At a recent event honoring Indian veterans, Henry Rodriguez, the oldest living La Jolla Indian veteran, said, “Indian people never say goodbye. They say ‘See you later.’”
He was also known for beginning his invocations thus: “Grandfather, it’s a beautiful day!” and to tell his friends and relatives: “Go out and have a beautiful day!”
Mr. Rodriguez, one of the most highly respected Indians in San Diego County, and one of Valley Center’s prominent citizens, was killed in a car accident in Pauma Valley on Thursday morning as he was pulling out of the La Jolla Indian Reservation.
He was 82.
A peacemaker, storyteller, activist, historian, all of the words wrapped up in the word: Elder, although many called him “Uncle Henry.” Mr. Rodriguez was frequently seen at events in area, where he would give invocations that recalled the days of the Native Americans who once solely inhabited this region.
No services or mass are planned, according to his wish. He also did not want public viewing. A tribute is pending and will be announced later, according to the family.
His remains will be cremated.
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Henry Rodriguez was born March 5, 1919, on the La Jolla Indian Reservation.
As a boy his people lived on the Cuca Ranch area of Palomar Mountain.
Rodriguez was a member of what we call today the Luiseño but which he said were called the Pay-o-mac People, the Western People.
About 50 people lived in the village where he grew up. Their main village was at Cuca but there were other villages and reciprocating alliances and an area common to them that stretched from San Juan Capistrano to the north, over to Warner Springs and Lake Henshaw in the east.
In those days young Henry’s father farmed all the flat land near what is now Pepperoni’s. “I remember there was a palm tree and a house. My dad farmed all the flat land. He grew alfalfa for the cows and horses,” he recalled.
His people depended on the land for their food supply. Each band had acorn grounds on Palomar Mountain that belonged to them and which others didn’t trespass.
“The whole mountain was my playground!” he recalled.
Rodriguez enjoyed sharing his stories. “I make them real. I tell them the stories about the various animals and apply it to real life and sing the songs that go with it.”
Since the 1940s, Mr. Rodriguez had been a major player in California Indian politics and was a national authority on Indian water rights.
One of the founders of the San Luis Rey Water Authority, he served as president and was on the board of directors. He continued to work with state and federal authorities on environmental protection, repatriation, and health legislation, and was instrumental in bringing healthcare to California reservations.
He was among those who negotiated a settlement with the federal government and Vista and Escondido that obtained water rights for the tribes near the San Luis Rey. Rights that were taken away generations ago.
According to Brandon Cesmat, professor at Cal State San Marcos and Palomar College, Henry Rodriguez was an irreplaceable resource of Native American culture and history.
“Henry always believed in education. He was always a teacher. He developed a curriculum with Oceanside schools and was always available for Palomar or Cal State San Marcos.
“One thing I think he wanted to do was to make sure there was always a place in the schools for his people.”
Rodriguez remembered with shame the fact that he was denied a place at school because he was barefoot.
“You develop a hatred,” he once remarked about his youth. “You don’t know for who or what, but you know you hate someone. I grew up very bitter. But as I grew older I began to ask myself, ‘Who are you angry about?’ ”
Nevertheless this episode made him pursue education all his life.
“He used to say, ‘Education at any cost! And learn the system and learn it well,’” recalls Cesmat. “He would say that to anybody. Anyone who wanted to ask him a question he would answer honestly, even if the answer wasn’t politically expedient. He lived that maxim.”
After high school young Henry went to Phoenix and attended a heavy equipment vocational course and then went to work for a Civilian Conservation Corps camp at Cuyamaca.
He tried to enlist in the Navy in 1940. “They wouldn’t take me. So I got a call from the Air Force in 1941 and joined before the war started,” he recalled.
He was sent to Hawaii right after the Pearl Harbor attack and stayed in the Air Force until 1945.
He got out of the service in 1945 and at a recent celebration of tribal veterans proudly carried the flag of the La Jolla band as the oldest veteran in the tribe.
After the war he went to Camp Pendleton to work with heavy equipment. This helped pay part of his way through San Diego State University.
