Sing Birds, and Sing Life
Great Dragonfly Moments: A Talk With Cahuilla Bird Singer Anthony Andreas
Bird songs are traditional social songs that are the lifeblood of Native Southern California cultures, connecting people with ancient knowledge about the world and how the ancestors came to the homelands. The joyful music speaks directly to our hearts, and our imaginations: A hummingbird comes to us, flitting with fast wingbeats. A wood rat relaxes after hustling to prepare for winter. Just before dawn, there’s deep meaning in the light to come. And many more songs …
In this newsletter we time-travel to 2006, when Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s Dragonfly Gala honored the now-late Cahuilla Bird Singers Robert Levi, Alvino Siva, and Anthony Andreas and his late brother John Andreas for their work in saving these important traditional songs from oblivion. Students (and their students) sang Birds in tribute to these Elders, and in succeeding Dragonfly Galas as years passed, their students and their students and their students — and more — have sung and danced to traditional Birds.
The singers, dancers, and hundreds of people have joined over the last 16 years in celebrating Southern California’s Native American cultures, languages, history, and arts at the Learning Center’s annual Dragonfly Gala. Although COVID-19 has postponed the 17th Gala until 2021, we’re continuing to celebrate Native cultures with you in the spirit of the Dragonfly Gala. (On August 7, 2020, the Morongo Bird Singers will sing live on Facebook! Stay tuned for details.)
In this 2006 interview with fellow Bird Singer and Center President Ernest Siva, Anthony Andreas said simply: “It makes our culture whole.”
Anthony Andreas, a Cahuilla Bird Singer
By Ernest H. Siva
(Reprinted from Heritage Keepers newsletter, Fall 2006, Volume 3, No. 4
© Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, Inc. All rights reserved.
This 2006 newsletter was funded by a grant from Seventh Generation Fund.)
Recently, not too long after the Dragonfly Gala (the annual fundraiser dinner and program for Dorothy Ramon Learning Center), I ran into Anthony Andreas at Gramma’s restaurant in Banning. This eatery is Tony’s regular stop, at least once or twice a week. His scooter allows him a little independence. He rides it rain or shine. Tony was one of this year’s honorees. I wanted to ask him a few questions about music and the Gala.
ES: I haven’t see you since the Gala. How have you been?
AA: I’m just getting back, I was really tired. Some things take a lot … it takes time to recover. I liked the Gala.
ES: It was good to see your family.
AA: Yes, I thought it would just be my wife, Sally, and a few others, but we had three tables.
ES: I guess word got out. I wanted to ask you about music and how you learned the bird songs.
AA: Well, as I mentioned before, our grandparents would tell us stories and sing bird songs for us, John and me, before we went to sleep. We slept outside. We would kneel down in front of them, on the ground at their feet. That’s how we first heard the songs and stories. Then they would take us to fiestas and wakes at the Big (Ceremonial) House in Palm Springs and also at Augustine (Reservation). Later, I would just watch the singers. That’s the way you learn. In 1962, our grandmother had a bird dance for John’s 21st birthday. Joe Patencio (the lead singer at Agua Caliente), Bert and Roy Levi (lead signers from Torres-Martinez), Lloyd Marcus (from Morongo), and Walter Holmes Jr. (also from Morongo) sang for us. We really danced then. Matt and Gene Pablo were there, too. We all sang. Then, in 1971 we built a brush structure at our ranch, you know, a wall to block the wind. It was a semi-circle, open at one end for the people to sit there and watch, with a big bonfire in the middle. That kept everyone warm. We had a lot of help from the boys building that. We had to do that because there were getting to be too many people for our house.
“We’ll keep singing.”
Then, when Joe (Patencio) died, I wondered what we were going to do. I thought everything would just stop there. Matt and Gene said, “No, we’ll keep singing.”
I said, “Who is going to lead?” They said, “You are, that’s what Joe said!” That’s how we continued. I made mistakes, but every singer makes mistakes, you just don’t know it. My singers and dancers who know the songs will look at me if I make a mistake, but I just carry on as if nothing happened. Sometimes, I would say, “I was just testing you, to see if you would catch it.”
I got a lot of criticism, especially about the words, that I wasn’t saying them right. But, I just kept singing. I had my grandmother Margaret’s book. I still have it. She had written the words of the songs down. She wrote a lot of things down. I have letters that people had written to her. That was the time before the telephone and automobiles. She gave me all that. I had good support, too. Your (Ernest Siva’s) mother (Katherine Howard) and aunt (Dorothy Ramon) were some of the main ones who encouraged me. That was enough for me. And, Martha Chacon.
ES: Oh yeah, she would tell them …
AA: She once told a guy, after he said something, “Well, he is trying, what are you doing?” He didn’t say anything after that.
“For All of the People”
ES: I have the hardest time remembering the order of the songs. And, even the repetitions.
AA: While I’m singing a song, I think about which song is coming next, even the next three or four. My singers know what I’m going to do. You can make the songs short if you want to. Depending on the time you have, and you want to sing more songs. …
The kids would take part. We didn’t have to force them. They just wanted to join in. Pretty soon it was the thing to do. We would go to schools and other reservations and the other kids would see our kids dancing and singing. That’s what we wanted, not to have just adults doing it.
ES: Well, it worked. How did you get them (the kids) to dance when singers from other areas lead the singing?
AA: They wouldn’t dance at first. Then I told them to just listen to the songs, the beat and watch the other dancers. They are similar, sometimes the same songs. So now, they get up and dance to any singer. Everyone sings the songs a little different, from reservation to reservation. And, the other tribes have their own style, even though they’re singing the same songs. People would say, “Which is the right way to sing the songs?” Some would even get into fights about this. This happened once and I asked Joe about that. He said they are both right. If that’s the way they learned them, then they are both right. But, when you sing with someone, you sing the way he leads. (Usually, when singing in someone else’s territory, and they are the host and leading the singing, then it is customary and practical to follow their style.) To me that is the way it is supposed to be. The bird songs are for all the people of the southland. That is what unifies us. It makes our culture whole.
ES: It sure does.
Ernest Siva: Bird Songs, the Ground Owl Song
Dorothy Ramon Learning Center is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that saves and shares Southern California Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts. This newsletter’s photos are from Dragonfly Galas 2006-2019, most by Carlos Puma.
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Please tell us what you’d like to see in your newsletter: Email. Thank you! July 22, 2020