The valley of San Juan Capistrano is the home of the First People known as Acjachemen. The Acjachemen language has been classified by linguists as a member of the Taki branch of the Uto-Aztecan family of languages. Many autonomous villages with populations estimated at 50-500 each inhabited the lands of Southern California for thousands of years. People from these villages were recruited to provide the labor force to build Mission San Juan Capistrano. Once the Acjachemen became part of the mission system, they were subsequently referred to as “San Juanenos” for the San Juan Capistrano Mission. An Acjachemen community complemented and blended with the environment, and life in these villages centered around the family. Some communities consisted of one or more villages of related people, such as the people from the villages of Putiudem and Acjachema. Here they depended upon gathering, hunting and fishing for a living and were not nomadic. Singing and dancing were essential activities to the Acjachemen and often continued for days. Their homes, called kiitca, were round dome-shaped structures made of willow and tule. Many Acjachemen/San Juanenos still live in this valley.
