Enrollment committee members say that although Salinas shares Pechanga blood, he and the other plaintiffs should be disenfranchised because Miranda allegedly cut her ties with the tribe by moving off the reservation 80 years ago. His grandmother was Manuela Miranda, a feisty granddaughter of Pechanga Band Chief Pablo Apish.

Tribal elder Michael Salinas, 83, is among those facing ejection. Then there is the loss of casino profit payments, which are expected to grow in the years ahead. If the tribe is successful in dropping these members, families would be prevented from returning to their homes, tribal employees would lose their jobs, people of all ages would lose medical services, students could be cut off from funds needed to attend college, and relationships and cultural identities would be severed irrevocably, according to the lawsuit. And Pechanga Band Chairman Mark Macarro, while not responding directly to his members’ claims, said in a prepared statement that the dispute should be resolved internally.

Rather they assert that the tribe’s sovereignty makes it exempt from review by any state or federal court. The Pechanga Band’s defendants have generally declined to discuss the ejection of the members, or the lawsuit.Įven in court arguing against the request for the restraining order, tribal attorneys wouldn’t comment on the merits of the allegation.