Jimi Castillo, the Native American Green candidate for Lt. Gov, is affiliated by name with a tribe is on the verge of getting official recognition from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) on whether they are about to get official recognition so they could build a casino. That decision was supposed to be made Oct 4th, but it’s been delayed post election to Dec 15th, no doubt to see how the election plays out plus this state is so amazingly crooked with this Casino lobbyist money flying like confetti everywhere at this time of year.
I don’t know of any Southern CA Indian tribes (or even the ones up here) with official tribal recognition which support Democrats.
That being said, Mr. Castillo himself is an honorable person, other than his bio on his website is a bit sketchy, but I am now pretty sure after my little side trip thru the archives that he definitely being backed by unseen business interests that would prefer to keep it that way. THAT is also typical so that tribes can gain public media name recognition.
Hopefully his candidacy will not result in sticking us with Maldonado for a full term. I really don’t think the anti climate change and anti women’s reproductive rights Maldonado is a net improvement over Newsom.
Jimi Castillo is called, or refers to himself in interviews, as a Tongva, a Tongva Achjachemen (spelled several ways), Gabriellino / Tongva , a Gabrielino – Tongva.
He is also mentioned on the Kumeyaay Tribal website news pages.
This site already did a background check on him http://www.newagefraud.org/smf…
The Achjachemen are also called the Juaneno.
Here’s the webpage for the Gabrielino – Tongva tribe http://www.gabrielinotribe.org…
Here’s the webpage of the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians Acjachemen Nation
http://www.acjachemennation.co…
They all fall into the category of the Mission Bands of Indians who lived on the coastline of Southern CA from LA to San Diego area at the time of the invasion of the Spanish, 1769, when the Spanish re named them after whatever Mission they were living near.
The fight over Federal BIA tribal recognition is of course, splitting off tribal factions.
He (Jimi Castillo, the Lt Gov candidate) worked as an employee for the Herman G Stark Youth Prison for 20+ years until they laid him off last year. He conducted weekly sweat lodges for the inmates. They changed it over to an adult prison.
Kumeyaay News
Sweat Lodge tradition ends at Stark site in Chino
http://www.kumeyaay.com/kumeya…
Castillo is outspoken about his troubles with drugs and alcohol. This is his 28th year being sober.
“I had a troubled youth,” Castillo said. “I would go to psychologists, priests, ministers….They would seem to give up on me just when I was ready to open up and spill my guts.”
Born and raised in Whittier, Castillo is a member of the Tongva tribe and now lives with his wife, Jeanette, in Rancho Cucamonga. Before being hired at Stark in 1998, Castillo worked as a cabinet maker. As a spiritual leader, he volunteered at the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco and began volunteering at Stark in 1989.
I think working as a woodworker is also an honorable profession and I don’t see why that isn’t also mentioned on his campaign website.
I can find NO campaign finance filings with the state of CA for this candidate, not even who is his campaign manager and treasurer, which is typical of all the CA Greens I’ve looked at this cycle. ( We have one here in this district which has nothing I can find filed with the Federal EC, either. )
Federal Recognition for Juaneno (Acjachemen) Tribe is pending, fr Sept 9th
9/9/10
http://www.ocregister.com/arti…
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – After nearly three decades of seeking federal recognition, a divided Juaneño Band of Mission Indians could get a final answer in the next few weeks.
R. Lee Fleming, director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Office of Federal Acknowledgment, said in a letter to one of the tribal leaders that the office is making a final determination and that a decision is anticipated on or before Oct. 4.
If the Juaneños – also known as the Acjachemen Nation – become a tribe in the eyes of the federal government, the group will be recognized as a sovereign nation. This means it would be allowed to buy land anywhere in the United States for a reservation, where it could govern itself, get federal aid for things such as education and health care and, under federal law, be allowed to build a casino.
9/9/10
http://www.ocregister.com/news…
Final decision on Juanenos now expected by Dec 15
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – A decision on whether the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians will get federal recognition is now expected on or before Dec. 15, a ruling pushed back more than two months since it was originally anticipated.
R. Lee Fleming, director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Office of Federal Acknowledgment, informed petitioners of the new decision deadline in a new letter dated Sept 24
“… the Office of the Solicitor General and the Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs need this extension to allow for review of the recommended decisions,” the letter said in part.
The petitioning groups had expected a decision, called final determination, on or before Oct. 4, which was the date set in a previous letter by Fleming.
The divided group has been seeking federal recognition for nearly three decades.
In 2007, the Bureau of Indian Affairs dealt the Juaneños a setback in their continuing effort to become a federally-recognized American Indian tribe, saying the group did not meet four of the seven criteria required.
The negative finding indicated that if the group cannot provide more evidence, it will not be considered a tribe under federal law, a status that would allow it to own land, build a casino and get federal aid for things such as education and health care.
The lobbyists working this routine in DC are not using the tribe’s name “Juaneno Band of Mission Indians” in this Casino tribal recognition wrangling, but calling them by the client name of a Texas lobbying company called “Hard Count.”
