Meet Southern California's Native American Heroes

Book Launch! Saturday, Dec. 15, 3-6 p.m.,
Free Reception, San Manuel Gathering Hall at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center,
127 N. San Gorgonio Avenue, Banning, CA, 92220
Meet the author, the artist ... and the Native American heroes in this landmark book.

Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s nonprofit publishing arm, Ushkana Press, is pleased to announce its newest book: This War is For A Whole Life: The Culture of Resistance Among Southern California Indians.  

This landmark work by Richard A. Hanks, PhD, tells the mostly untold stories of Southern California’s own Native American heroes as they waged battle in tumultuous times to secure their Southern California homelands, natural resources, and respect. Historical photos, and the voices of Southern California Native American Elders help tell this history that’s been missing from the history books — until now.

Meet the author, Richard A. Hanks, at our reception, and the artist who did the book cover illustration, David Fairrington. Celebrate a book that tells Native Americans' roles in shaping Southern Californian — and national — history.

DETAILS:
This War is For A Whole Life: The Culture of Resistance Among Southern California Indians, 1850-1966.
By Richard A. Hanks, PhD. © 2012. Cover Illustration By David Fairrington.
Ushkana Press, Banning, CA, USA 
ISBN: 978-0-9754496-4-6. Softcover. 240 Pages.
Retail: $30. Wholesale & Institutions: email us

Order a copy! Send $30 + $2.33 sales tax if applicable + $6 shipping fee payable to Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, P.O. Box 1510, Banning, CA 92220. Please include your name, shipping address, phone number and email.

Gotta Sing!

The next in our cross-cultural Fourth Sundays concert series features Gotta Sing!
The trio sings oldies from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, as well as Gospel songs and patriotic melodies. Join everyone for a wonderful trip down memory lane. 
Details: Sunday, Nov. 25, 3 p.m., San Manuel Gathering Hall at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning, CA. 
Your $10 will support the nonprofit Center's work to save and share Southern California's Native American cultures.

Illustration by David Fairrington; Design by Pat Murkland

Ushkana Press, The Center's nonprofit publishing arm, is pleased to announce that its newest book, This War is For A Whole Life: The Culture of Resistance Among Southern California Indians, 1850-1966, is arriving soon. 

This landmark work by Richard A. Hanks, PhD, tells the mostly untold stories of Southern California's own Native American heroes and follows the paths of leadership as American Indian people waged battle in tumultuous times to secure their Southern California homelands, natural resources, and respect. Historical photos, and the voices of Southern California Native American Elders (including several who have since passed away), help tell this history that's been missing from the history books. 

Stay tuned for information on how to get your copy.

Meet Your Neighbors

Learn more about local Native American people and share in conversations, in "Cultural Perspectives," a Dragonfly Lecture at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 10.

Michael with daughter Alice. Carlos Puma Photo.

Michael Contreras Jr. will share local Native American culture and history in the lecture at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center's San Manuel Gathering Hall, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning.

Born in Banning in 1975, Contreras is currently the Cultural Heritage Program Coordinator for the Morongo Band of Mission Indians. He is charged with management and protection of local sacred and archaeological sites, management of the Morongo Collection (baskets, artifacts, and archival photos), cultural preservation and revitalization efforts for the Morongo School and for tribal members. 

Join us as he offers a brief cultural, historical overview on local Native people. And to follow an open discussion and exchange, as Contreras offers his own personal stories and opinions on current local cultural situations and contemporary issues throughout Indian Country.

Come learn more about the Natives who have always occupied these lands and share in our conversations on the matter. 

  

A $5 donation at the door will benefit the nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, which saves and shares Southern California's Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts. Information: 951.849.7736 or www.dorothyramon.blogspot.com.

Rock Stars! This Saturday

Sharing Chumash Stories and Songs

CHUMASH SINGERS

Songs and Stories

with

Georgiana Sanchez, Susan Diaz, Patricia Estrada

Sunday, August 26, 2012, 3:00 pm

San Manuel Gathering Hall 

at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center

127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning, CA

Come hear stories and songs of the Chumash Indians of the Santa Barbara area and the Channel Islands! Hear a language that was almost lost and meet some people responsible for saving and restoring it. Join us for this special experience.

$10 admission helps support the programs of the Center

Thank You to Our Gala Sponsor

Thank you, San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians, for being this year's Dragonfly Sponsor of the Dragonfly Gala.

Come one, come all to the Gala this Saturday, Aug. 11!

Nearly Time for the Gala

Fly With the Dragonflies

Photo by Terri Marr

You're invited to the Dragonfly Gala 
Aug. 11 at Morongo Reservation.
Please join us! Help save and share Southern California's Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts. Keep our families and our communities healthy.


