When was the last time your Assemblyperson sang to you? If you attended the latest MACA (Mentone Area Community Association) meeting, it was Tuesday night, August 8, when James Ramos presented for the San Manual Cultural Association. Ramos sang four songs, two Serrano and two Cahuilla bird songs, one of which he taught the audience to sing along and then by itself. The first Native American elected to the state Senate, Ramos explained what each song was about and what the different words meant, before singing them. Ramos accompanied himself with a native-made rattle, rather than drums, which he stated the Serranos, of which he is a member, do not use. The rattles are made from gourds, which are cleaned out and filled with date seeds. Sticks from willow or cottonwood form the handles. Other instruments include hooves on ropes, which are usually made from yucca.
Ramos gave a history of the area, that it was once a marshland and that the Indians dug the Zanja in 1822 with a cow’s shoulder blade, rather than the shovel depicted in a local mural. The Zanja began to be dug in Loma Linda [Ed.’s note: probably at the Asistencia, where it was desired, according to local history], and then continued to Mill Creek, where it then started flowing water and assisted in the beginning local agriculture.
Ramos continued: the tribe lived in the valley and mountains prior to 1866, when a militia fought a 32-day battle to rid the area of Indians, which changed the Serranos and others from free-ranging hunter/gatherers to living on a reservation. Thirty-two tribal members survived. Yet, his people continued to go up into the mountains to Running Springs and as far as Baldwin Lake, following the ripening of pinyon nuts, Black Oak acorns and other edible wild plants. Yucca was used for rope and smaller fibers. On trips up the mountains they used large mesh bags made of yucca twine or rope in order to to carry their belongings; They left their metates in the places where they stayed, rather than carry them along. They sang their native songs as they gathered. Their shoes were not moccasins but sandals they made of yucca twine rope, which he showed to the audience. Their baskets consisted of yucca, deer grass and other wild plants, dyed with various types of walnuts. Some baskets were for winnowing. Their main animal food source was bighorn sheep, which they credit with saving their lives. Grizzlies lived in the mountains [Ed.’s note: the last California grizzly was reportedly killed in 1929; we now have only black bears]. The Serrano revere the sheep; they also revere the bear as a close relative. Ramos told a story about a bear which changed into a man and then back into a bear before it died; the Serranos visit its grave as a ceremony.
For early housing they didn’t use teepees but bent willows into a round dome and filled the sides with brush. Doors faced the east. Past villages included where the Orange Show is now, and wherever there were hot springs, the his clan ending up at Santos Manuel, named for an ancestor, which name was shortened to the present San Manuel.
His personal history included living in mobile homes or trailers on the reservation, where they subsisted on $300 per year, paid by others who boarded their horses in stables behind the trailers. Later the Serranos sold snacks and then cigarettes. All of the horses left and with them the resale business [Ed.’s note: and, according to Ron Caraway, a friend of Ramos’s family, the Serranos then began a bingo parlor]. The rest is history, as they say.
Yaa’mava was named for their Spring celebration. Ramos plans to take his people up into the mountains in September to continue their tradition of gathering wild plants.
Native American Day will be celebrated on September 22 at Cal State San Bernardino:
Awesome cultural and historical lesson !!
Thank you!