DORA JOYCE PRIETO
Prieto succeeded her older sister, Eileen Miguel, as Tribal Chairman in 1966, continuing the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians' efforts to bring economic prosperity to its members and reduce outside intrusions into Tribal affairs.
Prieto was one of the first Agua Caliente Tribal members to graduate from college. Her sister, Corrine Siva, once shared a memory from Prieto's childhood that hinted at her accomplishments to come: "My mother had to buy the newspaper when [Dora] was going to grade school," she recalled. "Even then, she was studious." As a child growing up in Palm Springs in the 1930s and early '40s, she bathed and played in the Tribe's Hot Mineral Spring. She'd use a support bar in the bubbling springs to go as deep as possible, then let go so water pressure would shoot her back up "like a rocket."
The Palm Springs Spa Hotel had been open six years when Prieto became Tribal Chairman, yet disputes between Tribal and municipal leaders over the Tribe's authority to determine the use of its own land continued as the city asserted the right to determine the zoning of Reservation land within the city's boundaries.
The 1960s are known as the beginning of the Self-Determination Era, when the federal government created programs and policies to promote Tribal independence. But realities on America's reservations were often different than pronouncements from Washington, D.C.
dorajoyceprieto
Prieto led efforts to reform a so-called guardianship and conservatorship program that restricted the ability of some Agua Caliente people to control their own land and finances. Investigations into the program's abuses in Palm Springs, such as large fees, led to a Pulitzer Prize for the Riverside Press-Enterprise newspaper in 1968.
Prieto continued her dedication to her people over the next three decades after leaving the council by founding scholarship programs to pay for college tuition for Tribal members as well as focusing on Tribal membership enrollment policies. She was working on the scholarship fund and enrollment ordinance from her hospital room in 2000 when she passed away from cancer at age 64.
Palm Springs Life Magazine
Prieto succeeded her older sister, Eileen Miguel, as Tribal Chairman in 1966, continuing the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians' efforts to bring economic prosperity to its members and reduce outside intrusions into Tribal affairs.
Prieto was one of the first Agua Caliente Tribal members to graduate from college. Her sister, Corrine Siva, once shared a memory from Prieto's childhood that hinted at her accomplishments to come: "My mother had to buy the newspaper when [Dora] was going to grade school," she recalled. "Even then, she was studious." As a child growing up in Palm Springs in the 1930s and early '40s, she bathed and played in the Tribe's Hot Mineral Spring. She'd use a support bar in the bubbling springs to go as deep as possible, then let go so water pressure would shoot her back up "like a rocket."
The Palm Springs Spa Hotel had been open six years when Prieto became Tribal Chairman, yet disputes between Tribal and municipal leaders over the Tribe's authority to determine the use of its own land continued as the city asserted the right to determine the zoning of Reservation land within the city's boundaries.
The 1960s are known as the beginning of the Self-Determination Era, when the federal government created programs and policies to promote Tribal independence. But realities on America's reservations were often different than pronouncements from Washington, D.C.
dorajoyceprieto
Prieto led efforts to reform a so-called guardianship and conservatorship program that restricted the ability of some Agua Caliente people to control their own land and finances. Investigations into the program's abuses in Palm Springs, such as large fees, led to a Pulitzer Prize for the Riverside Press-Enterprise newspaper in 1968.
Prieto continued her dedication to her people over the next three decades after leaving the council by founding scholarship programs to pay for college tuition for Tribal members as well as focusing on Tribal membership enrollment policies. She was working on the scholarship fund and enrollment ordinance from her hospital room in 2000 when she passed away from cancer at age 64.
Palm Springs Life Magazine
DORA JOYCE PRIETO
Prieto succeeded her older sister, Eileen Miguel, as Tribal Chairman in 1966, continuing the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians' efforts to bring economic prosperity to its members and reduce outside intrusions into Tribal affairs.
Prieto was one of the first Agua Caliente Tribal members to graduate from college. Her sister, Corrine Siva, once shared a memory from Prieto's childhood that hinted at her accomplishments to come: "My mother had to buy the newspaper when [Dora] was going to grade school," she recalled. "Even then, she was studious." As a child growing up in Palm Springs in the 1930s and early '40s, she bathed and played in the Tribe's Hot Mineral Spring. She'd use a support bar in the bubbling springs to go as deep as possible, then let go so water pressure would shoot her back up "like a rocket."
The Palm Springs Spa Hotel had been open six years when Prieto became Tribal Chairman, yet disputes between Tribal and municipal leaders over the Tribe's authority to determine the use of its own land continued as the city asserted the right to determine the zoning of Reservation land within the city's boundaries.
The 1960s are known as the beginning of the Self-Determination Era, when the federal government created programs and policies to promote Tribal independence. But realities on America's reservations were often different than pronouncements from Washington, D.C.
dorajoyceprieto
Prieto led efforts to reform a so-called guardianship and conservatorship program that restricted the ability of some Agua Caliente people to control their own land and finances. Investigations into the program's abuses in Palm Springs, such as large fees, led to a Pulitzer Prize for the Riverside Press-Enterprise newspaper in 1968.
Prieto continued her dedication to her people over the next three decades after leaving the council by founding scholarship programs to pay for college tuition for Tribal members as well as focusing on Tribal membership enrollment policies. She was working on the scholarship fund and enrollment ordinance from her hospital room in 2000 when she passed away from cancer at age 64.
Palm Springs Life Magazine
Prieto succeeded her older sister, Eileen Miguel, as Tribal Chairman in 1966, continuing the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians' efforts to bring economic prosperity to its members and reduce outside intrusions into Tribal affairs.
Prieto was one of the first Agua Caliente Tribal members to graduate from college. Her sister, Corrine Siva, once shared a memory from Prieto's childhood that hinted at her accomplishments to come: "My mother had to buy the newspaper when [Dora] was going to grade school," she recalled. "Even then, she was studious." As a child growing up in Palm Springs in the 1930s and early '40s, she bathed and played in the Tribe's Hot Mineral Spring. She'd use a support bar in the bubbling springs to go as deep as possible, then let go so water pressure would shoot her back up "like a rocket."
The Palm Springs Spa Hotel had been open six years when Prieto became Tribal Chairman, yet disputes between Tribal and municipal leaders over the Tribe's authority to determine the use of its own land continued as the city asserted the right to determine the zoning of Reservation land within the city's boundaries.
The 1960s are known as the beginning of the Self-Determination Era, when the federal government created programs and policies to promote Tribal independence. But realities on America's reservations were often different than pronouncements from Washington, D.C.
dorajoyceprieto
Prieto led efforts to reform a so-called guardianship and conservatorship program that restricted the ability of some Agua Caliente people to control their own land and finances. Investigations into the program's abuses in Palm Springs, such as large fees, led to a Pulitzer Prize for the Riverside Press-Enterprise newspaper in 1968.
Prieto continued her dedication to her people over the next three decades after leaving the council by founding scholarship programs to pay for college tuition for Tribal members as well as focusing on Tribal membership enrollment policies. She was working on the scholarship fund and enrollment ordinance from her hospital room in 2000 when she passed away from cancer at age 64.
Palm Springs Life Magazine
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