Tribal Captain
Rogerio Rocha
Rogerio Rocha, baptized in the mission of San Fernando, was Tribal Captain of the Fernandeño Historical Indian Tribe.
Under the Mexican-ruled California in 1843, approximately 50 Fernandeño leaders that survived the Mission system negotiated for land amounting to over 18,000 acres of the San Fernando Valley for the collective benefit of the Fernandeños.
In an effort to regain their homelands Tribal Captain Rogerio Rocha and a group of Fernandeño ancestors occupied a tract of land that was owned by local land developer and ex-California Senator Charles Maclay and George Porter. Rocha was sued twice by Maclay for illegally occupying his own homelands. The lawsuits resulted in the well-publicized eviction of the Fernandeños from San Fernando.
Forced Eviction of Fernandeños
1876 Eviction: Porter & Maclay v. Cota et. al.
1885 Eviction: Maclay v. Fernandeños
In San Fernando, Rocha and the Fernandeños oversaw a property on which they constructed two adobe houses made of sun-baked bricks, two tule traditional houses, and two wood frame houses with an enclosed fenced area where they cultivated fruits for the community. In 1874, ex-California Senator Charles Maclay purchased the land title “San Fernando Grant” through a court probate, and tried to negotiated with Rocha for access to the land, which held an important water source.
On December 11, 1883, the Los Angeles Superior Court entered a default judgment in favor of Maclay for possession of the lands the Fernandeños were occupying. Rocha refused to sell the land and soon after, in 1885, Maclay visited him with a Los Angeles sheriff, wanting Rocha to sign a paper. Rocha replied, “I sign nothing.” Shortly after, two deputy sheriffs were ordered to evict Rocha and the Fernandeños from San Fernando.
Federal Representation
In 1885, U.S. government’s commission to Special Attorney for Mission Indians, Guilford Wiley Wells, represented the “defendants herein are Mission Indians of the San Fernando Mission,” in an official government capacity to prevent their eviction.
U.S. Special Attorney to the Mission Indians Frank Lewis was directed to find a “possible and advisable” plan to recover land for the Fernandeños. In a letter he sent to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs on October 17, 1892, Lewis reported, “[s]ome time ago my attention was called to the condition of a company of Indians living on the edge of the San Fernando Grant in Los Angeles County, and I was asked to take such steps as I might to find possible and advisable in order to secure to them land of which they had been unjustly deprived.” The manner of ejection was as cruel as it was outrageous. The actual circumstances of the eviction are contested. Maclay claims to have offered Rocha housing and compensation. Eyewitness testimony from then Indian Agent, H. N. Rust and others, contradicts Maclay’s claim that he provided any support to the Fernandeños.
Rogerio, and many other Fernandeños, passed away and by 1900, only 5 Fernandeño families survived the evictions, 3 of which continued Tribal relations to present times. It would be 125 years later that the Fernandeños were welcomed back onto those lands through a joint agreement with the City of San Fernando for Rudy Ortega Sr. Park, located directly on a parcel of the landholding. The park is central to the governance, cultural, and ceremonial activities of the Tribe to this day.
