at the meeting.
This could be a start for the betterment of PBMI.
This is what Pete said," i would be honored to run if nominated at the meeting.
It has been a long time that a senior member has been on the EC to represent the seniors and the elders of the Band and he would do so if nominated.
A motion needs to be made, when the election results are released they also need to give us the throw away ballot numbers. So it should look like this: Vice-Chair Tony Ravago- 260. Nona Niejo- 286. Throw away ballots-35
I’m this example you can see 35 votes can make a difference in an election. Whenever they want someone to win like Robert or Theresa they throw away 50 or more votes which im pretty sure are for the other person. If you have been on the election committee before you know. They should post these numbers so everyone can see and they question why that many ballots were thrown out cause it’s hard to believe that many ballots were marked or wrote on in a bad way to make it a throw away.
Pete, you keep putting it out there that you are going to run. How about this year asking your family to come to the meeting and nominate you instead of coming on the blog and saying it? For once, follow through with your plan. Otherwise, its all hot air like everything else i have ever heard coming out of the Pala peoples mouths. JUST DO IT!!! IF YOU DON'T GET NOMINATED THEN PLEASE STOP PUTTING IT OUT THERE. All you have to do is go to Randy or Brian and say, i need you to nominate me and I need you to second it. Its that simple. I dare you to really make it happen this time. If you show up as a write in, you might as well not show up at all. JUST DO IT!!!
Why didn't Smith announce when the voting was to be held at the meeting.
Are we just supposed to guess when the date is or watch when cars show up at the voting site.
Because he wants the least amount of people to show up for voting because the less people there the easier it is to rig by throwing away votes and changing them.
This is Kenny Johnson why do people insist on running for office and trying to rally support and votes. Pala is corrupt and there has never been a fair election since Robert has been in office. All elections are rigged. Nobody gets in unless Robert wants them in. Pala is the definition of a totalitarian dictatorship. Stop fooling yourselves. The cheated against me they will cheat against you.
Who is on the election committee???? There are 2 ways for Robert to rig the elections to control who is on the EC.
1. Go into the post office where the mail in ballots are kept before the election or during the election and change the ballots by throwing away the actual ballot and making a new one.
2. Have the head of the election committee on your side and have them throw away ballots for the opponents ( per the instructions on the ballot, which is ridiculous). I know someone who was on the election committee before and they said that year it was one of robs people who was the head of the election committee like always and they just walked in with a stack of ballots and said these are the throw away votes and then took them without anyone else being able to see them. I bet you all those ballots/votes were for robs opponent. If he can throw away or change 30-50 votes with such a small amount of voters that can make a difference between Pala’s healthy prosperous future or the continuation of hate, thievery, lies and the fall of Pala.
Again I ask who is on the election committee and who is the head?
If anyone wants to be enrolled in Pala just go see Robert Smith and tell him that you want to be a member and that you will support his corrupt agenda and BAM!! your at least 1/16 blood of the Band and your in.
Even if you can only speak Spanish.
I pray for Robert,Teresa, Dion and all others on EC that they repent of their sins and accept Jesus Christ as their savior. If not then they will give account of their deeds to Jesus at the judgement. May God have mercy on their soul.
I pray that the good Lord and the Federal Judge will have "NO MERCY" on them when they are finally made to answer for their crimes, either by Law or death whichever comes first.
Why would anyone have any mercy for either one of these evil bastards.
They showed no mercy on the disenrolled legit Tribal members.
So screw the both of them and may only harm come their way.
@ 9:33pm
Robert would look at Theresa and then one of them would say we don’t have the extra funds for a bonus. We can’t just vote for a bonus and get it. The treasurer has to approve if we even have the available money to give out. We all know we do but that is not for the tribe it’s Rob’s and Nieto’s money. A motion needs to be made for the EC to show the general council the amounts of the Xmas bonuses they have given themselves the past 6 years. They like to tell us the tribe needs to cut back on spending then smith and nieto need to cut back on their American Express cards that is paid for by the tribe and all the charges they used on the card needs to be overlooked and approved by someone not on the EC. Their yearly salary needs to be scaled back to a reasonable amount. Also ALL bonuses issued to the EC needs to be approved by the general council at a meeting. Most tribal council members from any tribe that are removed from their seat is 75% of the time due to personal spending on the tribal credit card. The biggest problem with Pala and the main reason smith and nieto have been able to do what they want and get away with it for soooooo long is because Pala has NO OVERSIGHT. There is nobody above them or that works for the tribe that checks and monitors the tribal credit card spending, casino gross, how much is transferred to the tribe, where that money goes. Oversee and approve Roberts, nietos and Dions trips and spending.
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To the last 5 posters above.
Go get your own site and stop using this one for your own personal messages.
we don't give a shit about your bullshit comments.
It's total disrespect to try and use your comments here where this site is for the people that have been hurt be the leaders of there tribes to vent their issues.
So go start your own site and leave this one alone.
You are no better than the corrupt leaders themselves.
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