Online Dragonfly Adventures!

Join the Center in online events 

Our theme for 2020 is a celebration of resiliency.

Dorothy Ramon Learning Center is working to nurture our community and bring us all even closer together. We embrace our mission since 2003 of saving and sharing Southern California’s Native American cultures, languages, history, and music and other traditional arts.

Connect with one another and the wonder of our Southern California Native American cultures. 

Discover and explore the tools of resiliency, reciprocity, and healing in Native American cultural ways and traditions, and stories and songs. Explore how to connect with the world and deeper understandings of our region’s vitality and uniqueness.

A Few Upcoming Online Dragonfly Adventures (watch for details on how to connect):

Monday, July 20, 6 pm. 

Healing through the Art of Storytelling. 

Online family workshop in partnership with the Luke Madrigal Indigenous Storytelling Foundation, led by Madrigal family members Renda, Sophia, and Isabella Madrigal. Donations welcome.

Monday, August 17, 6 pm. 

A Raptor as a Guide: Connecting with the Wilderness through Hawks, Eagles and Falcons. 

(Co-sponsored by the Rivers and Lands Conservancy) 

Journey online with longtime falconer Rebecca K. O’Connor into the wild, as seen through the perceptive views of the wild birds she calls her partners. Refresh your vision of the natural world around us, and the wonders in your own back yard. Donations welcome.

Monday, September 14, 6 pm. 

Pal Et Qwapi! Water is Life! 

Savor the essence of the world with Sean Milanovich,  Cahuilla Culture Bearer. Donations welcome.

Join Us in Online Dragonfly Adventures

Dorothy Ramon Learning Center has missed our community family at our events — but is looking forward to seeing everyone in many new ways.

 

The Coronavirus pandemic has had a profound impact on the nonprofit Learning Center. The Center had to cancel all events at its downtown Banning venues starting in March. “We miss the faithful supporters of our 4^th Sunday concerts and Dragonfly lectures,” vice president June Siva said. 

“We are also sad that we’ve had to postpone our 17^th Dragonfly Gala until 2021, the major gathering and fund-raiser for the Center. We will miss what we think of as our annual ‘family reunion.’ Next year will be a big celebration when we can gather with you all again and celebrate Native American cultures with good food, singing and dancing, exhibits, and more! At this time we don’t know when our Gathering Hall events and concerts will resume, but watch for that good news!”    

Ernest and June Siva

Meanwhile, join the Center online and in other ways. Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s theme for 2020 is a celebration of resiliency. The Center is working to nurture our community and bring everyone even closer together, embracing its 501(c)3 nonprofit mission since 2003 of saving and sharing Southern California’s Native American cultures, languages, history, and music and other traditional arts.  

Center President and Elder Ernest Siva said: “As we wait for things to calm down and confidence returns and fear flies away, let's turn our attention to good and uplifting things around us, and what we can share with one another, the simple things in life. The song says: ‘Powva' aarnk hye'kam tum haiti' a'aye'ci' peepamkw,’ their eyes open to see a bright future.”

Join the Center in online events 

Connect with one another and the wonder of our Southern California Native American cultures. Discover and explore the tools of resiliency, reciprocity, and healing in Native American cultural ways and traditions, and stories and songs. Explore how to connect with the world and deeper understandings of our region’s vitality and uniqueness.

A Few Upcoming Online Dragonfly Adventures (watch for details on how to connect):

Monday, July 20, 6 pm. 

Healing through the Art of Storytelling. 

Online interactive family workshop in partnership with the Luke Madrigal Indigenous Storytelling Foundation, led by Madrigal family members Renda, Sophia, and Isabella Madrigal. Donations welcome.

Monday, August 17, 6 pm. 

A Raptor as a Guide: Connecting with the Wilderness through Hawks, Eagles and Falcons. 

(Co-sponsored by the Rivers and Lands Conservancy) 

Journey online with longtime falconer Rebecca K. O’Connor into the wild, as seen through the perceptive views of the wild birds she calls her partners. Refresh your vision of the natural world around us, and the wonders in your own back yard. Donations welcome.

Monday, September 14, 6 pm. 

Pal Et Qwapi! Water is Life! 

Savor the essence of the world with Sean Milanovich,  Cahuilla Culture Bearer. Donations welcome.

Fun events at the Center

Wonderful Inland Southern California

Amazing but true: Stories from the Pass
and Inland Southern California
Explore odd, surprising, and amazing stories of Inland Southern California with a special added focus on Banning. Larry Burns of Riverside will lead a fun session on Monday, June 10, 2019, guiding you to the weird, wonderful, and obscure in the Inland Empire region, including family-friendly places to visit, little-known history, and just plain wonderful trivia, such as who from the Inland area invented flaming hot cheetos, or the white line in the middle of all highways. 