WHEN: 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday, August 11.
WHERE: Morongo Community Center, 13000 Malki Rd. (formerly Fields Rd.), Morongo Reservation.


FABULOUS FEAST served by William Pink's family
Dessert by Gloria Bell
Celebrate native plants: 
Demos, exhibits; share memories and stories.
Traditional singing and dancing
Flute music
Bid in our famed silent auction!
Honor the winners of our 2012 Dragonfly Award,
Barbara Drake and Lorene Sisquoc.

Make a difference! 
Tickets $40; tables, $1,000, $2,000, $3,000. 
RSVP 951.849.4676

THANK YOU TO OUR GALA SPONSOR, 
San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians

Prickly Pear Delights

Fourth Sunday: Flute Music

Flute music will fill The Center's Gathering Hall from 3-5 p.m. July 22 at a Fourth Sunday concert featuring Jacqueline Aronowitz.

For more than 20 years Aronowitz has been a concert performer, soloist, and ensemble player throughout Southern California. 

She says her philosophy is: “No good flute note left behind!” 

Courtesy of Jacqueline Aronowitz

Look to a wide variety of music that celebrates the versatility and magical voices of the silver flute. The concert, one in a monthly cross-cultural series, is a benefit for Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, a nonprofit that saves and shares Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts. Only $10 at the door opens your Sunday afternoon to a celebration of music inside the outstanding acoustics of the Center's San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians Gathering Hall, 127 N. San Gorgonio, Banning. Light refreshments will be served afterward. Come cool off from summertime's sizzling heat and soak in some beautiful music.

 About Jacqueline Aronowitz
She was principal flutist in the Inland Valley Symphony, University of Redlands Chamber Orchestra, the Redlands Civic Orchestra, California State University San Bernardino Orchestra and Wind Ensemble, Redlands Fourth of July Band, San Bernardino Valley College Wind Symphony, a founding member of the Dahlia Arts Trio, and numerous small ensembles including her own professional flute ensemble, Sweet Silver.

As a graduate of the University of Redlands, she has supplemented her training by studying with some of the most notable flutists such as Lois Schaefer of the Boston Symphony, Jim Walker, recording artist and Flute Instructor at University of Southern California, Yamaha Artist Tracy Harris, Herr Helmut Zangerle of the Mozarteum of Salzburg, Austria, Philip Swanson at the Northern Arizona State University, Lucille Lawrence, Boston University Tanglewood harp program.  She has also participated in numerous master classes with Nicola Manzzanti, Jill Felber, Christopher Caliendo, Yoko Owada, Janet Ferguson, Anne Giles, James Galway, Doriot Dwyer, Leone Buyse, Georffrey Gilbert, William Bennett, Charles Delaney, and James Pellerite.
 
She taught in the Redlands Unified School District as a music specialist for more than 10 years.  She was adjunct flute faculty at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, and at San Bernardino Valley College.  She has had a flute studio at the Loma Linda Academy for nearly twenty 20 years.  She presently teaches out of her home and has an amateur flute group, Silver Sounds Flute Ensembles, which performs throughout Southern California.  She has promoted and participated in a Revolutionary War Fife and Drum regiment called Zanja Fife & Drum Corps, which is seen annually in Redlands and the surrounding communities in various parades and historical re-enactments.  She is also an active founding member of a local flute organization, The Inland Empire Valley Flute Society.

Toys and Tools

Singing & Storytelling for The Center

Our Fourth Sunday cross-cultural concert series so far has taken us on a musical journey across the seas, to different continents and diverse cultures. 

We traveled with the fiddle music of Bill Bell to the lands and ballads of his ancestors. We enjoyed the Silver Sounds flute chorus and the inspiring Celtic-themed odes to our natural world on Earth Day. 

Our most recent concert with GG & the Jazz Masters took us to our American history with some old jazz favorites and some foot-tapping swing and Big Band numbers much appreciated by our audience. 

Now we're coming Home. 

Photo by Carlos Puma for The Center

Our next Fourth Sunday concert, scheduled for 3-5 p.m. ... yes, the fourth Sunday in June — June 24 — will feature our own Ernest Siva, President and Founder of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center.

Mr. Siva is Cahuilla/Serrano, and he brings a lifetime of learning and sharing Southern California Native American cultures and traditional music. It will be a thrill to hear his voice, and the voices of his Native American flutes, in the beautiful acoustics of our Center's San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians Gathering Hall at 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning. 

Look forward to singing and storytelling. 

Photo by Carlos Puma for The Center

Mr. Siva says:

"I plan to sing a variety of Serrano and Cahuilla songs with their stories and educational information. I will use the flute to illustrate how these songs can be used for personal enjoyment. 

