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JANE DUMAS KUMEYAAY HONORED BY CITY OF SAN DIEGO

JANE DUMAS DAY

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Self-published by GARY G. BALLARD, photography, writing & design

The City of San Diego proclaimed April 28, 2012, to be forever officially known as "Jane Dumas Day." Above photograph: Senior Park Ranger Sanford presents Jane Dumas (Kumeyaay elder, Jamul Indian Village) with her framed Proclamation during the Kumeyaay-Diegueño flag raising ceremony at Mission Trails Regional Park, Kumeyaay Lake and Campground, located in eastern San Diego near Santee, California.

JANE DUMAS PICTURESPictured left, just prior to beginning her invocation, Jane Thing-Dumas spoke to the crowd in both English and her native Kumeyaay language, San Diego's original language.

Kumeyaay is Jane's first language and she remains one of the last living fluent speakers of the Kumeyaay language in the world.

Jane's daughter, Daleane "Dee" Dumas-Adams passed away in March, 2009 — Daleane took an active role in founding this website.

JANE THING-DUMAS
DUMAS FAMILY PHOTO ALBUM
— Prior to Dee's passing, KUMEYAAY.INFO began the process of restoring and captioning the historical Dumas family photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15


Jane Dumas is an enrolled Kumeyaay tribal member of the Jamul Indian Village - A Kumeyaay Nation. The Jamul band is one of twelve sovereign, federally-recognized Kumeyaay bands indigenous to the Southern California region of the County of San Diego, Imperial County, and Baja California Norte, Mexico. Jane spent some of her early childhood in the Tecate countryside (US-Mexico border area). She currently resides in the City of Lemon Grove, just east of San Diego, and west of La Mesa, California.

Jane teaches Southern California ethnobotany and Kumeyaay language at the Kumeyaay Community College (Sycuan Indian Reservation). School children may recall seeing Jane's published work, including the videos “Trails of the Kumeyaay” (1994), and “Stewardship Through the Ages” (1999). She has also given hundreds of public speeches about Kumeyaay history and culture throughout Southern California over the past 60 years.

KUMEYAAY TRIBAL SINGERS

Seven Kumeyaay bird singers honored Jane Dumas with traditional California Indian style singing — they are pictured singing and shaking gourd rattles during their Jane Dumas Day performance at the Kumeyaay Lake and Campground (4/28/2012):

KUMEYAAY BIRD SINGERS SAN DIEGO TRIBAL COMMUNITY HONORING

KUMEYAAY-DIEGUENO TRIBAL FLAG CEREMONY

The Mission Trails Regional Park held a special community event to honor Jane Dumas and the Kumeyaay tribe — including a raising of the official Kumeyaay-Diegueño Nation tribal flag.

This was the first time the Kumeyaay tribal colors were raised at the Kumeyaay Lake and Campground, and it is significant because it is displayed alongside the American and California state flags in a public park.

As noted below in the council's Proclamation, Jane Dumas played a key role in not only the creation of the Kumeyaay flag project, but also in establishing the official Kumeyaay presence at Mission Trails Regional Park over the past two decades.

Jane blessed the Mission Trails Regional Park Visitor Center when it opened in 1995.

Well done, Jane!

KUMEYAAY FLAG CEREMONY

Kumeyaay photographs: Local Kumeyaay tribal members hoist their national flag at the public California park for the first time. Pictured (l-r): Louis Guassac (Mesa Grande), Anita Uqualia (Viejas), Jamie LaBrake (Sycuan), Leroy Elliot (Manzanita).

Chairman Leroy Elliott congratulates Jane Dumas after completing his honoring song set. Mr. Elliott is a fluent Native speaker of his Kumeyaay language, a Kumeyaay bird song leader, and he is dedicated to the preservation and teaching of his Kumeyaay traditions and ageless Southern California American Indian tribal culture.

The Kumeyaay flag, representing the 12 federally-recognized sovereign bands of the Kumeyaay tribe in the County of San Diego is displayed alongside the United States and California flags.

12,000 YEARS — 600 GENERATIONS IN SAN DIEGO BORDER REGION

A true San Diego Native, Jane's Kumeyaay Indian ancestors have occupied the greater San Diego area for some 600 generations, 12,000 years (according to historical accounts and hard archeological evidence gleaned from many hundreds of local ancient indigenous sites that have been academically scrutinized and opined by scholars and scientists over the past 250 years or so).

CHIEF
Jane's great grandfather is Jose Manuel Haatam (1805-1874), tribal chief of the last aboriginal Kumeyaay Indian group that occupied the pre-contact Kumeyaay village area we know today as Balboa Park in San Diego.

