### PECHANGA INDIAN RESERVATION Temecula Band of Luiseño Mission Indians

Post Office Box 1477 • Temecula, CA 92593 Telephone (951) 676-2768 Fax (951)695-1778 Tribal Chairman:
Mark Macarro

Council Members:
Donna Barron
Mark Calac
Marc Luker Andrew Masiel, Sr. Russell “Butch” Murphy
Kenneth Perez

Tribal Secretary:
Darlene Miranda

Tribal Treasurer:
Christine Luker 

### Statement of
Chairman Mark Macarro Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Legislative Hearing on H.R. 2963, Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians Land Transfer Act May 15, 2008

Good morning Chairman Dorgan and Vice-Ch airperson Murkowski. Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony on behalf of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Mission
Indians.

The Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians respec tfully requests your s upport of H.R. 2963, the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Mission Indian s Land Transfer Act of 2007. If passed into law, this bill would protect approximatel y 1178 acres of land in Riverside County, California, adjacent to our existing reservati on, and important to the Luiseño people, by transferring it into trust for the benefit of the Tribe.

The Tribe has called the Temecula Valley home for more than 10,000 years and 10,000 years from now, tribal elders will share with tribal youth, as they do today, the story of the Tribe's creation in this place. Since time immemorial, through periods of plenty, scarcity and adversity, the Pechanga people have governed ourselves and cared for our lands. This land is witness to our story.

The history of the Tribe begins with our an cestral home village of Temeeku, which was a center for all the Payomkawichum, or Luiseño pe ople. After the establishment of the state of California in 1850, a group of Temecula Valle y Ranchers petitioned the District Court in San Francisco for a Decree of Ejection of Indians living on the land in Temecula Valley, which the court granted in 1873.

In 1875 the sheriff of San Di ego County began three days of evictions. The Luiseño people were taken into the hills south of the Temecula River. Being strong of spirit, mostof our dispossessed ancestors moved upstream to a small, secluded valley, where they
built new homes and re-established their lives.

A spring located two miles upstream in a can yon provided them with water. We have always called this spring Pechaa'a, which comes from pechaq, which means to drip. This spring is the namesake for Pechaa'anga or Pechaanga, which means "at Pechaa'a" or "at the place where water drips."

On June 27, 1882, seven years after being evicted, the President of the United States issued an Executive Order establishing th e Pechanga Indian Reservation. Several subsequent trust acquisitions were made in 1893, 1907, 1931, 1971 and 1988, each one increasing the size of the reservation.

At present, the total land ar ea of the Pechanga reservation is approximately 5,500 acres. As a people of this ancestral land that spreads from the center of Temecula out 60 miles north and south and approximately 45 miles eas t to west, we have al ways been respectful of and responsible for the environmental, so cial and economic relationships that exist upon it.

It is because of our history and cultural affiliation with these lands that the passage of H.R. 2963 is so important to the Tribe. Our identity and existence as Luiseño people is dependent upon our connection to and pr otection of these ancestral lands.

Today, our tribal government operations, such as our en vironmental monitoring and natural resource management programs, exist to fully honor and prot ect the land and our culture upon it. In particular, we are concer ned about watershed and wellhead protection for our surface and ground water resources and the availability of water for our community. The land that would be placed into trust under H.R. 2963 is part of the recharge area for some of these resources a nd would help protect th e quality and ensure an adequate supply of water for th e Tribe and surrounding communities.

These lands are also home to important cultural resources, incl uding pictographs and petroglyphs unique, not only to Luiseño territory, but to al l of Indian country and our Nation. While these lands have a unique histor ical and cultural value for the Pechanga people, they are also important for thei r broader aesthetic value to communities throughout the Temecula Valley. The Tribe is very proud of our protection of cultural resources on our tribal properties and thr oughout our ancestral la nds. Our Cultural
Committee has a well-deserved reputation for thoroughness and strictness in its demands for protection of cultural resources. The Tribe is also very proud that we have preserved and protected all of our cultural places on trib al lands in a culturally appropriate manner. More importantly, we are proud that we have given these resources a level of protection they would not receive if they were located outside of the reservation boundaries, even in the best of circumstances. The Tribe is ever vigilant to protect our cultural resources since we now own only a tiny fraction of the lands that once belonged to us and because most of these resources have already been lost to development in non- tribal jurisdictions.