He didn’t graduate because he had a family to raise. He toyed with becoming a social worker, but decided he wasn’t cut out for that.
That’s when he found his calling. “I finally wound up most of my life working and motivating the tribes,” he recalled.
Rodriguez started serving his people shortly after WWII when he worked out of Arizona State University, dealing with the tribes.
His job was to find the tribes, organize them and teach them how to use the system. “Not to just sit there and take what they threw at them. We were very successful at that.”
His hard-driving boss wouldn’t take no for an answer. “‘If you don’t have an answer, don’t come back, and if you have a negative one, it had better be a good one,’ ” said his boss.
They were able to go to any department at the university for advice. “To me that was great because we had all the expertise from that learning institution. It was up to us to get out in the bushes and find the people.”
He later had a similar job in California. “We have 104 reservations in California and could only find forty of them at the time because the federal government had terminated a bunch of them,” he recalled.
Rodriguez was a source of strength to local Indians for four generations, although sometimes they resisted.
Cesmat recalled that Mr. Rodriguez, “was good at forging coalitions between tribes. He sometimes did this at great peril to himself. Some of the most dangerous situations were in this county.”
He credited the old women of the tribes of preserving his life. “Some of the young guys were ready to do him in and the old women of the tribe told them ‘Leave this guy alone!’ ” said Cesmat.
“That’s how he started the renaissance of tribal politics. He was a big activist. He was capable of forging coalitions,” he said.
Last year Mr. Rodriguez was awarded an honorary doctorate from California State University San Marcos. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters during the university’s commencement ceremony.
His service to the university began when it first opened. He contributed to the organization of the university’s annual Pow Wow, blessed commencement ceremonies and participated in Indian graduation ceremonies,
Until his death Mr. Rodriguez was regarded as an important elder by local Indian communities and helped to preserve indigenous California culture.
He began in the 1940s to capture traditional Luiseño songs on tape. These tapes are preserved at Grossmont College. He served as chairman of the La Jolla Band of Mission Indians and was instrumental in establishing the Southern California Intertribal Council, now the California Tribal Chairman’s Assn.
As an active proponent of Native American education he helped bring Head Start to several reservations. He served as a board member on the Pauma School District. He helped establish Indian studies programs throughout the Southwest.
“We have lost a great teacher, but his lessons are really taking root with students on campus. I get emails and students want to talk about what a good time they had with him,” said Cesmat.
“He won’t be forgotten but what he would be pleased with is that what he taught won’t be forgotten. What he told the students they will remember.
“He walked his talk. And he talked a lot. And he walked a lot. He was a huge force.”
Another close friend of Mr. Rodriguez, Chris “The Woodcutter” Marzalek of Palomar Mountain, said, “We spoke of the air, the deer and the wind and the sandpiper, the pine tree and families of all of his people. A true man of the earth. This mentor’s counsel is no more.”
* * *
Survivors include:
Sister, Julia Yago, Escondido; Robert Rodriguez, son, Palm Springs; Betty Jean Robeen, of La Jolla; Donna Uchimura, Ontario; Patsy Rodriguez, La Jolla; step-brother, Tommy of Washington state; Richard Rodriguez, Chino.
Grandchildren: Victor Vernaci, of La Jolla, Kimberly Lopez, of La Jolla; Michael Vernaci, La Jolla; Robin Santistevans, of San Pasqual Indian Reservation; Tim Uchimura, Orland; Karlene Vernaci, of Irvine; Kelly Uchimura of LA; Susan Magee of Pala; Sam Powvall, of La Jolla; Maureen of Palm Springs, Richard Jr. Rodriguez of La Jolla; Hungla Rodriguez, of San Pasqual; Walter Powvall of La Jolla; Kate Uchimura of Ontario.
Great-grandchildren: Danny Vernaci of La Jolla; Crystal Santistevans of San Pasqual; Monica Lopez of Washington state; Peter Lopez of Washington state; Ken Lopez of La Jolla; Athena Lopez of Las Vegas, Nevada; April Cohoorn of Orland; Rose Tyndle of La Jolla; Fred Santistevans, Jr. of San Pasqual; John Curo of Barona; Georgie and Angela of Washingtston state; Brian Cohoorn of Orland, Ashley Santistevans of San Pasqual; Leishea Macias of La Jolla; Shawna Powvalll of New Mexico; Notah Powvall of Pauma.