MOTHER
Jane’s mother, Isabel Thing, was a Kumeyaay Kuseyaay (medicine woman or healer) — Jane credits her mother for teaching her about Native American Indian medicinal herbs, plants, and ancient healing remedies.


Jane's father, Ambrosio Thing, was a well-known guide and translator in the early 1900s. One of his more famous clients was Erle Stanley Gardner. Ambrosio traveled with Erle Stanley Gardner on Erle Stanley Gardner's historical expeditions into Baja California.

SAN DIEGO NATIVE GIRL:

YOUNG JANE ON HORSEBACK, HOLDING CAT

Cultural activist in region steeped in San Diego tribal history:

ELDER HONORING

Honoring Jane Dumas in San Diego 2013...PHOTOS.

SAN DIEGO INDIAN COMMUNITY

Jane Dumas pictured above with master basket weaver Yvonne La Chusa-Trottier (Ipai, Mesa Grande) and her daughter in 2005 during the Annual Old Town San Diego Fiesta in Old Town San Diego. Yvonne displayed her Kumeyaay baskets during the cultural event.

SHUMUP KO HUP (Dream Come True)

KUMEYAAY DREAMERS

In about 2000, Jane and her daughter, Daleane, cofounded the Shumup Ko Hup gift shop in the San Diego Old Town State Park. Their Indian store sold only authentic traditional ethnographic art handcrafted by California Indians. In the store's heyday, Jane promoted and represented a thriving Southern California Indian co-opt of more than 60 Native California Indian artisans. Unfortunately for the community, Jane and Dee closed their popular gift shop and HOWKA.COM website in 2007 as a result of hard times during the Great Recession.

KUMEYAAY TIME-LINE Brief

10000 B.C. — PRE-CONTACT:

Museums full of Kumeyaay artifacts and scientific and academic studies citing archeological evidence suggest the Kumeyaay Indians have have occupied this region for at least 12,000 years — that's about 9,000 years before the Great Pyramid of Giza was built!!!

1542 — FIRST CONTACT:

The first European explorer known to visit San Diego (1542) was a Spanish sailing expedition led by the Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. Cabrillo sailed past what is now called Point Loma and landed in San Diego Bay — he promptly claimed the entire region for Spain under Doctrine of Discovery.

1769 — SPANISH MISSIONS & SETTLERS ARRIVE:

When Spanish soldier/explorer Gaspar de Portolà and Father Junipero Serra founded the near-by Mission San Diego de Alcalá (1769), Old Town was known amongst the local population as Kosa'aay (a thriving and long-established Kumeyaay village). Some people speculate that Portolà's land exploration into California was indeed a quest to find the fabled Seven Cities of Gold, and the California Missions created bases from which to operate and gain the support and trust of the indigenous peoples.

1848 — US-MEXICO BORDER & CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH:

With the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican American War (1846-1848), the American and Mexican governments cut their US-Mexico International Border through the heart of prime Kumeyaay ancestral homelands and separated the Kumeyaay tribe into two parts... in addition to the thirteen American Kumeyaay reservations in San Diego County, four Kumiai communities survive south of the international border at the turn of the 21st century.

The California Gold Rush (1848-1855) is historically paramount to Kumeyaay history in San Diego — it was estimated that some 300,000 immigrants poured into California during this seven-year period effectively tripling California's population and decimating the indigenous tribal population as a result... it's been estimated that some $10 Billion (2002 dollars) in gold was taken from California tribal lands between 1848 and 1862.

In 1848, Indians in California outnumbered whites by ten to one — can you imagine that — walking out of your house or hotel today and hiking towards your favorite park or beach in an 1848 California countryside?

KUMEYAAY HISTORY SAN DIEGO
KUMEYAAY HISTORY:
For a more complete detailed editorial and timeline....

Proclamation of the City Council
City of San Diego

Jane Dumas Day

April 28, 2012

Presented by Councilmember Marti Emerald

WHEREAS, Jane Dumas, of the Jamul Band of Kumeyaay Indians, is a well-known and highly revered elder, teacher, and leader both in the American Indian community and throughout San Diego County; AND

WHEREAS, Jane’s mother, Isabel Thing, was a Kuseyaay, or medicine woman, who passed her vast knowledge of herbs, plants, and ancient remedies down to her daughter.  For decades, Jane has dedicated herself to keeping alive her first language of Kumeyaay by sharing her impressive repertoire of Kumeyaay culture and medicine with other Kumeyaay, as well as with the general public, at special events and speaking engagements; AND

WHEREAS, Jane helped found the San Diego American Indian Health Center in 1981, where she worked first as a home health aide and then as a traditional medicine specialist.  Jane joined the Board of the Indian Human Resource Center in 1986; AND

