You can turn on NATIVE authentication explicitly by using a property.
To do so, specify one of the following values for the derby.authentication.provider property:
This value tells Derby to use credentialsDB, a dedicated database, to store user credentials. This value must be set by using system-wide Java Virtual Machine (JVM) properties or by using the derby.properties file; it cannot be set in the database by using the SYSCS_UTIL.SYSCS_SET_DATABASE_PROPERTY procedure. When this system-wide value is set, credentialsDB is used to authenticate all operations. If an individual database holds credentials for the Database Owner, the global credentials database is used only to authenticate system-wide operations such as engine shutdown.
The value of credentialsDB must be a valid name for a database.
This value tells Derby to use credentialsDB for system-wide operations, but to use an individual database's SYSUSERS system table to authenticate connections to that database. This value must be set by using system-wide JVM properties or by using the derby.properties file; it cannot be set in the database by using the SYSCS_UTIL.SYSCS_SET_DATABASE_PROPERTY system procedure.
See the Derby Reference Manual for details on the derby.authentication.provider property.