As Thanksgiving 2022 arrives this week, Native American Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano) remembers the days when Morongo Reservation near Banning, California, lacked running water, and had no electricity, and no gas for heating.
The wood stove became a warm center for family and visitors. For community.
Wood stove from the 1890s at the Gilman Historic Ranch and Wagon Museum in Banning, CA.
It takes major skills to bake or cook in a wood stove. Once you stick the food inside and close the door, you’re blind to what’s happening. To control the time or the temperature, there’s no setting but know-how.
That never stopped any reservation cook from feeding the people.
People remember to this day how the late Elder Sarah Martin (1890-1976), a Morongo tribal and Serrano ceremonial leader, always had a pot of coffee simmering on the wood stove for anyone who came by.
“She went up in the morning and chopped wood, so that her kids would … get up and it would be warm in the morning for them,” her granddaughter Ann Sue Siva Nelson remembered in 2005. “And she always cooked, whether it was just beans and potatoes and tortillas, and she always had something for her kids.”1
Drinking water improved in the 1960s, and the reservation began to get electricity in the 1970s.
But before more modern services arrived, during the weeklong Serrano ceremonies that traditionally were held at Morongo Reservation in October, the reservation’s wood stoves were burning wood, nonstop. The big crowd ate meals together from Monday on, throughout the ceremonial week.
And the food from a wood stove tasted — and smelled — incredibly delicious, Ernest Siva remembers.
This week Ernest Siva, president of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, shares his memories of wood stoves and resiliency, in this video by his wife, Center vice president June Siva [note, the sunrise created a haze]:
And just as he remembers being in the wind, and needing to keep warm, here is one of Ernest Siva’s favorites, a story and song about a little bear who felt likewise.
“The Little Bear Song” was the second song Ernest Siva learned, accompanied by the first chocolate cake he’d ever tasted.
His aunt baked that cake in a wood stove, of course.
Ernest Siva has shared the story, and the joy of the song, with people of all ages, for years. This is the first time we’ve shared this version (from May 2021), with you here in News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center:
Little Bear Song (2)
(Another version of the song and story, and more about Bears! is here.)
Thank you!
As Thanksgiving 2022 arrives, we’re thankful for YOU. Thank you for reading and sharing our News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center newsletter. Thank you for supporting our programs and events as we all work together to save and share Southern California’s Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts.
Upcoming Events
Flute concert at 3 p.m. November 27, 2022, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning, CA:
“A Light to Do Shellwork By,” CO-SPONSORED BY IDYLLWILD ARTS! Georgiana Valoyce-Sanchez, 6 p.m. December 5, 2022, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning, CA:
Last chance to see the Dorothy Ramon Learning Center art exhibit at the Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art, California State University, San Bernardino. Ends Dec. 3!
News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center welcomes your EMAIL. Thanks from Center leaders Ernest and June Siva, and Editor Pat Murkland, November 22, 2022.
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Ann Sue Siva Nelson in The Road to Maarrenga': Serrano Memories of a Long-Ago Ceremony at Mission Creek, Sarah Martin with Kenneth C. Hill, Pat Murkland, Editor, © 2005, Ushkana Press, Banning, p. 37.