Sunset in the canyon (Pat Murkland Photo)
By Pat Murkland
Each day now the sun sets a little sooner than before. Every day, those afternoon thunderstorms we’ve been having in the mountains leave behind an array of clouds. These are beautiful enough, but then the setting sun uses the clouds to paint amazing golds, oranges, and reds in the sky.
Colors (Chumash)
In the English language, we point to the color to teach a child, “red.” And, we’re done. But in Chumash, it’s different.
It’s not just “red,” Elder Georgiana Valoyce-Sanchez (Chumash/O’odham (Tohono and Akimal)) explains. “It’s the state of being red.”
In Chumash, every color is a state of being, she says. “Every yellow, blue, red, they are really a state of being … Chumash is a verb-centered language. You cannot objectify. Everything is very alive and moving.”
When you imagine a world in which everyone embraces each color as a state of being, you catch a glimpse of cultural identity embedded in language.
And you understand why it’s important to learn your Native American language, she says.
Language defines and reveals our perceptions of the world. For example:
Sandals and other items made from yucca plant fibers (foreground). (Carlos Puma Photo)
Nature (Tongva)
“Tongva does mean ‘People of the Earth,’” the late Tongva Elder Julia Bognay said in an online presentation in August 2020. “And also, we didn’t have a name in our language, and none of our tribes, actually, do for the word ‘Nature,’ because we are connected [to everything]. …We cannot survive without the plants, without the animals.”
In older times, no one looked on the natural world as somehow separated from the rest of life. She explained how each plant, each animal, is still acknowledged for its sacrifice, and thanked when taken for food or for a purposeful use.
“We are connected to everything and so, when we say, when we say, when I say, ‘Life matters,’ I’m talking about all life, I’m talking about the water, the plants, the animals, the humans, we all matter, and in our circle when we look at how we’re made, humans are made last, right? Because … we’re not dominating, we’re learning from the plants and the animals and from everything, and we’re just … the keepers.”
Language shows us the wonder of the world. For example:
Truth (Serrano)
The Great Horned Owl is a messenger, always bringing important news, as Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano), president of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, shares in this 2021 video.
The Serrano word for Great Horned Owl is its call, Muumt. (In Cahuilla, Múut.)(Listen, courtesy of the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology, to the owl calling its name in Native American.)
The Serrano word for “truth” is muumt. So, the owl is calling, “Truth! Truth!”
And the word for “ocean” is meempt. (Sounds very similar.)
Language defines the Indigenous world and its people.
When you speak the words, that world is still here.
Important Change! New Lecture date: Dec. 5.
Georgiana Valoyce-Sanchez at the Native Voices Poetry Festival (Carlos Puma Photo).
“A Light to Do Shellwork By”:
Dragonfly Lecture by Elder Georgiana Valoyce-Sanchez (Chumash/O’odham (Tohono and Akimal)), has been RESCHEDULED!
New time: 6 p.m. MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2022.
Same location: Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s San Manuel Gathering Hall, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning, CA. She 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 helps the Learning Center save and share Southern California Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts.
And You’re Invited to a New Event!
The Coyote Dance, by Kim Marcus, at the Center’s 2016 Native Voices Poetry Festival (Carlos Puma Photo).
“An Evening With Kim Marcus”
Dragonfly Lecture, 6 p.m. NOVEMBER 14, 2022.
Co-Sponsored by Idyllwild Arts!
Join Kim Marcus (Serrano-Cahuilla), winner of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s 2021 Dragonfly Award, in an evening of cultural presentation and sharing, singing, and storytelling, including:
• The Coyote dance.
• The “Old Man and the Quail,” a traditional Cahuilla story with songs, as taught to him by the late Cahuilla Elder Alvino Siva.
• Serrano Bighorn Sheep songs, which tell the story of the creation of the bighorn sheep, sung with the Center’s leader, Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano). Read more about how the songs were saved in our July 21, 2021, News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, They Keep Singing.
DETAILS:
6 p.m. Monday, November 14, 2022.
127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning.
Your $10 helps the nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center save and share Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts.
Thank you!
News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center welcomes your EMAIL. Thanks from Center leaders Ernest and June Siva, and Editor Pat Murkland, Oct. 13, 2022. Subscribe to News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center. It’s free.