Juaneno Schism May Imperil Recognition

The Juaneno Band of Mission Indians, who consider themselves the indigenous people of Orange County, first applied for recognition from the United States government more than a century ago.

Today, on the eve of a new century, they still don’t have it.

Soon, however, the Juanenos may be rewarded with the elusive official status, one that they and their ancestors have pursued almost as long as the swallows have been returning to Capistrano.

But there may be a problem. There are now two groups of Juanenos, each with the same name, which begs the question: Which Juanenos will obtain recognition? And will others be abandoned at the federal threshold, left to stew over what went wrong?

Since 1995, the Juanenos have been divided into separate councils, overseen by two tribal leaders. One group answers to tribal chairman David Belardes, the other to tribal chairwoman Sonia Johnston, whose separate factions split from each other in a schism that has yet to heal.

Does it make a difference? The answer, according to the government, is maybe . . . and maybe not.

The culmination of a lengthy and highly bureaucratic process, federal recognition means nothing less than being able to establish a sovereign government, thus opening the door to federal health and education programs and such moneymaking bonanzas as casinos.

So the potential multimillion-dollar question is: Which group is more likely to win the elusive trophy of recognition?

Holly Reckord is chief of the Branch of Acknowledgment and Research, a division of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, which determines recognition for native Americans.

“It could be both groups,” she said. “Or it could be neither . . . or it could be only one, meaning you could have one group of ‘Juaneno Band of Mission Indians’ recognized--and the other one not.”

With a sigh, Reckord added: “I’m sorry. That’s as clear as I can be.”

Both groups have ended up on the government’s highly coveted “ready” list, meaning either or both could be considered--and then rewarded--with recognition any time.

According to the bureau, the Belardes group found its notch on the ready list on Feb. 12, 1996, with the Johnston group reaching its slot on May 23, 1996. At the moment, Reckord said, the Belardes group is No. 4 on the list of candidates eligible for active consideration, with the Johnston group at No. 8.

“We’re well aware” of the controversy dividing the groups, Reckord said last week from Washington. “There are two groups of leaders, two councils claiming to be Juaneno, each of which has membership lists that overlap but are not completely identical. For this reason and others, we now view the Juanenos as two separate petitioners.”

Reckord would not evaluate whether the conflict clouds Juaneno chances for recognition, but did note, “This complicates the burden of having to decide who the leaders are--which is the business of the tribe itself and not the federal government.”

She added flatly, “They need to decide who their leaders are.”

Belardes, 49, could not be reached for comment, and Johnston, 52, declined to comment.

But Jim Velasques, 68, chieftain of the Coastal Gabrielenos, another of Orange County’s unrecognized tribes, said he was astounded by the government’s action.

“To me, that’s a bunch of crap,” said Velasques, who doubles as the head of a local intertribal council. “Sonia’s group has been in existence two years. You need to be in existence a lot longer--or so the government says--in order to become recognized. It sounds to me like the government is trying to recognize as many tribes as they can in the hopes that they’ll all open casinos and just leave the government alone.”

Velasques called the split between Johnston and Belardes “deep and wide--a snowflake would have a better chance in hell than a peacemaker would trying to get those two together”--but Belardes’ “is the original group. . . . . They’re the only ones I’ve ever known of. Sonia just took a few members out the door, to the other side of the street, as it were. That hardly means she’s a separate tribe.”

As for how he would resolve the dispute, which he equated with a nasty divorce, Velasques said: “I wouldn’t give it [recognition] to either one of them. What are we going to have? Two people running two casinos?”

Members of both factions dispute Velasques’ contention that casinos are motivating their drive for recognition. To that, he responded: “Yeah, right. Do they really expect anyone to believe that? They want to become millionaires, like Indians all over the country. I find it disgraceful.”

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The dispute notwithstanding, the Juanenos list more than 4,000 descendants scattered from the cliffs of San Juan Capistrano to the Florida Everglades. Both groups claim to meet the requirements of a “tribe” in every way--with their own language, their own genealogy, their own religion, their own constitution, their own link to a vivid past as Southern California’s earliest forebears.

For the nation to award recognition to either or both would not be the government granting them some gift; rather, both sides argue, it would mean recognizing the Acjachemen people--their original name--as a legitimate legal entity with whom the government has unfinished business.

The Spaniards gave them the name Juanenos in honor of Mission San Juan Capistrano, which the tribe helped to build in the 1700s. According to the Spaniards, the name “Juanenos” described the raven-haired, brown-eyed, olive-skinned Indians who lived on what would become some of the priciest real estate in California: Dana Point and Laguna Beach.

“It would be a long overdue acknowledgment by the government that we do exist and that we’ve always been here,” said Jean Frietze, 50, vice chairwoman of the Belardes group. “It would mean our own tribal courts, our own school system, as well as insurance and medical benefits for all our people.”

The Juanenos renewed their application for tribal status in 1982, well before the split, which Frietze conceded has frustrated both efforts for recognition.

“Still, we refuse to see it as a problem,” she said. “The other group calls itself Juanenos. In fact, we’re all Juanenos, and neither side sees it as a hindrance.”

The government, of course, may see it differently.

Members allied with Johnston who asked not to be quoted by name contend that she alone remains the duly elected leader--not Belardes, whose Juaneno ancestry dates back centuries.

“Our tribe is not two groups,” said the pro-Johnston member. “We’re only one group--the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians. And the fact that there’s been a disagreement makes us no different from any other family that sometimes has disagreements. There may be two sides, but we’re one family, and that shouldn’t hinder our efforts to be recognized. It’s really nobody’s business but our own.”

The only other California group on the ready list is the TolowaNation of Crescent City.