WHEREAS, in conjunction with the reopening of father Junipero Serra Trail Road in 1993, Jane took part in the naming and blessing ceremony for the Kumeyaay Lake and Campground (formerly known as Hollins Lake).  Later that year, she participated in the groundbreaking and blessing ceremony for Mission Trails’ new Visitor and Interpretive Center and, in 1995, for the Center’s Grand Opening celebration; AND

WHEREAS, Jane shared her knowledge of Kumeyaay culture in the filming of the “Trails of the Kumeyaay” video, produced in 1994, as well as in the “Stewardship Through the Ages” video, produced in 1999.  Both of these excellent educational films are shown in the theater of the Mission Trails Visitor Center and are viewed by thousands of school children and people each year; AND

WHEREAS, Jane Dumas was inducted into the San Diego County Women’s Hall of Fame in 2002 and is recognized as the catalyst for Mission Trails Regional Park acquiring a Kumeyaay-Diegueño Nation flag to fly proudly at the Kumeyaay Lake and Campground in her honor from here on out; AND

WHEREAS, Jane continues to share her expertise in medicinal plants by teaching Ethnobotany classes at Sycuan’s Kumeyaay Community College.  It is her hope that the knowledge and traditions of her people will continue to be passed down from generation to generation and never be forgotten; NOW THEREFORE

BE IT PROCLAIMED, by the Council of the City of San Diego, that this Council, for and on behalf of the people of San Diego, does hereby declare April 28, 2012 to be “Jane Dumas Day” in the City of San Diego and commends Jane Dumas for her proud service to San Diego’s American Indian community and to our greater region.

Signed by the Mayor and eight council members as approved April 24, 2012.

City of San Diego seal attached, framed and presented to Jane April 28, 2012 during the Kumeyaay-Diegueño flag raising, Mission Trails Regional Park, Kumeyaay Lake and Campground.

MORE ON-LINE KUMEYAAY RESOURCES

KUMEYAAY TRIBAL SOVEREIGNTY
KUMEYAAY SOVEREIGNTY
— The Constitution of the United States, U.S. Supreme Court, federal and state laws, as well as historical treaties all support the Kumeyaay tribe's present-day legal rights to self-government, including certain limited forms of American tribal sovereignty....

SMITHSONIAN KUMEYAAY EXHIBIT
KUMEYAAY AT THE SMITHSONIAN
features the Campo Band of Kumeyaay Indians, aka Campo Kumeyaay Nation, and Campo Band of the Kumeyaay Nation.

SAN DIEGO INDIGENOUS HISTORY IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
KUMEYAAY GUIDE
for on-line Kumeyaay tribal directory, reservation & casino maps, culture, multimedia, including social services, community, research, education, news, events, genealogy-enrollment, even an informative inter-tribal FAQ:

AMERICAN INDIAN PIPE
Fifty top Frequently Asked Questions about Native American Indian tribes
— "American Indian or Native American?" | "Tribe or Band?" | "Who is an American Indian?" | "What is Indian Country?" | "What is sovereign immunity?"...


ONLY THE BEST AMERICAN INDIAN QUOTATIONS
North American tribal and world wisdom portal...

RESEARCH
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CREATIVE INDIAN
KUMEYAAY ETHNOGRAPHIC ARTS

DOCUMENTARIES
PROFESSIONAL PHOTOJOURNALISTIC DOCUMENTARIES
— modern Kumeyaay lifestyle, housing, ethnographic art, indigenous tribal communities of Baja CALIF, MX.

STORYTELLING
KUMEYAAY STORYTELLERS
featuring Sam Brown's famous Kumeyaay stories of the Brown-Curo family of Barona and Viejas.

INDIGENOUS CALIFORNIA INDIAN ARTISTS
CALIFORNIA INDIAN COMMUNITY Profiles
, today's leaders, who's who in Southern California Indian Country, education, culture, art, sports, spiritual, government.

FAMOUS INDIAN CHIEFS SPORTS ATHLETES WARRIORS
FAMOUS INDIAN CHIEFS
Sports Heroes, Warriors, Battles, Military Veterans Community Web Portal...

MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENTS
NATIVE AMERICAN MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENTS


KUMEYAY CASINO MAP

COMPLETE GUIDE TO KUMEYAAY CASINOS:

Play at the best San Diego County Kumeyaay Indian casinos, resorts, hotels, restaurants, entertainment, golf courses — find the official Kumeyaay casinos and tribal websites on our Kumeyaay mapping project maps.


INDIAN TRIBAL MAP

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TRIBAL INDEX:

Interactive maps of the Southern California Indian tribal reservations, including direct links to their official tribal websites and on-line contact information.

Professional photography, writing and design by San Diego photojournalist: GARY G. BALLARD
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