*CORRECTION: The number of Juaneño
Band members and percentage of whom the federal government recognized as demonstrating descent from the
historical Indian tribe at San Juan Capistrano Mission has been clarified since the original version of this post was published.
Members of the Juaneño
Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation, have had their hearts broken by the federal government again.
Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk issued a final
determination to not acknowledge the modern-day tribe that claims to have maintained ties and bloodlines to the original Indian population around Mission
San Juan Capistrano.
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The Juaneños have sought federal recognition for more than 30 years. The
designation would give the tribe greater sway when it comes to local
land-use decisions and the possibility of introducing Indian gaming to
Orange County.
But the Department of Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) found *a band of 455 members based in Santa Ana and another with 1,940 members based in San Juan Capistrano each failed to meet four of seven mandatory criteria to gain recognition.
The failures centered on whether it could be proved a continued Indian community existed from historical times to present; whether political influence was exerted over tribal members since historical times; and whether proof existed all petitioner members descended
from a historical Indian tribe.
The evidence shows that *53 percent of the Santa Ana group's 455 members and 61 percent of the San Juan Capistrano group's 1,940 members demonstrated descent from the
historical Indian tribe at San Juan Capistrano Mission.
View the full decision at IndianAffairs.gov. It will be considered final after 90 days unless an appeal is filed with the BIA. Juaneño Chief Anthony Rivera of the San Juan Capistrano-based band vows to the Capistrano Dispatch's Jonathan Volzke he will do just that.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.