Great-great grandchild: Chenoa of San Pasqual.
* * *
A five part series on the life of Henry Rodriguez, derived from an interview with him in 2001, will be available on The Roadrunner website.
Amber Bauer, Miss Valley Center 2001, has not led a normal 20 year old’s life this past year. Instead she experienced the life of a queen. Crowned with sparkling tiara and sash of royalty, she graced the communities all over San Diego with her bright smile and warm personality.
Now it is time for her to pass the title of honor and privilege to the next lucky young lady of Valley Center.
You can join the pageant on Saturday, March 2 at the Valley Center Middle School Auditorium to see who will wear the crown. The doors will open at 6:30 p.m. for seating and the curtains will open at 7 p.m.
The theme is “ALOHA Valley Center.” Tickets are available for $8.00 from the ten contestants, Chamber of Commerce or any of the Valley Center Women’s Club members, or purchased at the door for $10.00. For more information or to purchase your tickets, call the Director, Karen Greene at 749-1863.
Ten bright young ladies will compete for the title of Miss Valley Center 2002. Renee Bierle, Lindsey Cannon, Jessica Grosvenor, Veronica Gutierrez, Shawna Lane, Heather Lyons, Shalom McCullough, Cynthia Pinal, Tiffany Quackenbush and Stephanie Rizzo.
Look for their pictures and biographies in next week’s edition of The Roadrunner.
A Farewell from Miss Valley Center 2001, Amber Bauer: “I would like to thank everyone for their support of our community and our lovely contestants. Wearing my crown and banner as Miss Valley Center 2001 has been both an honor and a privilege. With anticipation and excitement I am sad to see my year as queen come to an end, but feel very fortunate to pass this honor on to the next young lady to become Miss Valley Center.”
“This past year has been very memorable, as well as a growing experience for me. I have learned the value of the saying, ‘Seize the Moment’ for I have cherished each and every event I have attended.”
“From the Western Days Parade, where I got to ride in a Porsche and see all the bright young faces of Valley Center, and the Irish Stew Cook-Off where Ed Phillips taught me how to take a bribe for the winning pot of stew, to getting stuck in the elevator with Miss Ramona Erica Gugliemetti, and Miss Borrego Springs Rachael Smith during the Fairest of the Fair/Miss San Diego Pageant, where I met some of the nicest girls in all of San Diego.”
Living in Valley Center for the past 12 years of my life has opened my eyes to a community full of love and moral support. Valley Center is the type of town I want to raise a family in. Being Miss Valley Center has taught me many responsibilities, such as time management, and the ability to talk with and greet people with more confidence. I could not have done it without the help of my family and friends.”
“Mom and Dad, thank you guys so much for dealing with me this past year. You two are the best parents a girl could ever have. Karen and Dianna Greene, the best directors ever, for teaching me how to be a lady and present myself in front of a huge crowd. Thank you both for all your dedication. Erik and Debbie Jockinsen for being my escort. Without the help of the Valley Center Women’s Club there would not be a Miss Valley Center Pageant, so thank you to all the women who have supported me this past year. And to the director of the Fairest of the Fair, Joe Amaro and his assistant Jackie: Thank you for having confidence in me and giving me advice when I needed it the most. Manuel Cavada, you are a great photographer and really know how to capture the inner beauty in a person. To my special friend Trisha Turner, who was always there for me at the spur of the moment to do my hair. To my best friends, Paige, Sita and Melissa, you girls are awesome and I love you all for putting up with me. Ryan, what would I do without you? You have always been there for me no matter what and have always been a shoulder to cry on. I love you so much.”
“Last but certainly not least, thank you to Valley Center for letting me represent our community. It has been a year I will never forget.”
Local artist Don Schloat has created a powerful bronze sculpture commemorating a massacre of American POWs in 1945. Schloat hopes that bronze will be part of the planned national World War II memorial in Washington D.C.
