Juaneño

The "Juaneño" or "Acagchemem" are a Native American group from Southern California. The "Juaneño" lived in what is now part of Orange and San Diego Counties and received their Spanish name from the priests of the California mission chain due to their proximity to Mission San Juan Capistrano. Today they call themselves the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians.

The former Spanish settlement at "Sajavit" lies within that area occupied during the late Paleoindian period and continuing on into the present day by the Native American society commonly known as the "Juaneño". [Kroeber 1925, p. 636] The name denotes those people who were ministered by the padres at Mission San Juan Capistrano. [As with other Spanish names given to the indigenous tribes they encountered, the appellation "Juaneño" does not necessarily identify a specific ethnic or tribal group.] Many contemporary "Juaneño", who identify themselves as descendents of the indigenous society living in the local San Juan and San Mateo Creek drainage areas, have adopted the indigenous term "Acjachemen". Their language was related to the Luiseño language spoken by the nearby "Luiseño" tribe. [Sparkman, p. 189: Linguistically, the "Acjachemen" tongue is a dialect of the larger "Luiseño" language, which itself is derived from the "Takic" language family ("Luiseño", "Juaneño", "Cupeño", and "Cahuilla" Indians all belong to the "Cupan" subgroup), a part of the Uto-Aztecan ("Shoshone") linguistic stock (this language is sometimes referred to as "Southern California Shoshonean"); however, the language at Capistrano and Soboba differed "considerably from that of the remainder of the Luiseños, and by some the people of these places are not included among the Luiseños"."] The language was extinct but is being revived by several tribal members learning the language, thanks to the research and records of Anastacia Majel and John P. Harrington who recorded the language back in 1933 (the tape recordings resurfaced around 1995).

The "Acjachemen" territory extended from Las Pulgas Creek in northern San Diego County up into the San Joaquin Hills along Orange County's central coast, and inland from the Pacific Ocean up into the Santa Ana Mountains. The bulk of the population occupied the outlets of two large creeks, San Juan Creek (and its major tributary, Trabuco Canyon) and San Mateo Creek (combined with Arroyo San Onofre, which drained into the ocean at the same point). The highest concentration of villages was along the lower San Juan, where Mission San Juan Capistrano was ultimately situated. [O'Neil, pp. 68–78] The "Acjachemen" resided in permanent, well-defined villages and seasonal camps. Village populations ranged from between 35 to 300 inhabitants, consisting of a single lineage in the smaller villages, and of a dominant clan joined with other families in the larger settlements. Each clan had its own resource territory and was "politically" independent; ties to other villages were maintained through economic, religious, and social networks in the immediate region. The elite class (composed chiefly families, lineage heads, and other ceremonial specialists), a middle class (established and successful families), and people of disconnected or wandering families and captives of war comprised the three hierarchical social classes. [Bean and Blackburn, pp. 109–111]

Native leadership consisted of the "Nota", or clan chief, who conducted community rites and regulated ceremonial life in conjunction with the council of elders ("puuplem"), which was made up of lineage heads and ceremonial specialists in their own right. This body decided upon matters of the community, which were then carried out by the "Nota" and his underlings. While the placement of residential huts in a village was not regulated, the ceremonial enclosure ("vanquesh") and the chief's home were most often centrally-located. [Boscana, p. 37] Fray Gerónimo Boscana, a Franciscan scholar who was stationed at San Juan Capistrano for more than a decade beginning in 1812, compiled what is widely considered to be the most comprehensive study of prehistoric religious practices in the San Juan Capistrano valley. Religious knowledge was secret, and the prevalent religion, called "Chinigchinich", placed village chiefs in the position of religious leaders, an arrangement that gave the chiefs broad power over their people. [Kelsey, p. 3]

Boscana divided the "Acjachemen" into two classes: the "Playanos" (who lived along the coast) and the "Serranos" (who inhabited the mountains, some three to four leagues from the Mission). [Hittell, p. 746] The religious beliefs of the two groups as related to creation differed quite profoundly. The "Playanos" held that an all-powerful and unseen being called "Nocuma" brought about the earth and the sea, together with all of the trees, plants, and animals of sky, land, and water contained therein. [Hittell, p. 749] The "Serranos", on the other hand, believed in two separate but related existences: the "existence above" and the "existence below." These states of being were "altogether explicable and indefinite" (like brother and sister), and it was the fruits of the union of these two entities that created "...the rocks and sands of the earth; then trees, shrubbery, herbs and grass; then animals..." [Hittell, pp. 746-747]

Today, the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians is seeking federal recognition as a federally organized tribe. Its headquarters is in San Juan Capistrano, California and it has 60 enrolled members. It sought the retrieval of the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, which was an Indian Rancheria until the 1930's when the land was sold to the US government. Fact|date=April 2008

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External links

* [http://www.webroots.org/library/usahist/ca/cahaoto0.html "Chinigchinich; a Historical Account of the Origin, Customs, and Traditions of the Indians at the Missionary Establishment of St. Juan Capistrano, Alta California Called The Acjachemen Nation" by The Reverend Father Friar Gerónimo Boscana, 1846]
* [http://www.juaneno.com/ Official website of the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation]