Vote Flares Up Juaneno Dispute Over Tribal Leadership

A group of Juaneno Band of Mission Indians elected a tribal leader and council Saturday, while an opposing faction called the results meaningless.

Sonia Johnston was named tribal leader, but declined to discuss her new position Saturday night. Johnston said she and other new members of the Juaneno council would be talking about their roles at a later date.

But David Belardes, the leader of a rival faction, was quick to dismiss Saturday’s vote.

“It’s meaningless,” said Belardes, who met with 95 other tribal members in a separate meeting Saturday. “(Johnston) thinks she is recognized by the main body of the tribe, but she’s not. She’s trying to make this election legal, but it isn’t.”

The escalating feud over leadership may jeopardize the Juaneno’s bid to become the first tribe of Native Americans in Orange County to receive federal recognition.

Such federal acknowledgment, which the tribe has sought for a century, would mean schools, housing and health care supplied by taxpayers. Also, the new federal status for one of the Southland’s oldest tribes would open the door for it to operate potentially lucrative casinos.

Belardes, a 47-year-old groundskeeper for the Capistrano Unified School District, refused to participate in the elections, even though he was nominated to the tribal council. Belardes, a longtime tribal spokesman, has refused to yield his leadership post since being ousted in a recent controversial vote.

Belardes said he believes he was elected as tribal chairman in 1993, an election Johnston’s group contends was void because it was a voice vote, rather than formal balloting.

Nevertheless, Belardes says that a majority of the 2,000 members will remain loyal to him.

Saturday’s vote follows a November ruling by an Orange County Superior Court judge that denied an injunction sought by Belardes to halt the election. Earlier this year, Belardes also failed in an attempt to stop Johnston from using the Juaneno name.

The bitterness between the groups prompted Belardes to post security guards at a September meeting to prevent Johnston and her group from participating.

A Superior Court trial is set in April to resolve the leadership dispute.

The infighting comes at a time when Juanenos are preparing for a visit early next year by representatives of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, one of the steps toward tribal recognition. In recent months, they have emerged from among hundreds of groups, rising to the top of a long list trying to gain active consideration by the federal agency.

But federal authorities can only grant the coveted status to one Juaneno group.

“It’s going to hurt us to have her out there as a faction,” said Belardes, who met with 95 tribe members Saturday. “When the federal government gets here they will be able to tell who the real Indians are. We know who we are.”