"Some of the songs will include: lullabies that teach lessons, hunting songs that aren't used anymore for hunting, but are beautiful songs to sing and remind us of our relationship to animals, such as the bighorn sheep and the deer; bird songs that tell of our coming to this world and the wonder of creation, and examples of special songs of some of our neighbors, the Chumash and Luiseño."

Photo by Carlos Puma for The Center

Your $10 at the door will help the Center do its important nonprofit work of saving and sharing Southern California's Native American cultures, languages, history and traditional arts such as music. 
See you soon!

Making Music for Native American Cultures

Courtesy of GG & The Jazz Masters

Our Fourth Sunday Concert series continues from 3-5 p.m. on May 27 with smooth sounds from GG & The Jazz Masters. This Hemet-based band spotlights everything you like about jazz.

Our cross-cultural concert series also showcases the acoustics in our Gathering Hall, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning. 

Come enjoy!

Your $10 at the door helps Dorothy Ramon Learning Center save and share Southern California's Native American cultures, languages, history and traditional arts. 

A Concert for the Earth

An Earth Day concert on Sunday, April 22, will fill Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s Gathering Hall with a Celtic-inspired blend of voices and musical instruments.

Lionheart, a quartet weaving a tapestry of music including Celtic, world traditions, classical, pop, rock and originals, will perform “A Concert for the Earth,” from 3-5 p.m. at the Center’s San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians Gathering Hall, 127 N. San Gorgonio, Banning.

The quartet led by Giselle L. Marciszewski presents a sometimes driving, yet sometimes haunting soundscape, including acoustic 6- & 12-string guitars, classical guitar, baritone and soprano vocals, oboe, English horn, Irish pennywhistles, recorder, keyboard, double bass, electric bass and percussion. Marciszewski describes the planned concert as, “A musical journey through songs of traditions, of spirit, and of the mysteries all around us – with an eye toward the beauty of this planet, our home, and with intriguing inspiration (musical & otherwise) from the lands of the Celts.” 

Admission is $10. Fourth Sundays, a cross-cultural concert series every fourth Sunday, benefits Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s nonprofit work to save and share Southern California’s Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts, according to organizers. Next on May 27 will be the smooth sounds of GG & The Jazzmasters.

Information: 951.849.7736

Bugs, Bugs, & More Bugs

Desert Scorpion from Palm Springs (Pat Murkland Photo)

Madagascar hissing cockroach (Pat Murkland Photo)

Collection of jewel scarab beetles from South America (Pat Murkland Photo)

Texas Vinagaroon (Pat Murkland Photo)

Bugs that crawl, hop, run, fly, and creep will dazzle ... or repulse you. Learn all about them and Native American stories and songs, too. Bug-fun activities! Join the biologists from Loma Linda University and their bug friends at the Learning Center's Second Saturday Sidewalk Storytelling program on Saturday, April 14, for family-friendly fun from 1-3 p.m., corner of Hays & San Gorgonio Avenue, Banning, CA. FREE.

Fourth Sundays: Silver Sounds

It's time again for another wonderful concert to help our nonprofit save and share Southern California's Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts.


Come hear Silver Sounds from 3-5 p.m. this coming Sunday at the Gathering Hall, 127 N. San Gorgonio Avenue, Banning. Just $10.


Silver Sounds is a flute choir. With the voices of flutes of all sizes — piccolos, alto flutes, bass flutes, contra-bass, E-flat, and G-treble — Silver Sounds shares joyful music, from classical to jazz, and everything between. 

Silver Sounds has performed at Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, The Redlands Bowl, Redlands Market Night, local churches, malls and other public locations. And now these wonderful musicians will be at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center's Gathering Hall, already well-known for its wonderful acoustics. Come enjoy the music!


About Silver Sounds
Silver Sounds Flute Ensembles was founded in February 1993 by Jackie Aronowitz as a performing outlet for flute players.  This ensemble gives its members the unique opportunity to play in ensembles other than bands or orchestras.  Since its founding, the group has grown so that there are now two separate groups with different skill levels.  There are no age limitations.  Members of the “A” group have only been playing a few years, and are working on notes and tone, while the “B” group is for the more advanced student whose focus is more on style, musicality, and the performance of flute choir literature.

Make Music!

Deer hooves, seashells, turtle shells, gourds, and wooden sticks all have something in common: They were used to make Native American musical instruments.

Come learn all about Native American music in Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s Second Saturday Sidewalk Storytelling program this Saturday (March 10) at the Center, corner of San Gorgonio Avenue and Hays Street in Banning.

Flutemakers Marvin Yazzie (Navajo) and his wife, Jonette, will host the family-friendly free event, which features Native American stories, songs, crafts for kids and fun. 

