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.

And at the 2018 Dragonfly Gala, the Dragonfly Award goes to ...

We'll be honored and thrilled this Saturday, Aug. 11, 2018, at our Dragonfly Gala to present the 2018 Dragonfly Award for soaring achievements in saving and sharing Native American cultures to BILL MADRIGAL Sr. AND HIS FAMILY.
Please reserve your spot now, 951.849.7736, or email eandjsiva@gmail.com, so we can make sure we have enough of Daniel McCarthy's delicious BBQ dinner to serve everyone. The gala will be at Morongo Community Center.

Here is what they wrote about themselves!
"Bill and Monica are of Cahuilla and Luiseño ancestry from local reservation communities. They home-schooled and raised their children William Jr., Menil, Andrew, Kateri, Starla, Nesune, Noel, Avelaka, and Tishmal in their faith and traditions on the Cahuilla Indian reservation.
All their lives they visited with the elders to learn our culture, bird songs, stories, basket making, foods, and languages.
They have formed a traditional Bird-singing/dance group and also teach what they have learned to all our people and those who want to learn in the local area.
They have been teaching on the local reservations and presenting at schools, colleges and Universities for many years.
Their grown children have also been active in cultural teaching and giving presentations on our culture as well.
It is with great honor and love of our brothers and sisters to share the gifts of our elders that come from our Creator with all our native family!
Umon Chemingkim All our relatives!
Nesun Achama!"

The call of the red-tailed hawk

The Serrano Native American name for Red-tailed Hawk is Kwaat. If you listen to the hawk call in the first recording (Alaska 1975) in this link at Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the hawk just may be screaming its name in Indian. (Maybe, maybe not? ... Tell us what you think.)

Explore and discover more in our July 16 lecture with Rebecca K. O’Connor of Banning, "A Raptor As a Guide: Lessons on connecting and listening to the natural world gleaned from hawks, eagles, and falcons.”
She will discuss her 25 years of working as a licensed falconer with birds of prey, and how this experience has given her a meaningful connection based in respect and honor for wild animals and the open spaces she shares with them.

By Daniel Ankele (Grover Beach, California) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

We also will share information on Native American relationships with a few wild birds of prey and their landscapes, led by Center President and Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla/Serrano) and the Learning Center.

DETAILS: 6 p.m. Monday, July 16, 2018, at The Center’s Gathering Hall, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning. Your $5 donation will help the 501(c)3 nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center save and share Southern California’s Native American cultures, languages, history, and music and other arts.

Raptors as a Guide

A longtime falconer will share her experiences on July 16, 2018, in Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s next Dragonfly Lecture, “A Raptor As a Guide: Lessons on connecting and listening to the natural world gleaned from hawks, eagles, and falcons.”

Rebecca K. O’Connor of Banning will discuss her 25 years of working as a licensed falconer with birds of prey, and how this experience has given her a meaningful connection based in respect and honor for wild animals and the open spaces she shares with them.  

When your hunting partner is a wild bird
For falconers, a successful hunt and more importantly, a partnership with a wild and free-flying bird of prey, is a constant conversation between human and bird, O’Connor says. The falconer must learn to speak the hawk’s language, be willing to listen, and trust in their relationship. This conversation ultimately grows into a larger and deeper conversation with a landscape and the other creatures that inhabit it.

Also explore a few traditional Native American relationships with wild birds of prey and their landscapes, led by Center President and Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla/Serrano) and the Learning Center.

DETAILS: 6 p.m. Monday, July 16, 2018, at The Center’s Gathering Hall, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning. Your $5 donation will help the 501(c)3 nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center save and share Southern California’s Native American cultures, languages, history, and music and other arts.

