So, if you’re like us, hunkering down on a dangerously hot day, let’s time-travel. Let’s travel to cooler climes, to the past, to musical mountaintops with …
A Heart Connected with Mountains
Ayaqaych (“Gathering Mountain,” or, San Jacinto Peak) as seen from Morongo Reservation, the same view today that Ernest Siva had as a child growing up on the reservation. (Pat Murkland Photo)
Native American Elder Ernest Siva remembers that time he trekked to the Sivas’ ancient Cahuilla ancestral home, Īsilsīveyaiutcem, high in the Santa Rosa Mountains.
And he remembers how, in his youth, Idyllwild in the San Jacinto Mountains opened a path to give his life the deepest meaning. This is where News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center is heading today, with him into his past, including his stories of how Idyllwild “opened his eyes to a bright future,” as the ancient song says.
“That was a time in my life that was like a dream, to go to a home that was from the past, before my time, and was only a dream, and it seems like my life in connection with the mountains has been a dream,” he said.
“Kuruva is the name of Idyllwild, meaning, ‘Meeting Place,’ or you could say, ‘Gathering Place,’ like the birds, kuruk, they fall out of the air, as if … they were gathering to have a meeting, and that's how our people would do, the Serrano and the Cahuilla, and neighboring tribes from the south and west.
“So what I’m talking about is somewhat of a dream, times I would think of how we got here and and so forth, and it's all still flowing and has … brought us to Banning, California, where our Center is, Center, meaning where we are, that is today, at the (Dorothy) Ramon Learning Center.”
A Life Intertwined With a Mountain
Singing at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s 2022 Dragonfly Gala (Carlos Puma Photo)
Ernest Siva, 85, (Cahuilla-Serrano) grew up on Morongo Reservation and learned the Serrano language and culture at home. He has devoted his life to saving and sharing Southern California Native American cultures, since 2003 as President of the nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center.
This oral history was initially produced and shared by Idyllwild Arts in an online event in January 2022.
Here’s the Idyllwild Arts description: “Ernest Siva is a historian, bird singer, linguist, and the founder & president of the Dorothy Ramon Learning Center in Banning, CA. Join us as Ernest shares intimate stories about his experiences as a storyteller to his people, the creation of the Dorothy Ramon Center, and his time at Idyllwild Arts dating back to 1960. His oral storytelling tradition connects communities and generations, illustrating the context of our existence on beautiful Mt. San Jacinto, which has always been a place to gather and share creatively.”
Highlights in this one-hour video:
Motivated by Ancestors
3:18: How Ernest Siva was inspired by the work of his aunt, Dorothy Ramon, to help save the Serrano language and culture for the future. “She decided that it was on her shoulders to carry on … pass on whatever she could, to those who are going to be wondering … who we are and what was our life like, what was the language like, all those things.”
4:56: How Francisco Morongo, his great-grandfather on the Serrano side of the family, advised the people to adapt and learn the Younger Brother’s (White People’s) new ways well, BUT, “Never forget your language, never forget where you came from. And then that has carried on to us who heard that, and paid attention to it, and it still echoes on, and we teach at the Center, our Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, the language, the history, the culture, whenever we have a chance to share with others, because as Great-Grandpa Francisco with his life he gave, showed us the way …”
7:59: What happened when the Pass Cahuilla lost their songs, songs that carry crucial cultural knowledge and were sung in ceremonies and with other rituals. The Pass Cahuilla came to Francisco Morongo, the kika, or Serrano leader and keeper of traditions, to ask permission to sing Serrano songs. “He said, ‘Of course you can, you may use these songs. They're not my songs; they're Creator’s songs. They're for everyone. They're for all of God's children.’ And from that time that Pass Cahuilla began singing our songs, that is the Serrano songs for a certain portion of that which was needed to carry on.”
