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GUEST OPINION | Moments in Time by Jan Siegel

Celebrating the Area’s Indigenous Heritage

This time of year is the period of celebrations: Halloween, Day of the Dead, Diwali, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s. The one thing that all of these holidays have in common is that they are all family celebrations.

During the Thanksgiving holiday, there is much talk about the first Thanksgiving and the role of the Indians in that event, but there is little talk about the Native Americans in our own community and how family life and celebrations are an important part of their heritage. The names below will be familiar to your children. They go to school with the families. They live in our community. They are part of our history.

In 2018, Orange County libraries put together a group of local Native Americans to talk about their family, their culture and their way of life. Louis Valenzuela Robles spoke of what it means to be a member of the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation in

MOMENTS IN TIME San Juan Capistrano. BY JAN SIEGEL “For me to be able to sit at the beach by the village where my great, great, great, great grandparents were born and know that this is the same beach that they sat on, the same stars that they sat under—there is a real connection to the land. When I look out and see Kalawpa, our sacred mountain, even though it has been renamed Saddleback, and the sun rises, my family, for generations, has seen this.”

Tribal Chairwoman Teeter Marie Olivares Romero was born on Los Rios Street and then moved to El Camino Real. She started making baskets in the ’70s. For more than 30 years, Romero, along with a group of Native American women, met every Tuesday to make baskets and talk about the old days. All of these women are related. They are all cousins to each other.

Adrienne “Gigi” Nieblas is the daughter of Rita Nieblas, who was co-founder of the Capistrano Indian Council. Rita was also born in the Congdon House, which is now home to The Ecology Center.

Photo: Linda Freeman and OC Public Libraries

FROM THE ARCHIVES These photos show Irene Howard Hunn Castro, Fred Hunn, and Ellen Howard as a little girl in San Juan Capistrano in the 1940s.

Every issue, The Capistrano Dispatch will publish a historical photo. To submit your historical photo for consideration, provide information about the photo along with your name, date, location and a small description to cbreaux@picketfencemedia.com.

“I have three metates, stones used to grind corn or anything else that need grinding. One stone is from my great-grandmother, one from my grandmother and one from my mother,” Nieblas said.

Harley “Wick” Lobo spoke about his brother, Chief Clarence Lobo, as being the best person to represent the tribe. He was extremely well-liked by everyone, especially the Native American community. Wick’s role is to know more of the tradition and the history of tribe so that the tribal members can be made aware of their background. He stressed the importance of relearning the Acjachemen language.

Happy Hunn, San Juan Capistrano patriarch, is very proud of his Acjachemen heritage. Hunn has collected photos of veterans from the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians. All the services are represented. Hunn also remembers when steelhead spawned in the riverbed behind his home and fishing was a part of his life.

Domingo Belardes, president of the Blas Aguilar Adobe Museum Foundation, stated that Orange County is known today for being a bustling business community. But before Western civilization came onto the land, Acjachemen had commerce and money.

“Shell beads, dentalium shells and tavelia were their money. The one thing we want people to realize is that we haven’t gone anywhere. We’re still here and that we’re still doing the things that our ancestors taught us,” said Belardes, who is the son of former Chief David Belardes.

Stephen Rios stated that to be a Juaneno in the 21st century means to be bicultural—having a foot in two worlds.

“Being involved and being aware of native roots, which go back many, many, many, many, many years,” Rio said, “and also being part of the mainstream dominant society.”

Rios was the first executive secretary of the California Native American Heritage Commission that was commissioned by Governor Jerry Brown to protect Indian religion and Indian culture.

Spend a “Moment in Time” during your family celebrations and remember all of those who have gone before us.

Jan Siegel was a 33-year resident of San Juan Capistrano and now resides in the neighboring town of Rancho Mission Viejo. She served on the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission for 13 years, has been a volunteer guide for the San Juan Capistrano Friends of the Library’s architectural walking tour for 26 years and is currently the museum curator for the San Juan Capistrano Historical Society. She was named Woman of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce in 2005, Volunteer of the Year in 2011 and was inducted into the city’s Wall of Recognition in 2007. CD

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Edged in Extras

San Juan Hills boys water polo pushes high, falls in 4-OT semifinal

BY ZACH CAVANAGH, THE CAPISTRANO DISPATCH

It wasn’t the furthest the San Juan Hills boys water polo team had been in the CIF-SS playoffs, but it was the highest.

The No. 2 seed Stallions battled and battled in their Division 2 semifinal against No. 3 seed Yorba Linda, but by only the slimmest of margins, San Juan Hills was denied its third trip to a CIF-SS championship game.

San Juan Hills and Yorba Linda each scored in the final 30 seconds of regulation to force overtime, and after trading goals in the first two overtime periods and pushing into a fourth overtime period, the Mustangs netted the golden goal to eliminate the Stallions, 10-9, in a CIF-SS Division 2 semifinal on Wednesday, Nov. 10, at the William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center in Irvine.

“They’re a good team,” San Juan Hills coach Ivan Buich said of Yorba Linda. “They won, they beat us on a play, and they beat us on a 6-on-5. They deserve it. We fought to the very end, we had our chances, and we hit a couple bars that would’ve sealed it right away. Doesn’t go our way.”

