| A FIGHT TO SAVE A
SACRED SITE
California Cultural Resources
Preservation Alliance
Patricia Martz, Ph.D., President
The site is Putiidhem, a unique
archaeological site that has cultural, spiritual and scientific value. It is listed in the California Native
American Heritage Commission’s Register of Sacred Sites. It has been determined eligible for listing
in the National Register of Historic Places under criterion A as a Traditional
Cultural Property, the founding village of the Juaneño/Acjachemem. The
traditional cultural values are documented through oral traditions regarding
the founding of Putiidhem that were passed from generation to generation and
documented in mission records and the historic accounts of Father Geronimo Boscana
in the 18th century. Based on this information it is eligible under criterion B
as a place that is associated with a person important in history: Corrine, the
woman chief who founded the village, it is extremely rare that a prehistoric
archaeological site can be associated with a named person. Finally, it is eligible under criterion D for
the potential to provide information important in history and prehistory.
The site is located in San Juan
Capistrano on a 29 acre property on the corner of Camino Capistrano and
Juniperro Serra. The site has been
almost completely destroyed by the construction of sports facilities, including
a gym, swimming pool, and playing fields for a private Catholic High School,
which ironically is named after Junipero Serra, the priest who established the
missions that led to the destruction of the California Indians, including the
Juaneño who are named after Mission San Juan Capistrano.
Putiidhem once was a triving
village with a spring, wetlands, community spaces and burial grounds. The JSerra Catholic High School now occupies
the site. The city of San Juan
Capistrano, as lead agency for the JSerra Catholic High School project under
the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), was not providing meaningful
oversight to ensure that even their limited mitigation requirements were
implemented. The capping of the so
called sensitive area of the site, (based on a 2% subsurface sample of eight
acres of the site and where the reburials lie) was not done according to the
National Park Service archaeological site capping guidelines and could not be
considered a preservation measure as, unfortunately, the cemetery area was
graded and compacted. Other mitigation measures to protect the sensitive area,
such as monitored hand digging for the installation of various underground
facilities were not always followed.
The California Cultural Resources
Preservation Alliance (CCRPA) is a 501 ( c) (3) non-profit organization. It is a coalition of Native Americans,
archaeologists, cultural resource management specialists, and preservationists
working together to identify and preserve important archaeological and cultural
sites. The coalition was formed in
December 1998 in response to accelerating development in Orange County and the
loss of a number of significant cultural sites, including a coastal village and
cemetery site dating to 9000 years ago.
One of our first tasks was to prepare a list of the 10 most endangered
significant archaeological sites in the County.
The village and cemetery site of Putiidhem was at the top of the list.
Since 2002 CCRPA has worked with
the Juaneno/Acjachemem tribal members and the Sierra Club Sacred Sites Task
Force to try and preserve the site.
CCRPA and the Sierra Club Sacred
Sites Task Force met with city council members, the property owners, Pueblo
Serra, Inc., the developers, the Bishop of the Orange County Archdiocese, and
the Trust for Public Lands, and held public education events to present an
alternate plan which would preserve the site with native plants and a minimally
invasive interpretive center. When these
efforts failed, CCRPA wrote letters to politicians and opinion pages, spoke to
reporters and participated in a Channel 4 documentary regarding attempts by the
California Indians to protect their sacred sites. The Sierra Club Sacred Sites Task Force and
Native Americans held prayer vigils at the site. CCRPA, Sierra Club Sacred Sites Task Force
and Native Americans went door to door with petitions, spoke against the
destruction at the public hearings, and wrote letters criticizing the
inadequate and insensitive mitigation measures in the environmental impact
report. Realizing that the California
Environmental Quality Act provided no protection, CCRPA and the Sierra Club Sacred Sites Task Force, with
strong support from the Native American community, turned to the federal courts
for protection.
CCRPA felt that federal laws and
regulations were circumvented and that the site was almost completely
destroyed. Therefore, CCRPA, with
assistance from the Sierra Club, brought suit to preserve what was left of the
site.
The overall objective was to
prevent any further impacts to the known burial area and to obtain off-site
mitigation in terms of funding for appraisals and options to purchase adjacent
properties containing cultural deposits believed to be associated with the
sacred site. These properties are in
danger of development and the hope was to assist the city in their purchase for
preservation as open space.
The lawsuit forced the developer
to employ an independent archaeologist, limit excavation, and provide daily
logs among other mitigations and protective measures. The lawsuit was then settled with significant
payment from the developer to a trust to aid in the acquisition of offsite property
in order to protect other important resources and to provide access for the
Juaneno descendants to the ancestral lands.
Offsite mitigation is an available form of mitigation under the
regulations implementing section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.
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