14:07: Ancestors who saved and shared. His grand-aunt Sarah Martin, the last Serrano kika, also was instrumental in working with linguist Kenneth Hill to pass along cultural history, knowledge, and language. Her father was Francisco Morongo’s younger brother, the great leader John Morongo, and John Morongo also taught never to forget one’s cultural knowledge and cultural identity.
15:08: “So all these little bits and pieces came nagging into my life and pushed me in the direction to carry on … (and it wasn’t too difficult to convince his wife about acquiring a place) … a center, a room, a building, whatever, to carry on the work of our aunt [Dorothy Ramon] who took it on her shoulders to start this sort of thing, and she in turn, I think looked to … her aunt Sarah [Martin], who had already opened the door about sharing language. And so it played out well and pointed us in the direction that we're carrying on now, and in the best way we can.”
Discovering Music as a Child
17:00: “Our connection with Idyllwild Arts, it was so important because it opened the door for learning.
“I was a saxophone player in high school, in grade school.
… My mother had mentioned the word “saxophone.” She heard a recording. She said, “I think that's a tenor saxophone,’ and that stuck in my mind. And so, when I had a chance to borrow an instrument from the school, I did that, brought it home and to the reservation where I grew up, Morongo Reservation, and surprised everyone with an instrument. And it was during Christmas vacation.”
17:54: He taught himself to play the borrowed saxophone during that vacation. He played it so much that he gave himself a scar on the lip because he hadn’t been taught properly how to play it. When he returned to school he surprised everyone because he could play the saxophone. He eventually became a leader in the band because he could play the saxophone. Some music teachers and events at Idyllwild began calling his attention.
19:11: One day, a couple guys, also band members, picked him up at Morongo Reservation. They had a gig to play at an Idyllwild Saturday night dance. “I was minding my own business, probably doing nothing during one summer, and they showed up on my doorstep. Two saxophone players. … And that started the connection [to Idyllwild].”
21:27: He won a summer scholarship for a week. “We had such a great time and were hooked for life.” In summers that followed, he worked in the kitchen and maintenance so he could attend and learn and play music. Then he got a job that enabled him to stay all summer, playing music, and learning about all music arts and other arts, including Native American arts.
23:57: He heard chorale music. [Now he is director of the Pass Chorale, a community chorus.] 25:46: “and the connections part of it was so important to me, because I learned to sing by joining the choir.”
Conducting the Pass Chorale and orchestra in concert several years ago. (Pat Murkland Photo)
25:58: He studied at San Bernardino Valley College and found mentors who encouraged him to continue at the university level. He set his sights on studying music at University of Southern California. His teachers at Idyllwild, and what he learned from them, helped make that happen. [Ed. note: He then earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education and choral music at USC.] That led him to teaching, initially at Raymond Cree Middle School in Palm Springs.
Meeting Dragonfly
33:42: “There's so many stories that as I'm telling that, I have to also mention that in our way … the stories were always, or for the most part, instruction for the listener and these younger folks to learn their way, to learn how to behave, or different things, the spiritual side of life, and so on.”
35:18: As a small child the first stories he heard were from his [maternal] grandfather Pete [Ramon].
One day, “I was like a busy body, I guess, and I was the only one around with him. … My Grandpa would be always doing something important … he would be making something, cleaning something, doing something that was interesting, and one morning … seems like it was before breakfast because it was early, he had come out with a can full of … buttons and poured it on the ground, and spread them, spread the buttons out on the ground. And I was helping him spread them out. … He was whistling, humming, and then he started singing. I looked over and he was doing this … making that motion over a dragonfly that had landed and was asleep. And so I went over and did the same thing, and then the insect didn't fly away.”
This magical moment with the Ushkana song has stayed with Ernest Siva throughout life.
Later, as a teacher, he introduced the story of the dragonfly when teaching at Idyllwild, but he had forgotten the tune to the Ushkana song. He made up some music. Later he relearned the correct music of that lullaby from an older cousin, Lloyd Marcus, who had heard him tell the story of calling in the dragonfly. Lloyd Marcus shared other songs.
