San Manuel Custom Book

OBITUARY: FRANCES ‘TU TU’ MORONGO ‘She loved to dance’ F rances D.“Tu Tu” Morongo stuffed $1 bills in her purse to give the homeless. She enjoyed bird dancing. Knowing one’s heritage, she said, was crucial. “She used to say,‘If you don’t know who you are or where you come from, you are lost,’” grandson David Manzano said.“That was a philosophy she lived by.” The oldest member of the San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians died Sept. 7 at Loma Linda University Medical Center. She was 89. Morongo was born Nov. 4, 1917, on the reservation to Henry and Julia Morongo. She remained on San Manuel her entire life. She knew poverty in a community of rock houses and trailers, many lacking electricity and plumbing. Wildfires destroyed two of her homes. But there was always a sense of community on San Manuel. Morongo climbed trees with her older brother. She made Indian rag dolls and other crafts. She loved dancing when the bird singers came out at night. Morongo cleaned houses and picked fruit to provide for her four children. She used government commodities trucked to the reservation to make tortillas, beans and apricot turnovers. “She didn’t have a lot of food so she made do with what she had,” granddaughter Stephanie Bustamante recalled.“A treat was a piece of meat with a side of flour and water. We would always say, `Tu Tu, you are making us eat paste.”’ “Tu Tu” took her grandchildren on nature walks, collecting native plants for medicinal and other purposes. She suffered the heartbreak of losing four children from automobile crashes and illness. “She missed them terribly,” Bustamante said. “But she was a spunky woman who kept going, and she had all her grandchildren around, which she enjoyed.” Tribal gaming improved life on the reservation. But Morongo for many years remained in her modest Department of Housing and Urban Development home. “She felt having more meant being able to share more with people and charities,” said granddaughter Dolores Fields.“If there was a panhandler on the side of the road, she would pull over and give him money.” Morongo served on the board for Riverside/San Bernardino County Indian Health Services. She loved bird song music, cowboy movies, crossword puzzles, True Story magazine and collecting rocks and driftwood. She is missed. But citizens of San Manuel are comforted by her words and wisdom. “She would tell me when it was her time to go to heaven that it would be OK,” Fields said,“because her people would be waiting for her and it would be beautiful.” — Debbie Pfeiffer Trunnell, San Bernardino Sun 22

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of San Manuel Custom Book

San Manuel Custom Book Contents Editorial Chapter One: A Tribe with a World View Three Fires Make History with Sacramento Marriott San Manuel Village Nears Completion Giving is the Serrano Way Chapter Two: San Manuel Firefighters Prove Their Mettle A Day at the Office Chapter Three: San Manuel Outreach Cal State University at San Bernardino Operation Phoenix Loma Linda University Medical Center Chapter Four: Building a Tribal Government on San Manuel Behind the Scenes Frances 'Tu Tu' Morongo

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