Vol. 14, No. 3, Spring 2001

Acjachemen Gardens:
A History of Collective Memory

Kirsten Meyer, with Steve O’Neil

In the past, gardens were a necessity. Traditional Acjachemen gardens consisted of both food and medicinal herbs. With no doctor in town, the Acjachemen community had to rely on traditional homeopathic remedies. Today, gardens are often seen as time-consuming luxuries. Knowledge of plants and their medicinal uses is no longer commonly passed down by parents. Only a handful of people in the Acjachemen community today have a working knowledge of traditional plant uses.

Steve O’Neil is an ethnographer with a particular interest in Acjachemen ethnobotany. He started visiting the Acjachemen community in San Juan Capistrano twenty-three years ago to investigate various aspects of its cultural heritage. Since 1987, he has been conducting interviews with local community members, particularly regarding gardens and the healing properties of plants. This article is primarily based on information that he gathered, although credit is given directly to his sources whenever possible. Informal interviews about gardens were also conducted with David Belardes and Ruth Lobo, both Acjachemen cultural practitioners.

The Need For Family Lore

By the end of the 1980s, the generation with knowledge about plants consisted of older women. They had generally not passed the information on to their daughters, because their generation was the last that had had an immediate need for it. When these olden women were teenagers, there was still no doctor in San Juan Capistrano, and women still had to take care of all minor illnesses for themselves. All young women were trained in this way prior to about 1940; it was part of their preparation to assume a domestic role as mothers and wives.

It was not until the late 1930s that San Juan Capistrano got its first doctor. Before that time, a doctor would have to be sent for in the event of an emergency. When the train came through, the train conductor would be given a message to relay to the nearest doctor, who was in Santa Ana. The doctor would usually plan to stay overnight, because after he had attended to the emergency, he would have to see everyone else in town who had been "saving up" their symptoms of persistent and more serious illnesses. It was the arrival of regular medical care in the 1940s, and easier access to hospitals (via the automobile), which lead to the erosion of family plant lore.

Multiple Traditions

Throughout the twentieth Century, knowledge of plants in the Acjachemen community was a mix of traditional Native American, Spanish, and Mexican knowledge. Bloodlines and cultures were intermingled. Priests, soldiers, and Mexican nationals had introduced new plants into the San Juan Capistrano area. For this reason, most plants now have names in Spanish or Nahuatl, as well as Acjachemen. The Acjachemen word for elderberry (Sp. sauco) is kuut, yerba manso is cheevant, prickly pear cactus (Sp. Nopal) is navut, and jimson weed is naktumush. The Spanish and Acjachemen terms are frequently used interchangeably in conversation.

In the past decade, two women have been considered especially knowledgeable of Native plants: Juanita Foy de Rios and Bernice Jim de Doram. Juanita spoke with Steve for several days in 1987 and 1990. Bernice Jim was the granddaughter of Acu, Jose de Gracia Cruz , a man who has long been in the eye of the larger world (see Paul Apodaca’s review of Capistrano Nights in News from Native California 12(3):21-22). Bernice Jim died before Steve was able to speak with her, but she had given several public talks with Juanita Rios. During these talks, her friend Mary Allen took note of what Bernice spoke about. The following information is based on these notes, and is corroborated by discussions with Bernice’s brother and sister, Don and Petra.

Jimson weed leaves, heated in oil, can be used to relieve the pain of boils.

Hair can be washed with teas or infusions of malva or white sage to keep a healthy scalp and prevent hair loss.

White sage was used externally to prevent poison oak rash and to treat it afterwards, if necessary (which suggests that it may not have been very effective at preventing it).

Elderberry tea was used to break the fever of measles.

The inner bark of the willow tree can be chewed on to help sore teeth, tighten loose teeth, and relieve pain from gum disease. (Willow is the source of aspirin.)

Yerba manso was used to purify the blood, and was frequently drunk as a general tonic. Its most common use, however, was as a wash to relieve sore muscles and rashes.

For scratches, rashes, and sores, plantain, watercress, alfalfa, or horehound (whichever was readily available) could be used to produce a soothing wash for the infected areas.

Coyote melon was cut up into pieces and rubbed onto clothes until it lathered up like soap to wash and bleach them. Coyote melon was used in San Juan Capistrano throughout the Great Depression, when money for soap was scarce. In the old, old days, it was also used to wash hair.

