Maybe you’re feeling those time-change blues. Or maybe that mid-week hurdle seems extra-high this week. Here are three quick reads from Dorothy Ramon (1909-2002). May these Native American stories in Serrano spark your day with cultural beauty, wonder, and give you a smile, too.
Bird waits for the next breeze in one of the Sivas’ pine trees. (Pat Murkland Photo)
1. Pine Trees
“'Aam yuham huurrk payika' qaqaayv tum hayp.1
Those pine trees grow up in the mountains.
'Ap kwa'c 'emewk nem 'ama' sheve'tu'ow. Ami' mit 'ama' 'anya' 'ani' qwaarraq puchuk.
If you are walking around in the wind, then those things make noise.
'Ama' kwan chaacu' 'ama' Taaqtam 'uviht. Hami' 'ivi’ heermc kwa’ mamc,
Those are the old-time Indians singing. If you are a shaman,
Kwa' 'enan chaachi' hamin kew. Tum hami' 'ivi' huwac peemat,
Then you can understand what the song is saying. If it is just an ordinary person,
Warrêngk qay' kwa' hiiti' mamc. 'Ami' shevet perna' qwaarraq peyika' 'ayee'.
Then you can’t understand anything. It is just the wind making noise.
Pana'm qac herheermim; tum hiitim mamc pana' nyaawnk.
There are shamans like that who can understand everything.
Pemeka' chaacu', keym tengk.
They (the pine trees) sing to them (to the shamans), they say.
'Ama' 'ayee'. That’s all.”
Water in the Colorado Desert (Pat Murkland Photo)
2. Finding Water With A Forked Stick
“'Uviht nena' 'ichu'kin tengek. Mit hiit kwecaat tarra'qa' 'ama'.2
Long ago my father used to make those things. It was something like a wooden cross.
Mitavu' hamya'qac 'ichu'kin. 'Ani' ichu'kin: 'amatunga' paatti' ngaanivan.
I don’t know how he made it. He would make them and use them to search for water.
Paatti' hyu'cu'. Mit hiit taaqtam 'uviht peenyu' pana' txavu' qatt.
He would find water. People apparently used to make things like that long ago.
Tum hiiti' 'amatunga' hiivan 'amay. Pee'ichu'kiniv mitavu' hiit 'ama': nehiiv qatt.
He could find anything that way. I don’t know how they made it: but I witnessed this.
'Ama' 'ayee'. That’s all.”
Fire (Jon Sullivan Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
3. The Fly That Made the First Fire
“'Uviht mutu' 'ahaamceva' terva'cim haami' 'ichu'kinow 'uviht xhinyim par'parhervim.3
Long ago in the beginning of time the holy ones were making the earth.
Peeku'tim ngaan 'amay kwana'. 'Ama' ni' perqatki'ik pichyi' piichicu'ac kwan.
They were looking for fire. And then all of a sudden a fly came along.
'Ama' ni' kiimwa'n pemeka'. Mava'.
He drilled fire for them. He rubbed his hands together.
'Ama', 'ama' ni' maahu'n 'amay xhiiti'. Peeku'ti'vu' maqay.
And then he lit it. He gave them fire.
'Ivi'nich 'amay' yaanam lights, key 'Amȇrrikaanu'.
And so now we have ‘lights,’ as the American says.
… Kweca'n 'amatunga' kiimwa'now.
They would make fire by drilling. …
'Ama' 'amay' kwa'c hye' piichicu'a'ci', mava' 'amay.
If you look at a fly today, he’s rubbing his hands.
'Ama' ma' kiimwa'n perna'.
It looks like he is drilling.
'Ama' 'ayee'. That’s all.”
'Ama' 'ayee'?
Dorothy Ramon was one of the last “pure” speakers of the Native American Serrano language, that is, she thought and dreamed in Serrano first, before English. In her final years before her passing in 2002, the knowledgable Elder worked with linguist Eric Elliott and helped save the region’s own Serrano language and much cultural knowledge. The following year, Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, led by her nephew Ernest Siva, began carrying on and expanding her work with the 501(c)3 nonprofit mission to save and share Southern California Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts. Watch for our upcoming storytelling events.
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Ramon, Dorothy, and Eric Elliott, 2000, Wayta’ Yawa’: Always Believe. Malki Museum Press, Banning, California, pp. 210-211, selection from “Pine Trees,” Reading 186.
Ibid., p. 58, “Finding Water With a Forked Stick,” Reading 46.
Ibid., pp. 352-53, selection from “The Fly That Made the First Fire,” Reading 310.