About Rebecca K. O’Connor
She's the author of the award-winning memoir Lift published by Red Hen Press. She has published essays and short stories in South Dakota Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, Los Angeles Times Magazine, West, divide, The Coachella Review, Phantom Seed, Prime Number Magazine and The Rumpus. Her work has been anthologized in New California Writing 2011, New California Writing 2012, No Place for a Puritan: The Literature of California Deserts and Animal Companions, Animal Doctors, Animal People. She has also written several reference books on the natural world and several books on pets including The Perfectly Trained Parrot, a best-selling parrot training guide. Her latest novel, We Were Wilder, was self-published on Amazon in 2016.

Along with her 25 years as a falconer and animal trainer, O’Connor serves as development director for Rivers and Lands Conservancy, where she combines her passion for preserving open spaces with her love for connecting people with the wilderness.

Summer activities at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center

Dragonfly Gala 2016

Ernest Siva, Center President, sings. (Carlos Puma Photo)

Dragonfly Gala 2016!
On August 13, 2016, at Morongo Community Center we will be celebrating Southern California's Native American cultures. This year's theme is YUCCA. We will highlight these native plants' longtime relationship with Native people.
DETAILS: 
WHO: Proceeds benefit the nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center's work. 
WHERE: Morongo Community Center, 13000 Malki Road, Morongo Reservation 
WHEN: Aug. 13. Reserve your spot now!
TICKETS: $45 each. Tables: $1,000, $2,000, or $3,000.
TO RSVP : CALL US, 951.849.7736 or, 951.849.4676 

Delicious food by Chia Cafe! (Carlos Puma Photo)

Birds! (Carlos Puma Photo)

Birds! (Carlos Puma Photo)

Birds! (Carlos Puma Photo)

Community Celebrating our Native Cultures (Carlos Puma Photo)

Flute Music by Dragonfly Wind Flute Ensemble (Carlos Puma Photo)

Shop at the epic Silent Auction (Carlos Puma Photo)

Did we mention Birds! (Carlos Puma Photo)

Storytelling, Songs and Poems at FREE Poetry Festival

Madrigal Family Singers & Dancers In Concert

Share the joy! Come to Dorothy Ramon Learning Center's Fourth Sunday concert October 27, 2013, to share Cahuilla traditional bird songs with the Madrigal Family Bird Singers and Dancers. 

 

Carlos Puma Photo

Details: 3 p.m. Oct. 27, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning
Your $10 saves and shares Southern California's Native American cultures, languages, history, and music and other traditional arts.

Carlos Puma Photo

Carlos Puma Photo

Pa'rra'kwit (Poorwill)

Pa'rra'kwim pichiim. The poorwills arrived. Actually, we've seen them earlier in the year and then they were absent. Usually, early in the evening and in the morning before sun rise one can see them on the road. Be careful not to drive too fast, or else you could hit one. They wait until the last minute to fly up. On the Morongo Reservation I used to see and hear them, but didn't know what they were. It's nice to have summer arrive accompanied by pa'rra'kwit. - ES

Puuhit without Wahii'

This morning Puuhit (Roadrunner, also known as Geococcyx californianus) was perched atop my chainlink fence here in the Canyon. He was gazing back and forth in a very businesslike manner. He definitely was on the lookout! 

But I saw absolutely no signs of Wahii' (Wil E. Coyote). 

The real-life, non-cartoon Puuhit was hunting. 

Roadrunners have a great appetite for all kinds of rodents, insects, reptiles, you name it. And they are a joy to see — most of the time.

As Dorothy Ramon told the tale, "'Ama' mit hamin nyaawnk 'ama' 'emeva' kwa' hii'nk, 'emehpa' mesheheve' penek. 'Ami' hakup me'aaye' puuyu' kurruhk, keym waha'ki' puuhit."

("If one of them flies over you, if one passes over your head, your hair falls out; that's what they say about the roadrunner.") (Ramon and Elliott, 2002)

Hmmn. In this copyrighted photo courtesy of  Dr. Paul Kosnik, it looks as though one Puhyet never flies over another Puhyet. — PM