39:41: But initially he embarrassingly shared the incorrect tune, which was even recorded, and shared as “an Indian lullaby with my tune, not … the original tune.”
Calling Dragonflies
40:05: “Singing our songs became important because of the need, as I was teaching. I taught in my first teaching job … in Palm Springs at Raymond Cree … I noticed that the kids didn't really seem to appreciate where they were living in Palm Springs. They were at the foot of Ayaqaych, Mt. San Jacinto, … and so I taught them that … and told the story of the dragonfly …
41:00: “If you sing that song to the dragonfly, or even if you say the word [Ushkana], just say the word over and over again, the dragonfly will stay, it'll come to you. If it’s flying it'll come closer, and … it … (will) then land on your hand, if you let it.
“And that's what i would tell the kids, and I used it throughout life.”
Dragonflies and Romance
Ernest and June Siva, now headed toward their 53rd-year marriage anniversary, at the 2022 Dragonfly Gala (Carlos Puma Photo).
41:36: “When my wife (June) and I met in … the choir at USC, we became good friends, and I said, ‘Well, I’ll show you the Rez, … Banning, the … Pass, and where I grew up and our house,’ and so, we did, we came down one Saturday, I guess it was, and I took her out to the Morongo Rez, and took her to our house, which was empty. It was still there, and she was enthralled with the whole thing, and on the floor there was a music paper … some exercise that I did for the music class at San Bernardino Valley College. That’s the name of this two-year school and they're still there … The music had an ‘A’ on it, and so we got a kick out of that. …
42:56: “We drove up at the mountain to Idyllwild Arts and no one was there, of course. … I … showed her Strawberry Creek, and told her … about the dragonflies that were flying around.
“I said, ‘There’s a song for this,’ and I sang it and I held up my hand,
43:22: and the dragonfly landed on my hand. … I said, ‘it's good luck and a good sign if that happens,’ and so, she was amazed at that, being a biologist.
“So, she became a true believer, and I’ve told people about that since, and I said, ‘Now she believes everything I tell her.’ And one time I did that, and a man sitting in the back, (said), ‘Sure, she does.’ ”
The Wonder of Music
44:00: “That’s how our music is, it's magical, and all music is magical, as you probably know already, and I’m carrying on because the story of music and the arts, and life is full of magic. We are always having wonderful experiences, performing, bringing to life choral music …”
44:32: He discusses the first post-pandemic December 2021 Pass Chorale concert, which he directed, and the spring Pass Chorale concert he was directing in May 2022, and his special choice of classical music.
Music: The Magical Mountain
46:26: When he taught the “Little Bear Song” to his students, “We added Ayaqaych in the chorus, Ayaqaych is the name of … Mt. San Jacinto because … it's a magical mountain. … The spirit of Taqwish is there, it's eternal, but we rarely talk about Taqwish, that's our way, anyway.
47:02: … “The medicine people talk about going there to learn their songs, and of course, … throughout, … the different levels of the elevations … the life zones producing medicine, and food, and so on, are to be found in the area, and to draw people there at the right time.”
That’s one reason he added a chorus to the “Little Bear Song” about Ayaqaych.
47:54: “From Ayaqaych we receive many things, and then one can talk about …whether it's food, or medicine, or songs, or any inspiration.”
He refers indirectly to Pedro Chino, the famed powerful Cahuilla shaman who lived to be about 126 years old, and also mentions how neighboring tribes also hold the mountain to be very important. One, San Manuel Band, gifted Dorothy Ramon Learning Center with the Gathering Hall where he’s speaking.
49:35: “This mountain, being so important, we’re going to have a program [at the Center] that … will address the different things about Ayaqaych, and we're gonna do that here, this year. It'll be … open to the public and to the schools …. classes from Morongo School will take part, and we'll be using our language and whatever we can to … help with the program.”
