Juaneno Indians

While the city celebrates the traditional return of the swallows to Mission San Juan Capistrano on Monday, the area's only native Indian tribe plans to stage a protest at the historic mission. The peaceful demonstration on Swallows Day is being organized by Juaneno Tribal Chairman David Belardes to call attention to an ongoing dispute over the replacement of Floyd Nieblas, a 40-year mission employee and its director.

For tribal members that had so much to gain by simply joining hands, even acknowledging one another's existence has often proved too onerous for leaders of the Juaneno band of Mission Indians. Efforts by tribal leaders to offer an olive branch to one another failed as recently as August and may have jeopardized the Juanenos' chances to gain federal recognition as a tribe and, ultimately, the opportunity to build a casino.

Solemnly and reverently, 15 members of the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians shared with students at the UC Irvine a part of their heritage: the sacred songs of their Juaneno ancestors. "The songs are gifts to our people," said Rick Mendez, who led the ceremonial singing Thursday for an audience of about 150. "They come from our ancestors or through dreams."

Several factions of the Juaneno band of Mission Indians said Monday that they had failed, at least for now, in their bid to gain federal recognition, something the Orange County-based tribe has sought for 25 years. The Juanenos, splintered into factions for more than a decade, failed to meet four of seven criteria required to gain recognition, said an official with one of the factions.

Lillian Robles, a revered elder with the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians, has died. She was 84. Robles, who battled developers for decades to protect sacred sites in Southern California, died of cancer Tuesday at her Long Beach home. Every year, she led protesters to pray at housing developments in Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Seal Beach that were built on ancient Indian burial sites.

The Franciscan missionaries who came to San Juan Capistrano to convert the Juaneno Indians to Christianity were religious in their record keeping. Their records of baptisms, weddings and burials--largely unexplored for two centuries--hold a wealth of information about early Orange County, say the three volunteers who have immersed themselves in them for two years. The volunteers are translating the records from old Spanish into English, consolidating the information into one index and alphabetizing it by family name.

The Juaneno Band of Mission Indians, who consider themselves the indigenous people of Orange County, first applied for recognition from the U.S. government more than a century ago. Today, with a new century nearing, they still don't have it. Soon, however, the Juanenos may be rewarded with their own equivalent of the Holy Grail, one they and their ancestors have pursued almost as long as the swallows have been returning to Capistrano. But there may be a problem.

Before the Spaniards, the Mexicans, the Catholic Church and U.S. settlers took away their land and left them homeless, the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians could lay claim to much of Southern California. The ground beneath Disneyland, Camp Pendleton and Mission San Juan Capistrano belonged to them. Many Juanenos are buried under what now are strip malls and parking lots, forgotten long ago in the rush from wilderness to pavement.

The remains of a Juaneno Indian teenager who died in the early 1800s were found last week during restoration work at Mission San Juan Capistrano near the Great Stone Church, a mission official said Monday. A mason's assistant found a skull and some teeth about five feet below the surface as workers dug a hole to rinse mortar for the structure, mission director Jerry Miller said.

Splintered for more than a decade, members of the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians have bickered over elections, casino proposals and plans to build athletic fields on their land. But the estimated 4,000 members of the Acjacheman Nation scattered throughout Orange County and other parts of the country may have a compelling reason to become one again: the promise of federal recognition.

Where others see sycamores and sage lining the small valley harboring San Mateo Creek, Rebecca Robles sees her ancestors. Robles is a member of the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians. The valley, where her ancestors lived 4,000 years ago in an ancient Acjachemen Nation village called Panhe, is threatened by a proposed six-lane toll road next to the site that could unearth human remains and damage a sacred spot that Juaneños have visited for generations.

The skull of a Native American has been unearthed by construction workers at St. Margaret's Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano, halting a chapel expansion project as archeologists sift the dirt for artifacts. The partial skull was discovered Friday afternoon and taken to the coroner's office for analysis, officials said Tuesday. A forensic anthropologist confirmed the remains were Native American and not recently buried, said Orange County coroner spokesman Jim Amormino.

Splintered for more than a decade, members of the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians have bickered over elections, casino proposals and plans to build athletic fields on their land. But the estimated 4,000 members of the Acjacheman Nation scattered throughout Orange County and other parts of the country may have a compelling reason to become one again: the promise of federal recognition.

When they began mapping plans six years ago for another Roman Catholic high school in Orange County, Marc Spizziri and Tim Busch figured their rivals would eventually be Mater Dei, Santa Margarita and Servite -- the area's largest parochial schools. The co-founders of Junipero Serra High School discovered soon enough that their biggest rival was in their own backyard -- the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians.

A group attempting to block a $75-million athletic and arts complex at Junipero Serra High School failed to gather enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot, clearing the way for construction to begin as early as next week. The Orange County registrar of voters' announcement Wednesday that two petitions failed to meet the threshold of 1,752 signatures ends a prolonged feud over a vacant 29-acre plot on the north side of town.

The San Juan Capistrano City Council has approved a Roman Catholic high school's plans for building athletic fields and a performing arts center on land held sacred by members of the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians. The council voted 4 to 1 late Tuesday to approve the $75-million project at Junipero Serra High School, despite passionate objections by Native Americans, environmentalists and neighbors.

A two-car caravan California Indians and their supporters who oppose the beatification of Father Junipero Serra began a "spiritual pilgrimage" Saturday, tracing the steps of the 18th-Century Franciscan from Mission San Diego to Mission Carmel on the Monterey Peninsula, where Pope John Paul II is scheduled to visit Thursday.

Orange County's newest high school opened Wednesday in San Juan Capistrano, with picketers reminding the uniform-clad students, parents and civic boosters of the controversy surrounding the campus. Junipero Serra High School, five years in the planning, was welcomed by a Juaneno Indian who stood alongside school supporters, and targeted by other Juanenos who protested plans for the school's athletic complex to be built atop ancestral burial grounds.

For the second time in seven months, San Juan Capistrano city leaders have approved construction of a Roman Catholic high school's athletic complex on a 29-acre parcel that includes an ancient Juaneno Indian burial ground.