Sliding into the Unexpected

Southern Pacific rattlesnake, or Herngt, © photo by Pat Murkland
Our Serrano language and culture class meets every first and third Monday at 17 West Hays, Banning, and often veers into a world of the unexpected.
At our class on Monday night, for example, we talked about Herngt, the rattlesnake.
It’s been a very good year for rattlers and we’ve been seeing them frequently.
I told how I saw another Herngt on Sunday, soundly sleeping in a gopher hole.
Ernest Siva said: "Herngt aap kuuman mingat akiihp." 

(Rattlesnake was sleeping there in Gopher’s house.) 

Mingat is Gopher. Aap = there. Kuuman = sleeping.
Ernest said that adding the “p” onto akiihp makes the meaning “in or on the house.” Serrano is a very economical language, because Chuck then pointed out that adding the “a” in front of akiihp makes it  “his” (Gopher's) house.
I also saw a gopher snake (Qorqort) on Sunday a.m.
Ernest remembered that in the book Wayta' Yawa', Dorothy Ramon remembers Pete Ramon’s nickname was Tu'chi' Chaaqwam, for a little black lizard.
And Chilyaku', he said, a lizard, has a name derived from a Serrano phrase that refers to how the Creator made them small. The monsters, he said, all went under the earth during the Creation, except these, which were made small.

Links to the Past

Tanya Sorrell shared photos, oral histories, and her other research about St. Boniface Indian Industrial School with a standing-room-only crowd at Monday's Dragonfly Lecture.

We thank Tanya for an interesting lecture! Many from the crowd lingered to ask questions and share more afterward.
In response to a question from her intent audience, Tanya pointed us to Marquette University's online Special Collections archives for photos and other information about St. Boniface and the Bureau of Indian Catholic Missions.
For example, an early article in the Indian Sentinel about St. Boniface (told of course from the Roman Catholic Church perspective) can be found here.

When children from area Indian nations were doing the laundry or other chores many years ago as part of their everyday school experience at St. Boniface, did they even imagine that someday photos of them doing these chores would be in a library collection in a university in Wisconsin?

Dragonfly Lecture on Monday

Come learn about St. Boniface Indian School in Banning, or share your own family memories about the school.
In our next Dragonfly Lecture, Tanya Sorrell will share some of her UC Riverside graduate research and discoveries, “Inside St. Boniface.”
The Dragonfly Lecture is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. May 11 at the Learning Center at 17 W. Hays. Donations at the door will help the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Learning Center save and share Southern California’s American Indian cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts.

Inside St. Boniface

It was shortly before 6:15 a.m. on a day in May 1898. All 125 children at St. Boniface Indian Industrial School filed into the chapel for their morning prayers and daily Roman Catholic Mass. Their teachers, nuns, sang with them. At 7:15 a.m. a bell rang. To the beat of a drum, the children marched by rank and in single file, to breakfast.

This, according to a write-up in the school newspaper 110 years ago, was how each school day started for the schoolchildren from the region’s Cahuilla, Serrano, Luiseño, Kumeyaay, and other American Indian nations. St. Boniface first opened its doors in Banning on Sept. 1, 1890. Although the school closed years ago and only its cemetery remains, memories of St. Boniface live on, especially in the families of many area Native American people who attended school there.

How the day went
Once breakfast ended, the school’s Mission Indian newspaper reported in 1898, work began: cleaning, sweeping, dusting, helping in the kitchen (girls), cutting and carrying wood (boys). At 9 a.m. another bell rang and it was time for classes. The girls on Monday would wash and iron all the school laundry, then often go to the sewing room for mending and their instruction in “plain sewing and fancy work.” Other girls worked in the kitchen, learning how to prepare meals and serve people. This, after all, was an industrial school. No one in that era foresaw women or nonwhite men as scientists, engineers or the United States President. “Baker boys” learned the art of baking bread by making it for the school (in 1905 the school boasted that 600 lbs. of flour were used each week). Other boys worked on the school farm, and learned shoemaking, carpentry, and other trades.

Three times a week all children received religious instruction and every evening at 6 p.m. they broke from work to recite prayers. At 7 p.m. they assembled in the chapel for more instruction and religious ceremony. Between were sandwiched classes and other lessons. The boys also did military drills and calisthenics. Being idle was not an option at St. Boniface.