The Little Bear Song
50:28: [Ed. note: This Serrano lullaby was the second song he learned as a child.] “Out on Morongo Rez, our house was extra, actually it was my grandpa's house, Pete Ramon. The neighboring house was the home of … my oldest aunt … Julia Horsman, and her family. That was my mother's older sister. … Our older aunt … told a lot of stories and about the bird songs, and was always singing.
51:13: “She sang hymns from the Moravians that she learned, and … taught us the different things. … In the evening, in the summer, we slept outside, the families would, and we'd gather over … at their place. And she would start singing and telling, talking about things, but she'd always talk about … the bird songs.”
51:51: “Well the lullaby, ‘Little Bear Song,’ had to do with someone's birthday, and her family, I don’t know … whose birthday was in the summertime, but that was … the first time she baked a chocolate cake, that we had, in a wood stove.
52:16: “Now all of that was magical to me, because I’ve never tasted anything so wonderful since, in that chocolate cake eating business. My sister [Arlene Craft] was present also, and she remembers that.
52:38: “Anyway so Aunt started to tell us, so, there was this little bear who was misbehaving, and he was making noise, keeping the people awake. They wanted to sleep. They were in the den family of bears, and so there's brothers and sisters who were older.
53:00: “They said, ‘Let's just get, tell him to go out and play,’ so they said, ‘Go out and play, you're making too much noise.’ So, he went outside, and then they wouldn't let him back in, when it was time. When it was time, he was getting tired; and it was getting cold, because in the song, he says, ‘Eche, eche tirvac, qaiqwan' haipan' nequuman,’ ‘Cold, cold ground, I’ll never sleep,’ and then, the wind is blowing, ‘Eche eche shrevet, eche eche shrevet, cold, cold, wind, cold, cold wind, qaiqwan' haipan' nequuman, cold, cold wind, I’ll never sleep.’
Then I added another verse about the sun, because in Palm Springs I wanted to make the connection for my students. … I said, the sun came out, it was too hot, so he said, ‘Ercher, ercher tamitt … hot, hot sun …’ So that became the part of the song.
54:12: “Then I added the chorus. [Sings]: Ayaqaych, Ayaqaych, Ayaqaych, Ayaqaych.
54:20: “It’s this magical mountain called … Mt. San Jacinto, where people go to get thing, go to receive things, inspiration, different experiences. And in the old times people would go there to gather food, the different plants, they'll go there for medicine. Of course you had to know where and when, and the people did because that was our way. And every family would know how to do that in the old times.
“And in modern times, people go there for, during the Idyllwild Arts time, for learning and experiencing the arts and themselves in the arts, performing or making art, so in our magical world, it all is wonderful, and makes a nice thing to talk about.”
55:34: He explains how he plays the gourd rattle with the song. He describes how it’s a traditional music instrument, and how this rattle, which was his father’s, was put together, and why it doesn’t appear quite the same as other traditional gourd rattles.
The ‘Little Bear Song’ has been shared by people of all ages, in schools and in community choruses.
58:26: [Sings the Little Bear Song]
“Thank you”
1:00:20: “Thank you for listening, and I had fun talking about past things that were at the time wonderful, … and when you think about it, for me they're wonderful again. Brings back great memories and wonderful things that happened, important things, very important in my life. And we connect it with Idyllwild, ISOMATA, Idyllwild Arts, and Ayaqaych in general.
1:00:50 “And I want to thank my wife, June, for being my helper, in life we've done all sorts of things, and we're still doing wonderful, important things with the Center, and with making music in the Pass, and we'll keep carrying on. Thank you very much.”
Singing the Dragonfly Song at the 2022 Dragonfly Gala (Carlos Puma Photo).
Further Resources in our Newsletter archives:
Thank you!
Keep cool! Keep singing! Dorothy Ramon Learning Center is a 501c3 nonprofit that saves and shares Southern California’s Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts. We welcome your EMAIL. Thanks from Ernest and June Siva and Editor Pat Murkland, August 31, 2022.
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