San Juan Hills (19-12) won the Sea View League championship again this season, and after earning a first-round bye in the Division 2 playoffs, the Stallions dominated Pacifica of Garden Grove in the quarterfinals, 21-7. San Juan Hills then edged Westlake, 10-9, to reach the semifinals.

“This group was one of the most

SAN JUAN FOOTBALL

ROUNDUP

BY ZACH CAVANAGH, THE CAPISTRANO DISPATCH

For in-game updates, news and more for all of the San Juan Capistrano high school sports programs, follow us on Twitter @SouthOCSports.

St. Margaret’s Rolls in Division 9 Opener

With the implementation of the new computer ranking-based playoff system for the CIF-SS football playoffs, St. Margaret’s could consider itself lucky to have made the field. The Tartans had a good regular season at 6-4 overall, but as a freelance team without a league to

St. Margaret’s goes on the road in the Division 9 quarterfinals, as the Tartans travel to San Dimas on Friday, Nov. 12. Find full coverage of this game on Twitter @SouthOCSports and online at thecapistranodispatch.com.

San Juan Hills (white caps) battled into the fourth overtime of its CIF-SS Division 2 semifinal, but Yorba Linda (dark caps) netted the golden-goal game-winner in the extra session to eliminate the Stallions. Photo: Zach Cavanagh

amazing groups I’ve ever had, if not the most amazing group,” Buich said. “Every boy fought for everything they believed in. They fought for the whole season. We went through everything, and we’re still little San Juan coming up through the ranks, but this is where we should be.”

San Juan Hills has worked its way up the CIF-SS ladder during Buich’s tenure with the program. San Juan Hills qualified for the Division 5 championship game in 2016 and returned to the title game in 2019 in Division 4. There were no CIF-SS playoffs last season due to the pandemic, but the Stallions still got themselves within a razor’s edge from a return trip to the title game in their highest division placing yet in Division 2.

“Seven seasons ago, we were not winning any league games, five-win seasons, and now we’re playing at the highest level we ever have,” Buich said. “It’s a huge thing for our program. We’re only growing. We have great younger kids coming up, and a lot of our group is juniors and sophomores. Our main guys were seniors, but we have a lot of guys coming up.”

Seniors Landon Kies and Nick Lindsay and sophomore John Marano all led San Juan Hills with two goals each. Senior Ethan Hunnicut and juniors William Pezold and Barni Szekely each scored one goal for the Stallions.

San Juan Hills scored the first two goals of the game, but Yorba Linda came back with three straight goals to take the lead. Yorba Linda led by one goal at halftime, 5-4, and after three quarters, 6-5.

The fourth quarter was a back-andforth sprint to the end, as San Juan Hills leveled the score three times to negate Yorba Linda’s leads. Yorba Linda scored with 22 seconds left to put San Juan Hills on the back foot once again, but with 10 seconds left, Kies fed Lindsay at the far post to slam in the game-tying goal.

Yorba Linda scored in the first overtime period on a controversial play. After a Yorba Linda shot, the San Juan Hills goalie had the ball and was collecting it on the water’s surface. A Yorba Linda attacker forced the play on the ball and muscled it into the goal for a lead, 9-8.

San Juan Hills would tie it up in the second overtime period, and from there, it was “golden goal” overtime periods, meaning the next goal wins.

The teams went scoreless in the third overtime, and Yorba Linda potted the winner in the first minute of the fourth extra session to take the match, 10-9. CD

automatically qualify from, St. Margaret’s needed the right draw when it came time to slot teams into divisions after the regular season.

Ultimately, St. Margaret’s was the only freelance team selected as an at-large entry in the entire CIF-SS playoff field, and with a home game awarded to the Tartans in Division 9, St. Margaret’s took its opportunity and ran with it.

St. Margaret’s senior quarterback Jack Ruff threw seven touchdown passes as the Tartans dominated visiting Hueneme of Oxnard, 48-6, on Friday, Nov. 5, at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School.

The Tartans led, 14-0, after the first quarter, 34-0 at halftime, and 48-0 after three quarters.

Ruff completed 14 of 20 passes for 255 yards. Will Stahl was the standout wide receiver with six receptions for 117 yards and two touchdowns. Derek Smith and Makai Todd each made two touchdown catches, and Sam Dunnell caught another touchdown pass.

Todd also led the defensive effort with 13 tackles and a sack. Riley Chester recovered a fumble.

Roundup

JSerra earned an at-large spot in Division 2, despite finishing with a 3-7 overall record. The Lions had a road rematch with Sierra Canyon, but despite a near-miraculous comeback in the fourth quarter, JSerra lost, 42-35.

San Juan Hills was the highest-ranked team to not make the CIF-SS playoffs. The Stallions were in the Division 3 group, but a 3-7 record had them below other at-large candidates.

Capistrano Valley Christian was left disappointed despite its 8-2 record on the season. Like St. Margaret’s, CVC was a freelance team, and the Eagles couldn’t find an at-large spot in its Division 12 grouping. CD