Two Families Disenrolled for Lack of Proof

The opinion piece about “birthright citizenship” at Pechanga has no merit. The families removed from the Pechanga tribal roll simply lacked the proof needed to establish tribal membership.

One family, the Mirandas, traces its ancestry to Pablo Apis.

One scholarly source describes his origin thus: "Pablo Apis, a Luiseño Indian, was born about 1792 at Guajome near Mission San Luis Rey," now within Oceanside, California. [See here: http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/1991/october/temecula-3/]

The Catholic Church granted Pablo Apis land in the vicinity of Temecula, for his services to the Church, and he resided there.

He died in the 1850s, before the formation of the Pechanga Indian Reservation in 1882. This land the Pechanga Band of Indians occupied. He had no association with this group of Indians which split off from the Temecula Indians.

Shamelessly, the descendants of Pablo Apis claim a status for him false in fact.

As to the other disenrolled family, the Hunters, they claim Paulina Walla Hunter as their ancestor. The Pechanga Enrollment Committee investigated the background of this lady and found that she came from elsewhere than the Temecula area. The local Indian people knew her as a neighbor, not as a member of the Pechanga Band of Indians.

Please know, dear Reader, that both families had an opportunity to bring forward their proof of their membership in the Pechanga Band of Indians. Neither supplied this proof.

Hence, the committee disenrolled both families. This decision is final.

Tribal disenrollment typically resolves longstanding issues of tribal membership, as here.