Juaneno Get Recognition: Penny Slots Ahoy!

On March 7, the OC Board of Supervisors officially acknowledged the Juaneno band of Mission Indians as Orange County's aboriginal tribe. Aboriginal comes from the Latin 'ab', meaning from, and 'originis', meaning before Don Bren or even Junipero Serra showed up.

We last covered the Juaneno in December [me, Strangers in a Strange Land, Dec. 7 2005], when we worried about the proximity of the proposed toll road to their sacred ancestral stomping grounds.

You can read the resolution, put forth by Supervisor Wilson, here

Why do I care? Because I watched Peter Pan too many times as a kid and developed an as-yet unquenched crush for Tiger Lily. But ALSO because the 241 toll road extension isn't slated for completion until 2011-12. If this action green-lights any aspect of the federal recognition process for the Juaneno, the Transportation Corridor Agencies could suddenly find themselves up against a great deal more legal and grassroots opposition than they've yet experienced.