ANA@Tatooine Ranch

Ray Rodriquez, right, in Mexico

Ray Rodriquez, Project Coordinator, has 15 years experience working with Native Americans, veterans and the homeless in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, California, Texas and Mexico. During this time he has provided the logistics for Sun Dance, Bear Dance and Gourd Dance for many communities and has conducted sobriety camp outs all over the Southwest.  Ray earned his undergrad degree in social and behavioral science from the University of Arizona, and did graduate work in legal interpretation (Spanish) and linguistics at California State University Los Angeles and Long Beach.  He speaks Spanish and some Lakota and Japanese.  He has been a domestic violence and DUI counselor for court-directed offenders in Los Angeles.  Ray’s ancestors include one of the earliest Spaniards coming to what is now New Mexico, and Apache and Yaqui grandmothers. 

Rich Hamilton has his Master’s in counseling and has worked with Alaskan Natives in Alaska and at the Veterans Administration Center in Gallup where he developed culturally specific programs for Native Americans. 

Helen Herrera, administrator, nutritionist and cook, has been member and chairwoman of ANA since 1990.  She was also one of the founders and Chairwoman of the Pooh ha bah Center in Tecopah, California.  She is third generation forcibly removed from her Apache Nation's homeland in Belen, New Mexico.  She was born and raised in Chicago and has been living in Los Angeles 35 years.  She has been a activist cook nation-wide and locally.  She has been co-host of Coyote Radio's American Indian Airwaves on Pacifica Radio KPFK for 10 years.  She is directly involved in support of cultural renewal for many indigenous Nations, including Ti'at Society and Chumash Maritime Association.  She is a 14-year litigant in the fight to save Puvungna, a sacred site in Long Beach, California. She has been an  active supporter of American Indigenous/Australian Aboriginal cultural exchanges since 1993.

Diana and David Wilson bought this property with their brother Bill in 2005 as a direct result of the sale of a Wilson family farm in Lincoln, Nebraska.   David and Diana built the house in 2007/08 for the care of Diana's mother and any of their other relations needing elder care.  

Diana has known Helen since 1991, when Helen began to introduce her to the Native and Tongva communities in Los Angeles.  Diana did much of her anthropological field work traveling with Helen before going on to work as the repatriation liaison between UCLA and Indian Nations in Southern California.