Schloat, who was himself a POW in the Phillipines, knew many of the victims of the Palawan Massacre of Dec. 14, 1944 when the Japanese killed 150 U.S. POWs by herding them into a building and setting it on fire.
He previously painted a series of paintings that individualized the victims of the massacre. That series was on display at San Diego Veterans Hospital and has received national recognition.
“For years I have been waiting for some kind of public recognition about the tragic event,” Schloat told The Roadrunner. “Finally in 1999, as I knew of no memorial for the massacre, I made a series of commemorative paintings of my own. Adding to the paintings I have just finished a large bronze sculpture, 35 by 26 inches, called Palawan POW Martyr.”
Schloat notes that a new bestselling book Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides, details the Palawan Massacre.
“Even better,” says Schloat. “Tom Hanks and Director Steven Spielberg will reunite for Ghost Soldiers. The story is about the rescue of American POWs from Cabantuan, another Japanese prison camp in the Philippines during WWII, a camp where I also had been imprisoned.
“Now the whole world will know of the Palawan Massacre. I guess my part is over,” said Schloat.
By DAVID ROSS
(Second in a series of three interviews with candidates for Fifth District Supervisor).
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The Roadrunner interviewed Kevin Barnard last week.
A native San Diegan, Barnard “watched as our county basically has sprawled all over itself. I keep seeing where our leaders, faced with decisions about how we are going to go, simply don’t do the right thing,” Barnard said.
“I believe we can plan and build in a way that will allow you to live in any type community that you desire, urban, suburban, and rural. . . and that wherever you live you are near some open space/preserve, or park land.”
He adds, “I believe we can not only preserve, but restore some of our watershed and open space areas through thoughtful use and development/re-development of our remaining lands. If we build out from coast to mountains we’ll live like crazed rodents clamoring for escape.”
Barnard says “the raw pursuit of wealth is destroying the quality of life in too many instances. What I’m about is balancing those forces out where we can continue to build our wealth without destroying the quality of life.”
Developments, he says, are being approved without community participation, without taking into account community character and without infrastructure.
“This is going to catch up with us, and in fact it caught up with us a long time ago,” says Barnard.
Barnard’s path to candidacy began in Harmony Grove, an unincorporated community near Escondido, which cast covetous eyes towards its potential tax revenues.
“Harmony Grove is a very small and intimate place. They wanted to carve out the valley floor as an annexation and build an industrial park,” recalls Barnard. “We were looking at not only the complete destruction of community character but the potential of roads and traffic that would have taken many residents’ property in eminent domain.”
He was assigned to talk to Supervisor Bill Horn and lay out the problem and ask Horn to form a planning group.
“The response from Horn’s aide was: ‘The supervisor doesn’t want more levels of government, thank you very much,’ ” says Barnard.
Harmony Grove residents formed a citizens’ group and planning committee independent of the County. Eventually Barnard was asked to chair it. A 22 year veteran San Diego police officer, he brought his experience with “problem-oriented policing,” to the table.
Two factions existed: home owners and big farmland owners.
The citizens’ group saw the farmers as evil ones who wanted to attract industrial developers.
Barnard decided his group was not a viable organization since it represented one faction. He invited the owner of a key piece of property to join.
“People began to recognize that they were all neighbors and had children in college and they weren’t the enemy. This gentleman on the one hand realized the impact he would have on those he now recognized as neighbors if he sold his land. Some homes would cease to exist because they would be in parkways,” recalls Barnard.
One day he announced that he was longer wanted to sell.
“In that small move we did more to protect ourselves than all the CEQA lawsuits could have.
“A wonderful thing happened. Residents began to recognize that this gentleman had property that he wanted to develop and viewed as an investment. Those who were unrealistic about wanting it to be open space were educated.
“We are headed for a residential buildup that speaks to the ag owners and what they feel they should get, and yet retains rural character.”
Barnard sees this pattern repeated all over North County.
“With the right kind of leadership and tools our community has the creativity to solve how we are going to grow and use our land.”
Barnard jokingly refers to the commute situation in North County as “the lemming factor.”