Soap root also has the same material in its roots that the coyote melon has in the fruit, and can be used in the same manner.

Ruth Lobo saves the rinds of pomegranates to boil as a remedy for sore throats and coughs. She also takes the flowers of the elderberry to use for an eyewash. (To prepare the eyewash, you would put the flowers into a bowl of water, and let them seep at room temperature).

Juanita Rios was a primary source of information about the uses of Yerba manso, which does not grow well in gardens because it requires a marshy environment. You have to go out and get it. It is very mild, and has many purposes. It is mostly used externally on sores, scrapes, and rashes. The roots are sliced, boiled until the water turns red, and the water is then used as a wash.

Juanita also shared information about the ruda plant (Garden Rue), which has both medicinal and spiritual value. The ruda plant gives a strong odor that is displeasing to most people, but its potency makes it a good earache medicine. The leaves were heated in a pan with oil, and then wrapped in cotton and applied to the ear. Even today, ruda is often found near the front and back entrances of Acjachemen homes. Originally this was to keep bad energies or ill wishes from entering the house, although many people now are unaware of ruda’s significance. The protective qualities of the ruda plant were recognized by the ancient Romans, and during the Middle Ages the Catholic Church sprinkled holy water with branches of ruda. The plant and its uses were introduced to the San Juan Capistrano area by Mexican colonists carrying on the Spanish traditions.

Many Families

Over the years, different families have practiced and passed down different traditional uses of plants. For example, in one family a particular plant might be used for cuts and scratches, while in another family the same plant might be used for an internal illness. Likewise, some plants well known to one family were not used at all by others. Thus, to get an accurate view of Acjachemen ethnobotany, numerous people need to be interviewed.

Women were not the exclusive holders of botanical lore. Matias Belardes was a vaquero of the old school, and spent most of his days in the hills and on the plains. His son, David Belardes, now tribal chair of the Acjachemen Band of Mission Indians, remembers his father collecting jackrabbit ear, pennyroyal, and other plants for teas. He was a curandero, always keeping bags of seeds and flowers stashed in the rafters for medicinal purposes.

Use of herbs in the Acjachemen community is still so common that many people do not realize that it may not be something that every "American" household does. For example, Ruth Lobo still keeps white sage in her refrigerator. White sage has been widely as a purifier during illnesses, after deaths, and at births, but it is so common as an everyday room "sanitizer" that it is sometimes taken for granted.

Ruth Lobo, Juanita Rios, and Evelyn Villegas have indicated that the presence of mint (Yerba Buena) was so common, that purchasing it would be unheard of. Each of these women spoke of going out into the fields to gather medicinal herbs. Even if they did not have them in their gardens, they knew (and still know) where to get the particular plants that they need.

Each Generation Has a Choice

Ruth Lobo talks about the "collective memory" of gardens and the knowledge of medicinal uses of herbs that is passed down from generation to generation. She has certain things in her garden that are there because her mother had them, and her grandmother before her, and so on. Each generation has a choice, whether to make use of the plants, and whether to keep them in the collective memory to be passed down to future generations. Like Ruth says, "use it or lose it."

The most important thing about the way Ruth keeps her garden is that she does not kill or pull any weeds. Many of the plants we call weeds have important uses. She says, "my yard looks terrible, the plants are about two feet tall, but it’s okay." As a result, one of her unique practices is to use the roots of the mustard plants, and others she does not even know the names of, for teas.

Currently, there is some interest in starting a community garden to preserve traditional Acjachemen knowledge of plants. The educational nonprofit organization Payomkawichum Kaamalam has plans for a video documentary of Acjachemen gardens and their medicinal plants. David Belardes is working with the Capistrano Valley Unified School District’s Title IV Indian Education Program to build a new garden for the Lobo Lodge (where the Indian Education Program is housed). The garden will have vegetables and drought-resistant native plants, including sage. This project will be an important resource for the local Acjachemen community to teach their children the medicinal uses of different plants, and to nurture in them an understanding and value of all the natural world.

Kirsten Meyer is of Cherokee, Lenape, Lakota, and Choctaw heritage. She is currently working as a civil rights equity assistance intern for WestEd, and a Director of Programs and Development for Payomkawichum Kaamalam. She would like to thank David Belardes and Ruth Lobo for sharing their stories with her.