TUSTIN : Native Americans Seek Cultural Center

Jane Uyeno says there’s nothing wrong with museums, but there is a better way to present the culture of a people.

“Museums are so passive and inanimate,” said Uyeno, a member of a group proposing to build a Native American cultural center at Tustin Marine Corps Helicopter Air Station when it closes in 1997.

“A cultural center is not just buildings, it’s the sights, sounds, smell and spirit of the indigenous people in their cultural settings,” she said.

The cultural center would include a school and housing for Native American students, demonstration areas for cultural displays, restaurants, theaters for cultural performances and stores with merchandise made by Native Americans.

“We don’t have a national monument to Native Americans,” said Uyeno, who co-founded the Native American Indian Cultural Center, a nonprofit group, six years ago. She said they have been looking for appropriate locations in the United States, Canada and Mexico since 1989.

“If you go to a reservation, all you learn is the culture of that one tribe,” Uyeno said. “With a cultural center, you can learn about the culture of all Native Americans.”

The model for the proposed center is the Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie, Hawaii, which has succeeded in highlighting that culture and provided income to the city, Uyeno said.

David Belardes, chairman of the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians of San Juan Capistrano, “This is our territory, so we’d be like the host tribe.” The group also is seeking federal recognition as a Native American tribe.

The proposal for a Native American Indian Cultural Center is one of numerous reuse plans submitted by public agencies and nonprofit groups to a Tustin panel studying the development of the base once it is converted to civilian use.

From 200 to 300 acres of the 1,620-acre base, including buildings and military housing, will be available for free or will be sold at discounted prices to nonprofit groups. The rest will be sold to private developers to upgrade Tustin’s tax rolls, fund the public works improvements and help pay for the relocation of the military to other bases, officials said.

The Tustin base closure task force has rejected the proposal for a Native American Indian Cultural Center but left the door open by saying that it may be included in the proposal by a coalition of school districts, colleges and universities.

But the 17-member panel, made up of appointed and elected officials of Tustin, Santa Ana, Irvine and the county, as well as representatives of business and community groups, can only recommend and won’t make the final decisions on future uses of the base.

Uyeno said that she is hoping the Department of the Navy will approve their proposal. If it is not approved for the Tustin Marine Corps Helicopter Air Station, they will make another proposal for the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, which is also scheduled to close.

A coalition of school districts, colleges and universities is considering a cultural center in their own proposal to set up educational, business and recreational facilities at the Tustin Marine base.

“A multicultural center with a Native American component is possible,” said Dante Gumucio, a consultant for the coalition. But he said there have been no formal discussions between his group and Uyeno’s.

But Uyeno said that the cultural center must be devoted only to Native Americans and that her group cannot support the idea of a multicultural center.