Taking a Look at the Pechanga Tribe

During the 1970s American Indians in California were at a disadvantaged that included unemployment, poverty, unsanitary living conditions, deteriorating homes, and illness like diabetes, pneumonia, and hepatitis. As a means to deal with the hard life on the reservation some tribes included gaming to their way of life. The idea behind incorporating casinos to the reservation was to achieve some measure of economic self sufficiency (Weeber 85). It is important to mention that there are many Native American tribes not cashing in on casino profits, because of moral or traditional reasons, or because they are geographically in a bad area (Canby 332). Some of these tribes are still without electricity, water, paved roads, and medical facilities among other necessities (Barker 155). In this paper I will show how the Pechanga tribe flourished from poverty because they adopted gaming as a form of economic growth. Next, I will talk about the internal struggle, known as “disenrollment” that has affected the tribe before and after the adoption of gaming. Last, I will explain the tribe’s power to disenrollment of members, citing Martinez v. Santa Clara Pueblo, and will show how they continue to use the ruling today.

Before the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians, in Riverside California could begin modes gaming operations (Barker 165), there were other Indian tribes taking a gamble with gaming in California during the early 1980’s. Some of these tribes like the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians were operating bingo and poker games on their reservation against state laws. The state of California decided to show its power to the Cabazon Band by using Public Law 280 (1953), which had granted the state criminal jurisdiction over Indian reservations. ...

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...ople controlling gaming may get their membership revoke (Weeber 91). The enrollment committee accused Gomez of falsifying federal and local records (Barker 167) then decided that Gomez was to be removed from the Band’s Enrollment Book (Barker 168). After Gomez was kicked out from the Pechanga Band he filed a civil complaint in state court alleging that tribal officials did not follow its constitution (Barker 147). The Pechanga Constitution created in 1978 only required a person to prove “descent from original Pechanga Temecula people”, but this was change in 1996 by the tribal council. The new regulation required a person to have an ancestor from a group of people of the Temeculas who had relocated to the Pechanga Valley (Beiser 76).

Tribal officials say that the disenrollments were needed to rectify some long standing mistakes in the membership roster (Weeber 91).