Ernest H. Siva
Ernest Siva (Cahuilla/Serrano) grew up on Morongo Indian Reservation, Banning, California, and learned the Serrano language and culture at home. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music education and choral music from the University of Southern California.
Mr. Siva serves as Tribal Historian and Cultural Advisor for the Morongo Band of Mission Indians. Mr. Siva also serves on the Board of Directors of the California Indian Storytelling Association; the Board of Trustees of Idyllwild Arts; and the board of the Riverside Arts Council (serving the Inland area). He is Artistic Director of the Pass Chorale, a community chorus in the San Gorgonio Pass area. He is founder and President of the Board of Directors of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, Inc., and Ushkana Press, saving and sharing all the Southern California American Indian cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts.
In the first publication of Ushkana Press in 2004, Voices of the Flute book and CD set, Mr. Siva shared traditional songs of three Southern California Indian nations, most appearing in print for the first time.
Dorothy Ramon Learning Center now has a building in downtown Banning. The Center will be a special place that saves and shares the wonder of Southern California’s distinct American Indian cultures, languages, history, music, and other traditional arts.
Read more about the Center.
Photo by Douglas Park
A “Distinguished Guest Artist”
Ernest H. Siva, president and founder of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, serves as “Distinguished Guest Artist in Native American Culture” at California State University, San Bernardino. Mr. Siva, along with the nonprofit Learning Center and its publishing arm, Ushkana Press, are grateful for the many opportunities this collaboration offers for research and for teaching people about the region’s First Cultures.
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How to reach us:
<info@dorothyramon.org>
Dorothy Ramon Learning Center
P.O. Box 1510
Banning, CA 92220 USA