Today is the Fall Equinox. As the days grow cooler, the Bighorn Sheep continue their journey amid the stars in the night sky. Many people know these stars as the constellation Orion’s belt, but Native Inland Southern Californians see them as a bighorn trio. When the starry bighorns start running directly overhead, this traditionally was time for the Serrano mourning ceremony. People in older times were busy gathering foods and preparing for the weeklong ceremony.
As the Bighorn Sheep run through our night sky, our 2022 calendar also is overflowing with many current Native American cultural events, including on California Indian Day, Sept. 23; events at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, including a Sept. 25 concert and Oct. 17 visit with a Chumash poet and storyteller; cultural events everywhere on Oct. 10, Indigenous Peoples Day; local pow wows; Malki Museum’s annual fall gathering on Oct. 22; and events throughout November during Native American Heritage Month.
Fall Fest on Oct. 1
Today we’re inviting you to join free family fun at Fall Fest.
Celebrate the history of San Timoteo Canyon, from 10 am to 2 pm on October 1, 2022, with Elder Ernest Siva of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, and with Native American cultural exhibits by Mother Earth Clan/Sherman High School, Morongo Band Cultural Heritage Department, and Malki Museum.
The event is hosted by the San Gorgonio Pass Historical Society and Riverside County Regional Park and Open-Space District, at a National Register of Historic Places landmark, the restored 1890s San Timoteo Canyon Schoolhouse, 31985 San Timoteo Canyon Rd., about 6 miles west of Beaumont.
The school was the first school starting in the mid-1800s in what later became Riverside County. In contrast to other pioneer schools, San Timoteo Canyon Schoolhouse was integrated, including students from the families of pioneers, Mexican train workers, and Native Americans.
Three of the original desks are in the one-room restored schoolhouse. (Pat Murkland Photo)
DETAILS: The free event is open to the public and will feature a 10 am flag-raising ceremony by the Banning High School and Nicolet School California Cadet Corps color guard; an opening Native American blessing by Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano), president of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center; Native American exhibits exploring cultural traditions and resources including native plants as foods, medicines, and tools; a history display, historic schoolhouse tours and a “school marm” re-enacting an 1800s school teacher; crafts for kids, free snow cones and cotton candy; a May pole and vintage games; food truck; and live music by Southern California’s Singing Cowboy, Skeeter Mann. Oh, and the Gilman Ranch stagecoach will be there, too. San Timoteo Canyon was part of an old stagecoach road.
Native American Homelands
San Timoteo Canyon has many stories to tell. Throughout time, the canyon, which roughly stretches from the Redlands area in present-day San Bernardino County to Beaumont in Riverside County, has served as important Native American homelands. It’s also a branch of the ancient Sonora Road, a major Indigenous travel and trade route from the coast to the desert, and beyond.
The story of the people in San Timoteo Canyon starts with the San Timoteo Creek in the Canyon, which flows north and west to the Santa Ana River. Tributaries include Little San Gorgonio and Yucaipa.
As you might imagine, a place in Inland Southern California where water flows year-round is a valuable site surrounded by natural resources, no matter where you are in time or in history. Different Serrano and Cahuilla lineages lived in the region, with the Serrano of the San Bernardino Valley to the northwest, the Serrano from the Yucaipa area, and the Wanakik Cahuilla toward San Gorgonio Pass.
A small section of the canyon, from a USGS map of the region. The schoolhouse is circled.
Starting around 1851, Juan Antonio, the famed Cahuilla tribal leader in the 1840s-50s, lived in the village of Sáxhatpah (we use the orthography of Dr. Sean Milanovich), also the Cahuilla name for the canyon, which means, “Place of the Willows.” For Juan Antonio and other Native Americans, this was a tumultuous time of trying to cope with the many newcomers taking over their homelands. The Treaty of Temecula, signed by Juan Antonio and other area Native American leaders in 1852, made promises to allow Native Americans to keep some homelands, but these promises were not kept when the U.S. government never ratified the treaty.
In 1862 and 1863, a smallpox epidemic swept through the area, and Juan Antonio died of the disease. He is buried not far from the San Timoteo Canyon Schoolhouse. Cahuilla tradition asserts that this epidemic was transmitted from U.S. Army blankets provided to the Native Americans.
