The Pechanga American Indian Tribe and the U.S. Supreme Court

Both sides claim that it’s not about the money.

After over two years working it’s way up through the court systems, a fight that started in the Pechanga Indian Enrollment Committee has ended in the U.S. Supreme Court, with the Court refusing to intercede on behalf of the 133 former members of the Pechanga Tribe of American Indians. The expelled members are all descendents of Manuela Miranda, a Pechanga Indian who moved off the reservation in the 1920s. According to Los Angeles CBS affiliate KCAL, the position of the Pechanga Tribe is that Miranda had severed all ties with the Pechanga people, and therefore, her descendents are not considered valid members of the tribe.

What, on the surface, appears to be an ideological question about the rights of tribal counsels to control their own rosters and the appropriateness of the court systems of the United States government to intervene in American Indian disputes unfolds itself into a less dogmatic scrapple over gaming money and its associated perks.

As owners and operators of the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, CA, the Pechanga tribe of Luiseno Mission Indians has found financial cache with the success of its gaming and resort enterprises. With the loss of their status as Pechanga Indians, the 133 ousted members claim that they stand to lose approximately $120,000 to $180,000 per year per person in casino profits, as well as homes, health insurance, college scholarships, and jobs.

Accounting for approximately 20% of the number of enrolled members, the dis-enrollment of Manuela Miranda’s descendents certainly works mathematically in favor of the remaining members of the tribe, who stand to enjoy a healthy increase in their portion of the spoils of this war.