SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Excavation Handled With Care

The collective breath of the Juaneno Indian tribe was held tight last month, when heavy machinery bit into the sacred grounds of the centuries-old Mission San Juan Capistrano cemetery.

Unfortunately, their worst fears came true as mission officials last week announced the discovery of badly deteriorated bone fragments possibly belonging to several Juaneno parishioners buried before the cemetery closed in 1862.

“We were hoping there would not be any disturbances,” said David Belardes, tribal chairman of the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians. “But that was wishful thinking.”

The sagging walls of the Serra Chapel--one of the oldest in California and located next to the cemetery--badly needed repair and the only way to save the aging church was to allow limited construction on the cemetery grounds.

Working closely with the tribe, Mission officials approved the excavation of three one-meter-square shafts to be tunneled 30 feet into the ground next to the church. The tunnels will be filled with concrete and steel to buttress the chapel wall.

“We tried to only excavate in three small areas,” Magalousis said. “We always made it a point not to excavate in the cemetery due to the sensitivities of the Native Americans here.”

The remains of Juanenos buried at the mission were apparently disturbed on a large scale in the 1920s. Mission records show that during the tenure of Pastor John O’Sullivan, crude, horse-drawn grading machines leveled cemetery grounds during efforts to renovate the church.

During most of the previous two centuries, graves were marked with simple wooden crosses, Magalousis said. By the time grading took place in the 1920s, any sign of the graves had disappeared.

Bob Dunn, a longtime Mission San Juan docent, said the extent of grave site disturbances has never been fully documented.

“Father O’Sullivan . . . did an awful lot of digging in the 1920s,” Dunn said. “It’s not clear what he uncovered and what he did with it.”

The exact location of some 4,000 bodies, nearly all of them Juanenos who lived in nearby villages and reportedly were buried in the small garden cemetery, is unclear, Dunn said.

But the existing cemetery “was clearly packed” by the time it was closed in 1862, he said.

Belardes, who has been involved in recent years in highly publicized battles with development companies over the disturbance of Indian burial sites in South County, said the bones will be kept in a safe place until the chapel renovation work is complete.

Then, in a private service incorporating both Catholic and Indian traditions, the remains will be reburied.