Burns will share and sign his new book, Secret Inland Empire, which spills secrets that give the communities of Riverside and San Bernardino counties their wonder and uniqueness. 

In the session that starts at 6 p.m. on Monday, June 10, at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., in Banning, also learn from local historians a few surprising recently discovered twists in Banning history and about efforts to save and cherish historic landmarks of the San Gorgonio Pass. And, you might also learn how to call a dragonfly with a local Native American song, and your open heart.

Your $5 helps the nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center save and share Southern California’s Native American cultures, languages, history, and arts.

DIY SUPERBLOOM!

Escape the tax doldrums on Monday, April 15, 2019, and come to Dorothy Ramon Learning Center in Banning to learn how you can create your very own riches, your own superbloom at home. Learn how you can surround yourself with the beauty of a diverse array of native plants that will attract pollinators, songbirds, and other wildlife year round.

Madena Asbell will show you how. She's director of plant conservation programs at the Mojave Desert Land Trust in Joshua Tree, CA where she oversees the native plant restoration nursery, seed bank and herbarium. Her focus is on restoring desert habitats, educating others about the importance of our diverse desert flora, and preserving this diversity for future generations. Before joining the Mojave Desert Land Trust, she was director of horticulture at the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers and Native Plants in Sun Valley, CA.

DETAILS: 6 p.m. April 15, 2019, Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, 

127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning

Your $5 will help save and share Southern California's Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts.

Discover the Painted Caves of Baja

Hidden deep in the mountains of central Baja are some of the world's most beautiful prehistoric rock art paintings. The United Nations has ranked this world heritage site as one of the top five rock art sites in the world. Few people trek to see them, because they are so hard to reach. Britt Wilson and Maria Puente did. Now you can discover and explore the painted caves of Baja with them as your guides.
DETAILS
Dragonfly Lecture on Monday, March 4, 2019, at 6 p.m. 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning, CA. Your $5 will help us save and share Southern California's Native American cultures.

Find out more about this magnificent rock art

About Lecturers Maria Puente and Britt Wilson

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Maria Puente was born in the northern Basque city of  Bilbao (Spain). Her first introduction to archaeology was in the first grade when she visited the famous cave paintings at Altamira Cave in northern Spain. She attended the private Jesuit University of Deusto in Bilbao, for three years, and then moved to Madrid to complete her studies, earning an M.A. with a double major in History and in Art, and the Certificate of Pedagogical Competence from the University Complutense (1987). Ms. Puente also completed studies that earned her the Superior Degrees in Classical Piano and Chamber Music from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid (1989).  In 1983, Ms. Puente formally enrolled and  attended the School of Archaeology for the Basque Country for one school year. She took part in the excavations (Roman site) in the Cave of Arenaza through the University of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain.

Ms. Puente came to the United States through a cultural/teacher exchange in 1990 and has lived in the Coachella Valley since then. Each summer she returns to Spain to enjoy the warm waters of the Mediterranean in southern Spain.

Ms. Puente served as a member of the City of La Quinta Historical Preservation Commission from 1994 until 2015.  She is also a certified Bureau of Land Management Site Steward for Corn Springs in eastern Riverside County.  She has helped record several archaeological sites in the desert region.  She is a member of Coachella Valley Archaeology Society.

Britt Wilson, originally from Los Angeles, lives in Palm Desert and is an employee of the City of Rancho Mirage where he serves as a management analyst.  He has worked for four cities in his career as a planner or management analyst. Mr. Wilson has a master’s degree in Public Administration and a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.  

During a hiatus from city work, Mr. Wilson worked as an archaeological technician conducting surveys throughout southern California and Nevada, working on most of the solar projects in eastern Riverside County.  He has a deep interest in native cultures particularly the Apache, Cahuilla, and Serrano people.  Previous to working as an archaeological technician, he was the Cultural Resources Coordinator for the Morongo Band of Mission Indians and did a short stint at the Cahuilla Tribe in Anza. 

Mr. Wilson is also a volunteer archaeological surveyor for the Bureau of Land Management. As a volunteer, he has recorded close to 500 new sites throughout the southern California region including village sites, rock art sites, rock shelters, milling sites, etc.  He has worked in Anza Borrego State Park, the San Bernardino National Forest, and BLM lands across southern California in addition to his previous work on Indian reservations.  His current project is researching and recording trails and rock art sites along the western shore of ancient Lake Cahuilla.  Mr. Wilson is also a certified Bureau of Land Management Site Steward for Corn Springs in eastern Riverside County.

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He is a published author and has written two ethnographies on the Cahuilla/Serrano people. He is a member of the Society for California Archaeology,the Malki Museum, the Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, and the Mayflower Society.  He is also the President of the Coachella Valley Archaeological Society.