San Timoteo Canyon remains important homelands to Native Americans today.
The Schoolhouse
San Timoteo Canyon Schoolhouse
In 1843, there was a vague request for a Mexican land grant by Santiago Johnson, saying he was asking for “Cañada of San Timoteo,” which “formerly belonged to Mission San Gabriel,” according to Jane Davies Gunther in her iconic 1984 book, Riverside County, California, Place Names: Their Origins and Their Stories.
According to historian Steve Lech, Louis Robidoux bought San Jacinto and San Gorgonio ranchos from Santiago Johnson in 1845. Settlers began arriving. In 1855, the Frink brothers were among those settling on “government land” near modern-day Casco Lake.
Dancing around the maypole more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of San Gorgonio Pass Historical Society)
That same year, the San Bernardino County supervisors formed a school district in the isolated agricultural community and called it San Timoteo. This was the first school district in what is now Riverside County. In 1894 the San Timoteo Canyon Schoolhouse that we see today was built.
According to the history with the National Register of Historic Places landmark designation, “The school was used to teach students in eight grades in a one-room classroom. There were eight rows of seats with one grade in each row. The higher the grade, the fewer the children. Some of the older children would help the teacher in the lower grades.”
Students learned reading, writing, mathematics, and other subjects that included history, geography, and “natural sciences.”
In 1876, the Southern Pacific Co. built the Los Angeles to Yuma rail through the canyon. “There were usually 25 children, but the school ranks would swell to about 40 pupils when the Southern Pacific railroad brought road crews and their families from 1900 to 1928,” according to the school history. “The families, … who [mostly] fled from the [Mexican] Revolution, would stay a few weeks, maybe two or three months at the longest. Early housing for some of the railroad workers consisted of converted freight cars.”
The children helped the teacher by serving as translators for those who couldn’t speak English. Along with the Spanish-speaking students, others were of German, French, and Native American descent.
In 1893, Riverside County formed from parts of San Bernardino and San Diego counties. The new county added the San Timoteo school district as one of 52 districts. The school was the center of the community and different events and continued as a community center in the 1920s when it also became a non-denominational Sunday School. In 1936, it was closed as a public school, but Sunday School classes continued there until 1987. The school later was purchased by the Riverside County Regional Park and Open-Space District and has been restored.
Read more: History of San Timoteo Canyon: Invisible Cemetery
Other Learning Center events:
Through Their Eyes: Art Selections from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, continuing on display through December 12, 2022, at the Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art at Cal State San Bernardino. Information HERE.
Fusion, Dragonfly Spirits: Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano), president of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, will sing and play Native American flute with the San Gorgonio Ballet Company. 3 p.m. September 25, 2022, Gathering Hall, Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, 127 N San Gorgonio Ave., Banning. Proceeds from your $10 will benefit the work of the 501(c)3 nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, led by Native American Elder Ernest Siva; you’ll help save and share Southern California Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts.
More information: EMAIL
“A Light to Do Shellwork By”: Dragonfly Lecture 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 17. Elder Georgiana Valoyce-Sanchez (Chumash/O’odham (Tohono and Akimal)), will read from her new poetry book, A Light to Do Shellwork By, and tell stories. Co-sponsored by Idyllwild Arts! We also thank the College of the Desert Visiting Authors of Color reading series for support and enthusiasm. Your $10 supports the Center’s programs.
Play Native American wooden flutes with the Dragonfly Wind Flute Ensemble players: The monthly flute class and gathering meets every second Saturday from 1-4 pm at the Gathering Hall at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning. $10 donation. Information, email: Brian Woodyard.
AHEAD: Dorothy Ramon Learning Center plans to bring back Native Voices Poetry Festival in early 2023, our regional celebration of the human voice in all the arts throughout time, from traditional songs and stories in our Southern California Native languages to contemporary creativity. The seventh festival will again feature performances and creative workshops for all ages. We are figuring out the dates so we can include our many partners and some new partners. Stay tuned and if you’d like to get involved, EMAIL.
Thank you!
News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center welcomes your EMAIL. Thanks from Center leaders Ernest and June Siva and Editor Pat Murkland, September 22, 2022. Subscribe to News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center. It’s free.