Tribal Leaders Complain to Senate Panel About Lack of Money, Urban Intrusion

An overflow crowd packed the Escondido City Council chambers Thursday as Indian leaders from throughout Southern California testified before a U. S. Senate committee about a host of problems besetting local tribes and their reservations.

Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) chaired the hearing of the Select Committee on Indian Affairs and told the estimated audience of 250 that he is “aware of the sad and tragic history of Indians in California.”

Inouye began the hearing by reminding representatives of the various tribes about the hundreds of Indian treaties violated by the federal government.

“The history of Indians in the United States is not a bright chapter. . . . That is the history of the U. S. government,” he said.

Some speakers blamed their tribes’ problems on the muddled bureaucracy of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, but others addressed a variety of issues, including the shortage of money for reservation health programs and a disparity in federal funding for San Diego County tribes.

Several speakers pointed out that larger tribes on the East Coast and in the Midwest receive a greater share of the funds. Inouye said he is aware of that and explained that the BIA believes the tribes are “too small” and refers to them as “tribalettes.”

He advised the local bands of Mission Indians to form a confederacy, much like the Iroquois, to lobby Congress.

Jim Fletcher, tribal administrator for the Rincon Indians, said it is the larger tribes that have the financial resources to hire attorneys and lobbyists to press Congress for more funds.

Fletcher, who lives on the Pachanga Reservation in Riverside County, was one of a handful of tribal leaders at the hearing who addressed the problem of urban encroachment on reservations.

“You don’t think about it. You don’t see it. But we see the problem from the reservation, and it’s getting worse,” he said.

Tribes want to work with the county and local planning commissions on development and density issues, Fletcher said.

“Reservations have little or no input on development issues. . . . Our survival depends on our being able to work with the county and local governments on development issues.”

Fletcher cited as an example the new community of Rancho California, north of Temecula, where more than 6,000 housing units have been built next to the Pachanga Reservation.

“The county sent us notices about the development,” Fletcher said, “but nobody really asked for our input. . . . The tribes are concerned because developments often desecrate our burial grounds and other sacred sites.”