This is a BIG SH*T money deal to try to get a Casino opened in Los Angeles. You see how it says Connecticut below ? That’s Abramoff related, and it even is Doolittle related, altho that’s another story. You even have SoCal Rep. John Campbell(R, CA 48 ) chiming in, but he’s just trying to protect the turf of already established Casinos that are already funding Republicans.
Lobbyists spar over unrecognized tribe 9/9/2007
http://www.politico.com/news/s…
Two prominent Washington lobbying firms are representing rival factions of the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians.
On one side is David Belardes and a Texas firm called Hard Count. Their lobbyist is Barbour Griffith & Rogers, a Republican-heavy firm with ties to the Bush administration and a firm that recently represented anti-recognition foes in Connecticut.
On the other side is Anthony Rivera, whose lobbyist is Paul Moorehead of Drinker Biddle & Reath. Moorehead was the Republican chief counsel for the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
Belardes and Rivera both claim to control the Juaneno Band. Whoever is in charge could land a lucrative casino near Los Angeles.
___
Suspicion is fueled by Hard Count’s contract. Its president, Billy Horton, is in line to receive 5 percent of the tribe’s business revenue for seven years if, at any point, the annual revenue exceeds $10 million.
___
Rivera’s lobbyist, Paul Moorehead, a former chief counsel to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, reported being paid $20,000 in his 2007 midyear disclosure form. Rivera denied having any connection to gaming but said he would not disclose the identity of donors to the tribe.
The lobbying firm Barbour Griffith Rogers (BGR) worked to REVOKE tribal recognition for 2 Indian tribes in Connecticut in 2005.
Haley Barbour used to be a lobbyist with Jack Abramoff a long time ago.
Barbour Griffith Rogers also has a client list that would make your liberal head explode. This includes the Iraqi Kurds, the same foreign government who use the Republican PR firm King Media aka the Russo Marsh/ Move America Forward / Tea Party Express.
Yes, I said Kurds and Tea Party Express, those swiftboating nuts who are currently running Tea Party candidates Sharron Angle against Harry Reid and Christine O’ Donnell in Delaware and Joe Miller in Alaska. Or at least doing lots of “independent expenditures” for them.
This Shinnecock Nation Indian Casino feud in the Southhamptons of Connecticut has been going on for years, from 2003 – . This year 2010 the Federal govt. finally recognized them as a tribe.
Another other tribe which was unrecognized was the Schaghticoke. Also the Pequot were tossed out.
September 27 2009
http://www.indiancountrytoday….
NEW YORK – Almost five years to the date after the BIA issued a devastating reversal of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation’s federal acknowledgment, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in the nation’s ongoing quest to restore its federal status.
The BIA recognized STN in a Final Determination Jan. 29, 2004, then reversed its decision on Columbus Day, Oct. 12, 2005, in an unprecedented Reconsidered Final Determination, taking away the federal acknowledgment of both the Schaghticoke and Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation.
In addition to direct contact with officials in the White House, Interior and the BIA, the lobbying was so fierce that it included the first termination bill in Congress since the 1960s, sponsored by a former Connecticut congresswoman, and a threat by a Virginia congressman to go to the White House and have former Interior Secretary Gale Norton fired if she didn’t reverse STN’s federal acknowledgment.
Jimi Castillo’s bio on his campaign website does not mention the Juaneno tribal name, nor any of the ongoing efforts by the two rival factions to get the Juaneno Acjachemen tribe official BIA Federal recognition.
This is just sort of ….. odd.
http://www.jimicastillo.org/bi…
Biography
Jimi Castillo (Tongva / Acjachemen), a respected Native American spiritual leader, has served as a mentor for young men at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation at the Heman G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility. Born and raised in Whittier, California, Castillo is a Pipe Keeper and Sun Dancer for the People. He is also a proud member of the statewide Bear Clan Society and a Marine Corps veteran (1960 to 1965). Jimi participated on the Board of Directors and also contributed as a counselor for the Southeast Area Counseling Center in Santa Fe Springs, California, actively helps plan and staff UCLA’s annual Graduation Powwow and Youth Leadership Conference and donates much time to work with the UCLA Native American Student Association. Jimi is married to Jeanette Castillo and has four children and nine grandchildren.
Mr. Castillo has done much good in the world with his prison counseling work and in his efforts to protect Native American burial grounds in the Southern California area.
This does not mean on November 5th, because the Greens drew away so much support, that I want to see the state of California with an ex e Bay executive billionaire Republican who bought the seat as Governor, a global climate change denier Republican as Lt. Governor, and the woman who outsourced Hewlett Packard and never missed a photo opp with John McCain as Senator. Especially with McCain being on the Senate’s Dept of the Interior Committee for Indian Affairs.
Hard to compete for attention with this-
Be An Abel Fan – Abel Maldonado ’10 for Lt Governor
Fundraiser in Highland, California
Special Guests Gloria & Emilio Estefan
Where: San Manuel Casino
When: Thursday, October 14, 2010, 5:00 PM
Hosted by:
Alex Meruelo and Luis Armona
Special Guests Gloria & Emilio Estefan
VIP Dinner and Concert
$10,000 Per Couple
Last week I prepared an essay about LGBT aging, entitled