Juaneño

The Juaneño or Acagchemem are a Native American group from Southern California. The Juaneño lived in what is now part of Orange and San Diego Counties and received their Spanish name from the priests of the California mission chain due to their proximity to Mission San Juan Capistrano. Today they call themselves the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation.

The former Spanish settlement at Sajavit lies within that area occupied during the late Paleoindian period and continuing on into the present day by the Native American society commonly known as the Juaneño. Many contemporary Juaneño, who identify themselves as descendents of the indigenous society living in the local San Juan and San Mateo Creek drainage areas, have adopted the indigenous term Acjachemen. Their language was related to the Luiseño language spoken by the nearby Luiseño tribe.Sparkman, p. 189: Linguistically, the Acjachemen tongue is a dialect of the larger Luiseño language, which itself is derived from the Takic language family (Luiseño, Juaneño, Cupeño, and Cahuilla Indians all belong to the Cupan subgroup), a part of the Uto-Aztecan (Shoshone)...
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