As stewards of our traditional lands, the Tribe will continue to ensure responsible management of the lands to be transferred. For example, although the lands in questionwill not be subject to the Riverside Count y Multi Species Habitat Conservation Plan (MSHCP) once they have been transferred to the Tribe, the Tribe has agreed in its MOU with Fish & Wildlife to manage the land in a manner consistent with the goals of the MSHCP. In fact, when questions came up about the Tribe’s de velopment of a golf course on a portion of similar tribal lands, the Tribe commissioned a MSHCP consistency analysis by a County approved MSHCP consu ltant which concluded that the Tribe’s treatment of the property in question is c onsistent with meeting and/or exceeding the MSHCP goals for development w ithin that geographical area.

Although we have always believed in the sa nctity of our lands, and have planned carefully for the use and preservation of our land, one environmental group has recently questioned our adherence to the National E nvironmental Policy Act and our development
efforts on the reservation.

After conversations with the representative of this group, we found th eir objections to be unwarranted, insulting and dist urbing. The criticism is aimed specifically at a parcel, known as the Great Oak Ranch parcel, which was transferred to the Tribe through the administrative fee-to-trust pr ocess. In 2002, the Tribe suc ceeded in preventing a major power line from being situated on this par cel, the Great Oak Ranch. The Tribe, along with the surrounding community averted an en vironmental impact which would have left a lasting imprint on the lands of the Pechanga people and the Temecula Valley.

We assure you the Tribe has devoted significant tribal resources ensuring the use of our lands adheres to the principles of the National Environmental Policy Act, the MSHCP
and California environmental laws. We ha ve long-standing coope rative and supportive relationships with our local environmental groups and our local governments, and have made every effort to coordinate our planning and gain their support for Tribal projects which affect the community.

Protecting the sanctity of these lands thr ough conservation and resource management is of the highest priority for the Tribe. Ou r mandate is to protect and enhance the sustainability and well being of the Pechan ga way of life. Accordingly, the tribal government also issued an Executive Order zoning the land to be transferred under H.R. 2963 for conservation and management of w ildlife and cultural values. Such zoning would make any commercial or other significant developmen t of the lands contrary to
tribal law.

Recognizing the importance of these lands to the Pechanga people, the Tribe began working with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) nearly 15 years ago to place these
lands into trust. In the spring of 2004, the BLM indicated to Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) their willingness to tr ansfer the land. In response to the BLM, Congressman Issa introduced legislation to transfer the land to the Tribe.

During the 108 th Congress, H.R. 4908, a bill which wa s substantially similar to H.R. 2963, was introduced in the House of Represen tatives. H.R. 4908 was not passed by the House due to concerns expressed by Sa n Diego County late in the process.During the 109th Congress, the Pechanga Ba nd of Luiseño Indians made extensive efforts to work with all affected parties to iron out any concerns or miscommunication regarding the provisions of H.R. 3507, wh ich also passed out of the House of Representatives. We resolved all concerns expressed by parties of which we were aware, including concerns raised by Riverside and San Diego Counties. Concerns regarding management of the lands expressed by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service were resolved through language in the legisl ation regarding the management of and purposes for which the transferred land may be used and thr ough the execution of a formal Memorandum of Understanding, signed by the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians.

Also during the 109 th Congress, it was discovered that a power line runs across the southwest corner of the parcel. The BLM and the owner of the power line, Sempra Energy, have agreed to language that addresse s the identification and disposition of the 12.82 acres that encompasses the power line. That language has been incorporated into the current bill in front of you today, H.R. 2963.

In the 110 th Congress, the Bureau of Land Manageme nt remains supportive of this trust transfer, now embodied in H.R. 2963. We have also received the supp ort of the City of Temecula, which is adjacent to the property, in the form of a resolution passed by the City Council.

In closing, I thank you for the opportunity to address you, and, on behalf of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Mission Indians, I respectf ully request your support for H.R. 2963. Thank you for your time and cons ideration of this matter.