For Immediate Release

September 26, 2003 - SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY SUN

Contact: The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians
www.nativeamericanday.com

Cal State hosts California Indian Cultural Awareness Conference

By BEN SCHNAYERSON

The written word is taking center stage among the lectures at this year's California Indian Cultural Awareness Conference.

The weeklong event at Cal State San Bernardino, where thousands of students and teachers will be taught American Indian culture and history, started Monday with the release of the book "The People of the San Manuel.'

The 179-page paperback traces the history of the San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians from the Serrano creation story to the slaughter of Indians by foreign groups to the late 20th century politics of Indian casinos.

In the tribe's creation story, two brothers the creators fought for how people would be formed. One brother had a face in front and back and he wanted the people to be the same. The other brother had only one face and he prevailed. The two-faced brother became the leader of the land of the dead.

Eventually, the winner was killed by the people he created. He died in the San Bernardino Mountains in the Big Bear Lake area. The tribe holds the sites of his passing as holy places.

"Now, whatever happens, the true history is out there,' said James Ramos, a tribal member who helped create the book and organize conference. He is running for San Bernardino City Unified School District Board this November.

"We have to have something that stays around,' he said.

Professor Clifford Trafzer, director of American Indian Studies at UC Riverside, wrote the history book and was also one of the speakers at the conference Monday at Cal State San Bernardino.

Trafzer, a Wyandot, said that unlike some of the history books he has written on Native Americans, he had few written records about the San Manuel band. He relied heavily on interviews with tribal elders.

"It became more personal,' Trafzer said. "It is more human and not as academic.'

Ramos said the book also helps the entire community learn about local history with many familiar names and places.

The conference, cosponsored by the tribe and Cal State, was put on much for the same reason to give local kids lessons in American Indian culture and history that they normally don't learn in the classroom.

Ramos said 1,700 kids are expected at this week's conference from today through Friday at the newly named Santos Manuel Student Union.

Local elementary- and middle-school classes will learn music, stories, basket weaving, pottery and history of California tribes from American Indian professors and teachers.

A performance is planned Friday evening and is open to the public.

Only teachers and school administrators attended the conference on Monday, getting material and information they could include in their schools' curricula.

Jayne Dean, the curriculum coordinator at New Horizon High School in Banning, said she wants to include local American Indian history and culture in many of her classes. Even though some of her students are American Indian, she said her students know little about California tribes.

"Right now, the biggest myth out there is that they are all rich,' Dean said.

"I would teach the spiritual beliefs of Indians so (the students) wouldn't think it is funny and weird,' she said. "If we can understand the spirituality, we can understand the people.'