Entertaining
In Diocese of San Bernardino records compiled in 1994 by diocese archivist R. Bruce Harley, we catch a glimpse of some school activities. In the June 27, 1898, “annual entertainment” program for the public, students Patricio Lugo, Peter Salvadeo, and Stephen Saubel performed a dialogue called “The Base Ball Enthusiast.” More than 30 pupils did a “Columbia” march and drill, and 21 treated the crowd to a “patriotic exercise.” The audience applauded more dialogues, recitations, and skits. The school chorus sang, “The Heavens Speak Forth the Lord’s Mighty Power,” and, “Viva L’America.” The entire school closed the program by singing in Latin, “Haec Dies Quam Fecit Dominus.”

St. Boniface and other schools taught American Indian children how to cope and work in the non-Indian world. But there also was a devastating loss. The schools were among social pressures that pushed Indian people to forget their languages, which hold their history in stories and songs. Indian children were separated from their families and were discouraged from learning their cultural traditions and knowledge. Now, Indian schools, such as Sherman Indian School in Riverside, encourage those working to recover and revive languages and cultural knowledge.

Dragonfly Lecture
In Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s next Dragonfly Lecture on May 11, Tanya Sorrell will share some of her UC Riverside graduate research and discoveries, “Inside St. Boniface.” People are invited to share their own St. Boniface memories. The Dragonfly Lecture is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. May 11 at the Learning Center at 17 W. Hays. Organizers said donations at the door will help the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Learning Center save and share Southern California’s American Indian cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts. — Pat Murkland

Art Hopping

The Art Hop in downtown Banning was a great success. Our workshops with traditional Native American music instruments were fun and informative. Read about the entire event here.

Make Music at the Art Hop

Scene from 2008 free tin-can rattle workshop,

Photo by Pat Murkland

UPDATED APRIL 9

Banning's annual Art Hop will be here April 25. Many events are free or affordable and family-friendly. Check out the 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. calendar chock full of activities at the Banning Cultural Alliance, the lead sponsor.

Last year more than 3,000 people celebrated a day of amazing cross-cultural arts events in downtown Banning, and Dorothy Ramon Learning Center was indeed in the Center of it all.

This year, we again are offering special events that save and share Southern California's American Indian music and other arts. We are proud to announce that Banning Unified School District's American Indian Education Program will co-sponsor our Art Hop workshops:

In the A.M.

CLAPPERSTICKS with Georgiana Sanchez and including family members Sue and Ray Diaz, and Patricia Estrada, Chumash culture bearers.

Limited to 15 people. $20 per person; all proceeds benefit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Learn about these traditional rhythm instruments that accompany song and dance. When struck against the palm, we hear a clacking, clapping sound. Decorate a bamboo clapperstick to take home with designs possibly from traditional stories or baskets. Learn about Chumash culture from traditional culture bearers. Share in a songfest and learn fun and easy songs to sing while you play your clapperstick. Some interesting kelp seaweed rattles and other unique music instruments will be on display.  Make sure you get in; pre-registration encouraged, siva@dishmail.net. We encourage teachers and parents to participate in this workshop purposely kept small. 

Don't miss their FREE onstage performance scheduled for 1 p.m. Here they are last year, with fellow singer June Siva (in Trojan red). Photo by Pat Murkland.

TIN CAN RATTLES FOR KIDS. FREE!

Kids learn how to make a tin-can rattle to take home and learn about the rattle's appropriate use in Southern California music. Presenters: Banning schools Indian Club members.

In the AFTERNOON.

GOURD RATTLE WORKSHOP with Gerald Clarke Jr., Cahuilla artist. 

Bird songs and other traditional music are accompanied by these beautiful-sounding instruments made from gourds. Learn how to make one to take home, while also learning the respectful use of the rattle accompanying traditional music. $30. Enrollment limited. Pre-registration encouraged, siva@dishmail.net. For teens and adults. Proceeds will benefit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center.

Gerald Clarke, Jr. teaching the 2008 workshop

Photo by Pat Murkland

Meanwhile, our annual NATIVE AMERICAN FLUTE WORKSHOP with Marvin and Jonette Yazzie will run a three-day weekend, from April 24-26. 

In this workshop starting at 9 a.m. Friday, each student will construct and decorate a six-hole wooden flute under the guidance of Marvin Yazzie, experienced Navajo flute maker, and his wife, Jonette. Students will also learn some history of flutes as well as the care and handling of their newly created instrument. During the course, ethnomusicologist Ernest Siva, president and founder of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, will teach the basics of flute playing and each student will receive a copy of Voices of the Flute book and CD (Ushkana Press). You do need to sign up ahead of time, enrollment is already filling fast. The price is $300. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Learning Center.

Click here to see scenes from the Yazzies' similar flute class at Idyllwild Arts.

All events will be at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, 17 West Hays, Banning.

Watch for more events, we're going to be adding some free family fun!

Websites

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