“You are part of a mass of creative looking for a cliff to run over.”
He links transportation issues to land use. “You can’t separate the two.”
He would tell Escondido to develop land within its own borders, and to “stop sprawling.”
He would stop pressuring small towns like VC to develop by telling cities like Escondido: “Look within yourself first. Make the commitment to redevelop. If we don’t commit to that kind of development we can never support any meaningful mass transit,” he says.
“Escondido has elements downtown for a beautiful urban options. It has the California Center for the Arts, Escondido and property like the Montgomery Ward that are between the arts center and transportation that is ripe for urban, mixed use that would be an exciting option,” he says.
He criticizes Horn’s idea of a third inland corridor freeway.
“The day we announced Highway 56, the open space began to infill. The day it is connected the land will be infilled. I predict it will be a D or F grade highway the day it opens.
Horn’s statement that government already owns 60% of the land in the County alarms Barnard. “What I get from that is that the rest of the 40 percent will be built out from the coast to the foot of our coastal mountains.”
Barnard points to Woods Valley Ranch here in VC. “That development to a large degree doesn’t fit in with Valley Center. It’s less rural and more like a country club.”
He says 60% of Horn’s contributors are linked to big development. “I don’t characterize developers as evil. There are good people and some that don’t give a damn. You need a supervisor who can make distinctions when you have a developer who is not conscientious.”
Although cities like San Diego and Escondido want to annex unincorporated areas, the County, with seats on the Local Agency Formation Commission, has a voice.
“The County is not taking a hard line position. I don’t see energy being put in affecting LAFCO decisions,” says Barnard. “I won’t say I’m going to stop annexations, but appropriateness is the key here.
“The County can also support recognizable unincorporated communities like Fallbrook, Bonsall and Valley Center. It needs to service communities in ways that support community character.”
He wants the County to return to providing fire protection for unincorporated communities that need it. He criticizes Horn for voting against buying a regional rescue helicopter.
“Would this regional helicopter have stopped the Fallbrook fire? No, but Horn is going in the opposite direction for services.
“I’m a fiscal conservative, but you get to a point where you have a fire alarm and you have to buy batteries. You’ve got to spend your money well and get the best bang for the buck.
“We are anemic in this area. When you talk about protecting unincorporated community character, you do it by providing basic services so they aren’t as vulnerable.”
Barnard has been called “The Sierra Club candidate.” He says, “I’ve got their endorsement. I’ve never been a member. I’m not owned by the Sierra Club. I’ve never taken money from them.
“I’m proud they consider me someone who would listen to their concerns. However I’m also very concerned about people’s property rights.”
General Plan 2020 has the potential to downzone some people’s property, he says.
“I’ve no desire to see someone hurt by this process. I’m a coalition kind of guy who wants to see that everyone gets a fair shake.”
He supports TDRs (transferred development rights), a concept that allows one landowner to sell his potential to develop to another landowner.
He understands those concerns because he owned a piece of vacant land that almost was rendered unusable except as a park.
“There’s inherent risk in owning raw land and that’s something that people don’t realize. Horn says he’s pro-property rights. I think he’s development rights.”
Replying to the accusation that he’s “A Democrat,” Barnard retorts, “I’m of that generation that doesn’t find partisan politics that interesting. I’ve voted for both Republicans and Democrats.
Barnard got into the race after the recent redistricting process.
“Two things concerned me: I looked around that hearing room. It was very distasteful, politics at its worst. I wondered how many people there were going to pull up their tents and go home and not be involved in a community process again?
“That’s when I said we’ve got to find someone to run against this guy.”
A neighbor turned to him and said, “You’ve got to do it.”
The idea gained momentum and Barnard decided it was viable. He has since December raised $25,000-$30,000. “Our contribution base is eclectic, developers, conservationists, people in neighborhoods.”
Visit the Kevin Barnard website at ksbarnard2002@yahoo.com or call his campaign at 760-743-6100
The Valley Roadrunner
P.O.B. 1529, Valley Center, CA 92082
Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
Website: www.valleycenter.com
Email: editor@valleycenter.com
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