Native American Sacred Sites

 

The Orange County Native American Sacred Sites Task Force
is fighting to preserve the last remaining Native American Cultural Heritage Sites in Orange County. Over 90% of Orange County’s archaeological sites have already been destroyed or paved over by development. Our last remaining cultural sites are a unique and irreplaceable resource. The Task Force supports the preservation and state acquisition of the Holocene village and cogstone manufacturing site at Bolsa Chica in Huntington Beach, and is focusing efforts to preserve an endangered cultural heritage site in San Juan Capistrano -- the ethnographic Late Period village of Putiidhem – as a California Indian Cultural Heritage Center.

Friends of Putiidhem
Friends of Putiidhem sponsoring organizations include the California Cultural Resources Preservation Alliance (CCRPA); Sierra Sage, the South Orange County group of the Angeles Chapter Sierra Club; the Orange County Native American Sacred Sites Task Force; and The Juaneno Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation, who are working together to preserve one of Orange County’s most endangered cultural heritage sites,“Putiidhem”, an archaeological site in San Juan Capistrano.
Putiidhem is the mother village for the Acjachemen people. The site is also registered as a Sacred Site with the California Native American Heritage Commission.  Today, over 500 Acjachemen/Juaneño descendants can trace their ancestry to this village and cemetery through the Mission records.  Archaeological test excavations have revealed the presence of burials as well as a wide range of artifacts representing a late period village including projectile points, scrapers, knives, cores, pestles, bowls, manos and metates, shell fishhooks, net weight sinkers, bone awls and other artifacts. This rare and unique cultural property is under immediate threat of development by a private high school.

For further information on how you can help support the preservation of California's unique cultural heritage, go to: www.sacredsitesca.org or call Rebecca Robles at (949)347-1255 or email: rrobles5@cox.net.

Thanks!

 

California Cultural Resources Preservation Alliance (CCRPA)
is a non-profit organization and coalition of archaeologists, Native Americans, Cultural Resource Managers, and the interested public working together to preserve archaeological sites.  The California Cultural Resources Preservation Alliance works with developers, landowners, decision-makers, and the public to preserve important historic sites of outstanding cultural resource value and facilitates local partnerships with state agencies to earmark state bond funds to acquire and preserve cultural resources. It was founded in 1995 by Dr. Patricia Martz.

 

The Sierra Sage - South Orange County Group

is a regional entity of the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club and primarily serves residents of southern Orange County with a national voice of over 730,000 members.  It campaigns to preserve open space, natural and cultural resources, promotes a clean environment, sustainable consumption, and transportation reform in south Orange County and environs, and offers alternatives to urban sprawl. In addition to monthly conservation and action committee meetings, the group conducts hikes and other recreational outings to demonstrate to the public the beautiful wild open places within Orange County and explains why those areas should be preserved. The Sierra Club was founded in 1892 by conservationist, John Muir.

 

The Juaneno Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation

is a California State recognized Native American Indian Tribe. Numbering some 2,550 tribal members today, the Acjachemen were the original inhabitants of the lands that became Orange County, California. The Acjachemen lived in a series of villages, including one known as Putiidhem, the Acjachemen mother village and Sacred Site in San Juan Capistrano. After contact with the Spanish in 1769, the Acjachemen were named the Juaneno and provided the labor force to build the Mission and the original Los Rios adobes. Putiidhem, a nationally significant California Native American cultural heritage site, holds the burials of direct ancestors of the Acjachemen and holds unique signficance to the history, tradition and culture of the tribe. Tribal members are working to preserve the land in a manner consistent with its spiritual and traditional importance.