Something Wonderful Happened
Dorothy Ramon Learning Center President Ernest Siva leads the Dragonfly Gala in 2016 (Carlos Puma Photo)
The pandemic in 2020 was keeping us all home, and Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s Gathering Hall in Banning, California, shuttered. Yet Native American Elders need to teach and be available to their community, especially younger generations, so this isolation clearly wasn’t acceptable, especially for Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano), president of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center.
The Center’s mission is to save and share Southern California’s cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts. Sharing is key. Further, cultural memories, stories, and songs provide medicine, strength, and resiliency. These were much needed.
So, one year and 53 or so newsletters ago, Ernest’s wife, June, the Center’s vice president, jumped right into the technology of making at-home videos every week of Ernest, and we began our weekly online News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center. As we stayed connected with our longtime Center community and shared cultural stories with you, something wonderful happened: we’re gaining many new friends.
This News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center celebrates that. (Visit our archive.) Thank you to you all. And Ernest and June Siva, this time both in front of the video camera, share their vision since 2003 for Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, in serving the Native American community and bringing together and unifying with the greater community.
Walter Holmes and the Morongo Bird Singers and Dancers, here celebrating Walter Holmes and his Dragonfly Award at the 2015 Dragonfly Gala, again plan to sing and dance at the Aug. 14, 2021, Dragonfly Gala.
“Recounting Ancient Stories”
First, one of our new friends, Sam Hough, of Serrano descent from Morongo Reservation, shares this poem of cultural resiliency.
Singing Birds
By Sam Hough
Rattles shake date palm pits in
Rhythmic relation to hard shells of
Gourds
Singers raise their
Voices make them loud
Louder still
Recounting ancient stories of the
Ebb and Flow of our
Ancestors as they
Traveled these deserts and mountains
Our homelands
All our relations fill these lands
Waters flow ephemeral and eternal
Sun, Tamyaat, tracks and re-tracks the
Sacred journey through the sky of this world and the
Dark world beneath
Dancers keep rhythm with the
Firm planting of feet on the ground
Strength and purpose in each step
Hearts swell with joy and
Thanksgiving for the
Songs that survived the
Apocalyptic expansion of our
Yarranka’yam little brothers and sisters
The ignorant but willful
Destruction of what was
The rhythm of rattles
And stomping feet
The voices raised
Ground us in love for what remains
Bring smiles to faces
Open eyes and ears to wonder
Like shecet and uushaat singing in
Ancestral ceremony as the dawn’s
Light brings promise and possibility
That fills our hearts with gratitude and love for
What still is
Ancient words in time with
Gourd rattles and
Dancing feet
Singing Birds
Sam Hough wrote in an email, “While I have many family members that live there (at Morongo) I never have. I also have not met Ernest Siva but he has had a meaningful impact on my life. I watch his videos on YouTube and have recently subscribed to the email news.
“I do my best to start each day in prayer with humility, gratitude and wonder for the many blessings that Creator has given us. Each of us lives because everything else does. In that spirit, I wish to impart to the Dorothy Ramon Learning Center and Mr. Ernest Siva my heartfelt gratitude for the important work that you are doing. I hope to be able to visit in person some day soon.”
Thank you. We look forward to that day!
A Conversation with Ernest and June Siva
Ernest Siva has always been the dreamer, while his wife, June (celebrating 52 years of marriage with him this December), is the doer, the one who turns his dreams into action. Dorothy Ramon Learning Center is named after Ernest Siva’s Aunt Dot, Dorothy Ramon, instrumental in saving the Serrano language and culture. The Center began in 2003 in the Sivas’ kitchen, garage, and attic.
In discussing the Learning Center, Ernest Siva reaches back into a prophecy told at the time of the Creation, as relayed by his great-grandfather Francisco Morongo. He was a kika or ceremonial Serrano leader during the times of tumultuous change to Native American people and their homelands. Francisco Morongo said the prophecy had told of the coming of “younger brother,” and that the people should learn the new ways to adapt and cope with the changing world brought by younger brother. At the same time, Francisco Morongo said, never forget your culture: your language, your stories, and your songs, for these are what and who you are. Otherwise, he said, you will become Lost People. Your roots will be like those of shallow grass instead of those of a mighty oak.
The Center strives to keep cultural identities thriving.
Thank you
Help support our 501(c)3 Dorothy Ramon Learning Center! Please join us at the Dragonfly Gala. If you cannot join us, we welcome your donation.
News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center loves to hear from our community: EMAIL. Subscribe, share! Thank you! Pat Murkland, Editor. July 7, 2021.