TRIBAL REVIVAL VALLEY INDIANS FIGHT FOR OFFICIAL STATUS.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

SAN FERNANDO - Gripping a white oak staff topped with a carved bear, Fernandeno-Tataviam Chief Rudy ``Little Bear'' Ortega Sr. began the epic tale of his great-grandfather's fight with a grizzly bear 130 years ago in the Antelope Valley.

``Santiago Garcia went out hunting in 1870 and wounded a grizzly bear,'' said the 73-year-old leader of the San Fernando Valley tribe, savoring each word of the story, passed down through generations.

``Looking to finish the job the following day, he hid in the bushes. The bear smelled him and approached the bushes. They went at it. He stabbed the bear again,'' he said. ``They both died at what is now Littlerock Dam.''

More than a story, this piece of oral history is a lingering reminder of a tribe that Ortega said once numbered in the thousands but now counts only some 340 people in the Valley.

Like their ancestors who faced extinction, this group now is locked in what could be a defining last battle: to win federal recognition as a distinct tribe.

``A lot of tribes are losing their culture,'' Ortega said while visiting the Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana, where his ancestors were born.

``We have to preserve ours. We have to tell our children that we are American Indian. They have to learn our traditions so we don't die out. A lot of people think we're all gone; that we're not here anymore. We're still here and we never left.''

Gaining federal recognition would empower them to protect ancestral burial grounds, legally possess ceremonial artifacts like eagle feathers and qualify them for certain government benefits. They insist their efforts are for pride, not as a ploy to open yet another Indian casino.

``This is a long and extremely difficult process to go through,'' said Bureau of Indian Affairs spokesman Rex Hackler. ``Some tribes have been continually asking for recognition for 30 years. The prize is a government-to-government relationship with the United States. It gives them a great opportunity to maintain their culture and their way of life.''

The tribe has taken the key step by filing a letter of intent with the BIA. They expect to formally apply after completing research.

The UCLA American Indian Studies Center is helping authenticate the group's ancestry. And Ortega met last week with state Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-Van Nuys, who said he would examine whether they could qualify for state recognition.

``If they meet the criteria, I'd by happy to sponsor legislation or a resolution to support their designation as an official tribe,'' said Alarcon, who once did an Indian sweat with Ortega.

Anthony Morales, chairman and chief of the Gabrielino-Tongva Tribal Council in San Gabriel, said his tribe has state recognition but is working for federal recognition. He wishes the Fernandeno-Tataviam tribe luck.

``We as Native Americans feel federal recognition should be something that is due to us,'' said Morales, whose tribe of 2,000 to 3,000 gained state recognition in 1994. ``Why do we have to prove our Indian-ness when we all have BIA numbers? We're all over the history books.''

For Ortega and his tribe, documenting their history in writing has been difficult because, beyond a few stories, the path to the ancestry has faded with time.

Ortega was 7 when he learned he was an American Indian, after he asked his mother why he was being cast in school plays in that role.

``My mother said, `That's OK. You're an Indian. That's why they put you up there to beat the drum,' '' he said. ``I asked her, What kind of Indian? She said, `I don't know.' ''

Finding the answer became a lifelong obsession.

Ortega learned that before his people moved to the San Fernando Mission, they were called Tataviam, an American Indian word meaning, ``people facing the sun.'' The Spanish named them the Fernandenos.

``We represent the bear clan,'' Ortega said, wearing a squash blossom necklace of bear claws. ``The chief elders always carried the bear staff. The bears are sacred to us.''

After serving during World War II and while working as a Lockheed riveter and mail carrier in San Fernando, Ortega twice tried to get BIA recognition for the tribe. His efforts were rejected twice for lack of documentation.

Undaunted, tribal members continued to research, and in 1995, Ortega filed a letter of intent to petition for federal recognition.

The tribe found a key ally in the UCLA American Indian Studies Center, which won a one-year, $56,000 federal grant to help with the research. Center researcher Heather Singleton has unearthed BIA documents from the 1920s, '40s, and '60s that the center believes will meet the BIA's requirements for federal recognition.

``We have clear evidence that the tribe was recognized by the federal government in the past,'' said Singleton.

Typically, the BIA requires tribes to document tribal history back to the 1800s with genealogies, marital, birth and death records and archaeological evidence. The center plans to show the government already recognized the tribe with BIA payment records to Gabrielinos and Fernandenos in exchange for land.

``The Fernandenos in Rudy's group have longstanding records with the BIA about they and their ancestors receiving cash payments for land claims here in California,'' said Duane Champagne, director of the UCLA center.

``We are testing a new theory in California Indian law,'' Champagne said. ``There is no doubt about their lineages.''

According to his pedigree, Ortega is the grandson of Antonio M. Ortega, who was born at the mission in 1857. Antonio was the son of Fernando Ortega, born about 1830, and Maria Rita Alipas, born at the mission in about 1829. Alipas' father, Francisco Papabubaba, also a mission Indian, was the original American Indian grantee of the 4,400-acre Rancho El Encino. Antonio married Ysidora Garcia.

Ortega's great-grandfather Santiago Garcia - Ysidora's father - was born in Sonora, Calif., and was chief of a tribe at what is now Littlerock before he was killed by a grizzly bear.

Ghosts of Ortega's past offer him strength, he said.

Three years ago, Ortega's son, 25-year-old Rudy ``Standing Bear'' Ortega Jr., went to where the bear killed Garcia and fasted for four days to prepare himself as the tribe's new medicine man. To do that, he had to make peace with the bear that killed his great-great grandfather, a man who was famous for the number of bears he had killed.

``I had a vision of an ancient village of elders who lived and farmed there,'' he said. ``They were amazed to see me and were glad we had not forgotten them.''

He met the spirit of the bear and could feel her breath on his back. He saw his great-great grandfather fighting the bear.

On the fourth day of fasting, the spirits of the tribe's bears appeared with a question: Would he carry on his father's work if he dies before the tribe is recognized?

``I hope to keep up his work as much as I can,'' he said. ``If I pass away, I want my child to continue the pursuit.''

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo: (1 -- color) Members of the Fernandeno tribal council stand near a statue of Friar Junipero Serra, founder of the San Fernando Mission.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer

(2) This photo of Fernandeno Indians was taken in 1918, in front of a house in San Fernando.

Fernandeno-Tataviam Tribal Council

(3) In 1968, Chief Little Bear regrouped the Fernandeno Indians to restart the tribe, and applied for federal recognition.

(4) In 1973, Fernandeno Indians came back to their home ground - San Fernando Mission - for the first time since 1900.

Fernandeno-Tataviam Tribal Council