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By Miriam Raftery
April 2, 2023 (Lakeside) – Born in an era when Native American children were sent off to Indian schools and career opportunities were limited due to prejudice, Josephine "Sister" Beatrice Romero overcame those obstacles to become a Tribal Chair and leader who helped usher in Indian gaming in California and establish a museum to teach tribal history and cultural heritage to future generations.
On March 26, 2023, she passed away at age 94, but her enduring legacy lives on.
She was born on August 22, 1928, to John Curo and Dora Curo-Rodriguez. Her family moved to the newly established Barona reservation in 1932. As a child, she was sent off to the Sherman Indian school in Riverside run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs for six years and also attended public school in the Grossmont Union High School District. In an interview with the San Diego Reader in 1977, she recalled that the BIA school focused on vocational instruction that landed her a job in a laundry the year she graduated.“ There was a lot of prejudice, I remember, as far as not letting the Indians get an academic education," she recalled. "I guess they though the Indian wasn’t capable of a profession.”
For 75 years, she was married to Benjamin D. Romero. Together, the couple had 5 children, 16 grandchildren, 29 great-grandchildren, and 9 great-great-grandchildren. According to a tribute posted by family at Legacy.com, “She was selfless and served as a role model to everyone who knew her. She dedicated her life to her family and her Tribe, and her loss leaves a deep void in our hearts.”
She worked for many years on the Tribe’s Enrollment Committee, served numerous terms as a Council Member, and led the Tribe as Chair from 1976-1980. She was instrumental in bringing high-stakes bingo to the reservation, helping to develop what became a thriving tribal gaming industry in California today.
She also served on a committee that established the Barona Cultural Center and Museum to preserve the Tribe’s history , language and culture overlooked even at other museums on Native American heritage.
“We’re a lost tribe, so to speak,” she said during an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune in January 2020, the twentieth anniversary of the museum’s opening. Casino revenues have reduced hardships for tribal youths, but Romero reflected, “The children growing up today – they know nothing of what we did to survive…how the Indian people had to work to gather the food to eat. That’s what we want to teach the children.” The museum she helped establish has become a teaching center not only for Native American children, but also a destination for field trips from public schools and non-Indian visitors.
For many years, she was the Barona’s eldest Tribal member, with a passion for creating a better live for future generations, while assuring that the past is not forgotten.
A devout Catholic, Romero had a Christian mass on April 1 and was buried at the Barona Indian Reservation Cemetery.
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