Bullet With Threat Sent to Tribal Chief

When Jim Velasques, tribal chief of the Coastal Gabrieleno-Digueno Indians, picked up his mail at the front door Friday, he found a small padded Manila envelope containing a bullet.

Painted white and with the threat, “Our ancestors await you” inscribed on it, the bullet became the latest in a rash of threats sent to people linked by their involvement with development projects.

“The minute I saw that the envelope was padded, that was it. I knew what it was,” Velasques said. Also, in the left-hand corner the envelope has the word “Ahachmai,” or Juaneno, Velasques said.

The bullet, he believes, was sent to him by some member of the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians, whose chairwoman is Sonia Johnston.

Johnston said Saturday that those allegations are absurd.

“I became frightened right away because I know they feel about me and how I feel about them--we’ve been fighting for 14 years over territorial lands,” Velasques said.

The Irvine Co., which has removed buried Indian artifacts and corpses from property it plans to develop, hired Velasques as a consultant, and his decision to guide the company through its excavation angered some who called the digging a desecration.

“Can you imagine? This was the largest burial ground in the western United States,” Johnston said.

“But even though our burial grounds are being destroyed and desecrated and we’re pretty much [destroyed] by that, we would not stoop to that.

“It’s not in our nature. There is no one I know of, no Juaneno I know, who would ever stoop to this tactic.”

Velasques is only the latest recipient of a bullet.

Seal Beach Mayor Gwen Forsythe resigned last week after a rifle cartridge and a message threatening her life arrived at City Hall on March 6.

Police say the threat may be connected to a dispute over plans to develop the Hellman Ranch property.

In December, Lee Whittenberg, Seal Beach’s director of development services, also received a similar package that included a bullet.

The Irvine Co. received a rifle cartridge in 1994, and a bullet with the same message as Velasques received was sent to archeologist Nancy Whitney-Desautels in 1993 shortly after human remains believed to be thousands of years old were unearthed at Bolsa Chica.

--- UNPUBLISHED NOTE --- This story has been edited to reflect a correction to the original published text. The name of the chairwoman of the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians is Sonia Johnston, not Sonia Johnson. --- END NOTE ---