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Maza Redman
Have you ever awakened from a deep sleep with the feeling you must go to a specific place. The place, I felt, was the San Pedro River on the trail below Fairbanks, Arizona. It was a Sunday morning ...показать большеHave you ever awakened from a deep sleep with the feeling you must go to a specific place. The place, I felt, was the San Pedro River on the trail below Fairbanks, Arizona. It was a Sunday morning as the Cherokee Woman, Flower Broken, and I began our walk past the old buildings heading down the river. We past many old building foundations and felt the presence of many First Nation Ancestors who once walked here.It was during the mining boom in the early 1900’s that many people came here and built large ore crushers along the train tracks running to the Bisbee Arizona smelters. Iron pieces of the old mills lay everywhere with several old mine shafts still visible. As we walk along the river and as the sun became higher, the long walk began to wear on Beautiful Flour. After a short rest, we deciding to turn around and returned on the same path we came. As we walked, we came across one hundred people and four Choctaw traveling up the river alongside us.“Why are you traveling through here,” my friend asked. “Seeing the changes.”. “What Tribe are you from?” I thought. His answer “We are The People.” Before all the questions, I remembered he came to me and asked first for permission to speak to Flower Broken and after saying yes, he began speaking to her. He was a great hunter from long ago and wore the skin of a wolf on his head that hung down his back. He was a strong big man and wore large rib bones painted in green, yellow, and red across his chest.With patience, the hunter told us the story of the Great Flood, saying, “Long ago, the land opened up and made great canyons. Then the water began to rise and the sediments began to settle under the water. Layer upon layer, the sediments grew higher until the water covered the World.”When he was finished, he asked me to tell him a story. I started my story the same. Long ago, a great rock fell from the sky and hit this land. When the rock struck the land, it made a great explosion causing the mountains to shoot great fire into the sky. The clouds of smoke covered the land and killed all the animals. The wooly mammoth, the ancient buffalo, the deer and elk, and many other animals and then the people starved. The Hunter stopped me and said, “Not all the animals died. Some hid.” “You are right” thank you I said.After telling him my story, he said that I was Wiikchasapaya, one Band of the Yavapai. At the time, I did not have a clue who these people were or who I was. Years later, I realized that I looked like Bar-na-jou (Sam Kill) reborn, a Yuma Apache, and good friend of Poko-yad-da (Jose Coffee). Before this, I had no idea of which people I came from, as I had not seen my mother since I was three and my father, hating First Nation people, never spoke about it. I only knew I was different and nobody wanted me around.The next time I realized I was Yavapai was when a Great Chief, called Strong Elk (Monterey Elk Bull), from a band of earlier Yavapai, around 1100 AD, at Ahagaskiaywa (Montezuma Well) visited me. It was both a sad and happy experience. Strong Elk told my friend that she was not welcome and her Ancestors were strangers—meaning her grandfather who walked with her and help her, being Cherokee, was not welcome either. I remember well the Chief was upset about these houses built in this canyon and said, “They will never leave these canyon walls” when asked. While there, the Chief told me I would find my true power by rocking on the Wind. “Why,” I wondered.The First time I heard the word “Yavapai” was when the Sacred Crow at Walnut Canyon told me. Several years after I first met Strong Elk I had returned to Montezuma Well, about four miles North of Camp Verde, and stopped at the old place of The People. Strong Elk, the leader of the people felt I was looking for where I come from. The stone I wore around my neck was a map that led back to my people but I did not know which way to go. He guided me to remove my necklace and hold it out by the deerskin cord. Then, he pulled it from between my fingers and when it landed on the ground, it pointed north.If you are ever lost, this stone will always point in the direction of where you come from said the Great Chief. Arriving in Flagstaff, I looked at the stone and did not recognize any of the land features. “This must not be the place,” I thought. “Look for their trail” was the feeling within me. I took my cell phone out of my shirt pocket and searched for Indian Ruins in Flagstaff, Arizona. Two places came up on the screen. I was drawn towards the West, Walnut Canyon.Traveling West, I exited from I-40 onto the Walnut Canyon Road and followed it. I had traveled a little ways when I felt many ancestors around me. Wanting more, I continue to drive when I came to the parking area. I exited my truck and walked into the forest not knowing what I would find.Giving thanks to the Ancestors, a large crow appeared perched above me and spoke the word “Yavapai” four times. It was a long time afterwards that I discovered that this crow who talked to me was the Sacred Ka Ka Ka and would guide me, with others, as I was just beginning my Journey. Singing in my heart, I felt that I needed to walk through the ruins of this place. I paid the money, walked through the glass doors, and began my descent into the canyon when I saw it. The mountains pictured in my stone were in front of me and I knew this is where my people once lived.I believe these events happened because of my love for my people, and all the Red two-legged (Native Americans) that have a good heart and spirit, that the little blue man came in me and began showing me his journey to many worlds and his battles with many gods as if I was there with him the entire time. I have always tried to honor and give thanks to the ancestors who have helped me on my journey as well, along with all those from many other tribes. Honoring them in every aspect of my life as they, I believe, are the people I follow as well as those who follow the Great Spirit of the Red two-leg.показать меньше