Try playing a flute; learn a song. Information: 951.849.7736. or www.dorothyramon.blogspot.com

Fiddle Music For A Cause

More than 100 people came to enjoy our first Fourth Sunday benefit concert, featuring Bill Bell & Friends. Thank you! The proceeds will benefit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center's work to save and share Southern California's Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts. (All photos by June Siva)

Bill Bell & Friends In Concert

Sample some of Bill Bell's music and don't miss our Fourth Sunday concert:
Video: From The Vicar's Son

 













Details: 3 p.m. Sunday, Gathering Hall, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning, CA
$10 benefits Dorothy Ramon Learning Center's work to save and share Southern California's Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts.

Fourth Sundays: Bill Bell & Friends

Courtesy of Bill Bell

We're excited about our new concert series!
Music from all cultures will benefit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center. Our first concert will feature Bill Bell & Friends on Sunday, FEBRUARY 26,  from 3-5 p.m. The Center’s Gathering Hall, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning, CA.
Join us for Celtic and American fiddle music.
From foot-stomping hoedowns to poignant airs, laments, and waltzes, Bill and his group interpret Irish, Scottish, and American melodies.

Courtesy of Bill Bell

Bill began playing the fiddle after being inspired by his grandfather, a Texas farmer and fiddler.
Bill’s musical career has included composition, film scoring, and producing several recording projects.
Since moving to the Pass, Bill has concentrated on traditional fiddle music and is known locally as the “Fiddler of the Lincoln Shrine,” where he recorded a live CD of Civil War music, “Under the Dome.”
Bill also includes several original fiddle tunes in his concerts that draw on his family and musical roots. Joining Bill will be guitarists Dan Richardson and Paul Burton, cellist Eddie Young, and special guests.
$10 will help The Center Save & Share Southern California’s Native American Cultures, Languages, History, and Arts.
Information: 951.849.7736. More music:
MARCH 25: Silver Sounds Flute Ensembles ... A flute choir
APRIL 22: Lionheart Performs A Concert for The Earth
MORE TO COME ... Every Fourth Sunday!

Songs & Stories: An Evening With the Yazzies

Navajo Tribal Nation member Marvin Yazzie and his wife,
Jonette, were raised near Canyon de Chelly in the Four
Corners area of Arizona. A relative, W.F. Coyote, taught them traditional flute-making ways. 

People around the globe play Yazzie flutes.

The Yazzies have been volunteering and supporting The Center since we began nearly 10 years ago. Their annual Native American flute-making and flute-playing workshop with Ernest H. Siva, leader of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, is still going strong.

Come spend a memorable evening with the Yazzies.

Join them on MONDAY, FEB. 27, starting at 6 p.m., at The San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians Gathering Hall at The Center, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning, CA. Information: 951.849.7736.

Your $5 Donation at the Door Will Help Save & Share Southern California's Native American Cultures, Languages, History, Traditional Arts.

COMING EVENTS at The Center with YAZZIE FLUTES:
MUSIC! Second Saturday Sidewalk Storytelling, March 10, 1-3 p.m. FREE Family Fun!
FLUTE-MAKING WORKSHOP, May 4-6, Reserve Your Spot NOW.

Flute fun

Second Saturday Sidewalk Storytelling!

Ernest Siva (left) with Antonio Flores (Murkland Photo)

Crowd at the Center, making flutes (Murkland Photo)

All ages make flutes with Antonio Flores (Murkland Photo)

Center President Ernest H. Siva tries out a flute he made. (Murkland Photo)

Discovering the voice of a newly made flute (Murkland Photo)

Elderberry sticks in varied stages of transformation (Murkland Photo)

Everyone is enthused about the emerging flutes (Murkland Photo)

Discovering the music (Murkland Photo)

People of all ages and cultures came to make their own Pomo-style wooden flutes with Antonio Flores on Saturday. Some drove from Hemet and other areas. Three were walking a dog past the Center when they were drawn into the excitement. We thank Antonio Flores for trekking from Oakland to share his flute-making zest. The Inland Empire Flute Circle was meeting as well. And later that evening was our monthly Native American flute class. A musical start to a year full of activities at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center.

Generation to Generation

We are honored that Dorothy Ramon Learning Center's first 2012 Dragonfly Lecture will feature Walter Holmes, Jr., leader of the Morongo Bird Singers. Come share an evening with a Native American culture bearer, traditional singer, and minister. 

Details: 6 p.m. Jan. 9, 
Gathering Hall at 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning, CA. 
A $5 donation at the door will help the nonprofit Center save and share Southern California's Native American cultures, languages, history and traditional arts. Information: 951.849.7736