Pechanga's Decade of Disenrollment: The Paulina Hunter Descendants

Pechanga Tribe's Termination Committee Called Out By Their Own Hired Expert Researcher

I will have another post which deals with Pechanga Chairman Mark Macarro's response to the extermination of Indians from his tribe tomorrow.

Here in long form is the letter Dr. John Johnson, of Santa Barbara's Natural History Museum sent to the Pechanga Enrollment Committee. They are actually a termination committee, as they have terminated more Native Americans, than they have enrolled in the past TEN years. I have bolded some points for emphasis. Please pass this on via Facebook and Twitter and join in the comments.

SANTA BARBARA MUSEUM OF
NATURAL HISTORY
2559 Puesta del Sol Rd. Santa Barbara, CA 93105
June 20, 2006
Pechanga Tribal Council
Pechanga Indian Reservation
Temecula Band of Luiseño Mission Indians
P. O. Box 1477
Temecula, CA 92953

Dear Council Members:

I am writing to respond to the Record of Decision issued March 16, 2006 by the Pechanga Enrollment Committee regarding disenrollment of the linealdescendants of Paulina Hunter. I was surprised and dismayed when I read the “Conclusions” section on pages 25-26 of that decision, because I felt that many of the conclusions were either based on misinterpretationsof the documentary evidence or unjustified by what had been presented earlier in the text of the Record of Decision.

In the summer and fall of 2004, I prepared a report on “The Ancestry of Paulina Hunter” at the request of the Pechanga Enrollment Committee. Although the Committee references this report in its list of documents that it reviewed (Doc. 14 on p. 4), my findings were completely overlooked in the Record of Decision.

In the report that I prepared at the Enrollment Committee’s behest, I reviewed the genealogical clues to Paulina Hunter’s background. The preponderance of the evidence indicates that Paulina Hunter’s father was Mateo Quasacac, who was theonly Indian listed as having been born at “Pichanga” in the surviving early records of Mission San Luis Rey. Mateo Quasacac was also the father of Michaela Quilig (“Michella Quilich”), a life-long resident of Temecula and Pechanga. Michaela Quilig was an original Pechanga allottee like Paulina Hunter. Paulina Hunter would stay with Michaela Quilig when she would visit Pechanga, an indication of the closeness of their relationship. This is to be expected for two women who were half-sisters.

My report presented significant evidence that Paulina Hunter’s maternal grandmother, Restituta, was born at the original village of Temecula. Thus, Paulina Hunter descended from an original Temecula family. This information directly contradicts the statement
asserted in Conclusion 4 of the Record of Decision that “Paulina Hunter is not of Temecula Descent.”

Conclusion 5, which states, “Paulina Hunter was not an original Pechanga Temecula person,” is incorrect. I have already pointed out that my report presented evidence that Paulina’s father was the only Indian listed in the early San Luis Rey mission records who was actually born at Pechanga. Furthermore, the reasoning presented in Conclusion 5 is entirely based upon a misinterpretation of the evidence. John Miller, Paulina Hunter’s grandson, stated on his enrollment application (authorized by the 1928 California Indian
Jurisdictional Act) that his “Grandmother and Great Grandparents were San Luis Rey Mission Indians.” The Record of Decision incorrectly concludes that “the correct tribal ancestry of Paulina Hunter was San Luis Rey” and therefore not Pechanga Temecula.

READ THE REST OF THE STORY:  http://www.originalpechanga.com/2010/06/pechanga-tribes-termination-committee.html