Drums of Tradition : Local American Indian children learn about their culture through song and dance.

Many people picture American Indian children absorbing the ways of their tribe through osmosis: They live on reservations or near extended family members, and are taught about their cultural heritage by watching and listening.

But for American Indian children in Ventura County, finding that special intergenerational contact isn’t always so easy.

Fortunately, 76-year-old Oxnard resident Louis Andrade, a respected American Indian elder, is making a big difference in the lives of children and adults in the county--Indians as well as others--through his commitment to American Indian community education and cultural awareness.

“Louis has a tepee (and) puts on programs and demonstrations in the schools and does drumming for them,” said Thomas R. Smith, director of the California Indian Education Center in Ventura.

“I don’t know any family in my circle or in the county that has done more for Indian cultural education,” Smith said.

And the need for that education isn’t small.

Smith, who also is executive director of the Native American Indian Inter-Tribal Assn. of Ventura County, estimated that there are more than 5,000 American Indians in the county.

“About 800 have identified themselves in the schools,” said Smith. But like Andrade, he added, many are mistaken for being Hispanic because of their surnames.

On Tuesday nights, Andrade, a Luiseno Indian from the La Jolla band, can be found in the center where, for a few hours each week, he and other American Indians teach youngsters the songs and life-ways of their ancestors while seated around a huge cowhide drum.

When I arrived last week, the parking lot of the former Washington School library, which now houses the center, was sprinkled with cars, pickup trucks, jeeps and a lone cattle truck. A 12-foot wall of windowpanes was ablaze with light.

But even if it had been pitch-black, I still could have found the entrance, guided by the mystical, magical drumbeats and plaintive male voices that joined in “the Creator song” emanating through the open windows.

Upon entering, I was greeted by the sight of women and girls dancing clockwise around the men and drum, the foot-long silken fringes of their shawls undulating to the tempo.

Andrade said his wife, Annie, lends to women dancers shawls that she has received as a token of esteem from various pow-wows she has attended. “And everyone makes his own drumsticks,” he added.

“They use almost anything to cover them--hide, tape, maybe sheepskin. I made mine out of a bike safety stick,” he said, clearly gleeful at his ingenuity. He also makes elk moccasins for the family.

Eight-year-old Josh Hale, a member of the circle who is one-eighth Cherokee, listened intently--first to the singers, then next to the tape-recording Andrade later played back of their performance.

The word “drum” can refer either to the instrument or to the social gathering itself, said Andrade.

“People ‘come around the drum,’ ” explained Andrade, meaning that they actually gather to sit around the drum and play.

“And we don’t chant. We sing. My son, Arthur, is lead singer. He’s been singing for years,” he said.

But singing, Andrade said, is not enough, so he encourages American Indian youths in the county to learn the dances.

“The drum alone without dancing is nothing at all,” he said.

David Lehto, one of the founders of The Crooked Hat Singers and the Eagle Point Pow-Wow held annually in Ojai, credited Andrade with being the nucleus of their cultural efforts.

“He’s a silversmith, a craftsman,” Lehto said. “He teaches the young people. He’s a wonderful man. I think we’re all honored just by knowing him.”

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The California Indian Education Center will participate in the third annual Eagle Point Pow-Wow featuring contest dancing, drums, a buffalo barbecue, native arts and crafts, a tepee village and camping.

It will be held May 15 and 16 at the Lake Casitas Camp Ground in Ojai.

General admission is $4.50 per adult, $2.50 for senior citizens and children age 12 and under. Parking is $2.

To reserve a campsite, call 649-2233. For general information, call 646-8126.

FYI

The California Indian Education Center, 96 MacMillan St. in Ventura, is open 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and 10 a.m.-noon Saturdays.

The Education Center serves Native American students in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties through cultural activities, tutoring, career counseling and college scholarship programs and outreach programs, and a newly developed tobacco-use prevention educational program for the schools.

People of all ages are invited to attend the Tuesday Night Cultural Group, which meets at the center, where they can learn native crafts, singing and dancing from 6:30 to 10 p.m.

To receive the center’s monthly newsletter or for information on the center’s programs, call 643-4950.