Adahooniłigii. [volume], September 01, 1949, Page 7, Image 7

About Adahooniłigii. [volume] (Phoenix [Ariz.]) 1943-????

Image provided by: Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records; Phoenix, AZ

                
man from beyond the mountain, known as Mexican
Clansman, one who is stiil living called The Son of The
Women with The Red Goats, one called Awl Grass, one
called Huge Horse, one called Yabinny, and another known
as Gold. This man called Gold knew the whereabouts of
the troublemaker, and led the party to him. They stopped
at the hogan and dismounted. A Navaho from over by
the river, called Bob (Martin) was the first to accompany
the commanding officer of the white troops into the
hogan. The One With Magic Power was lying toward the
back of the hogan, and before he could spring up they
leapt upon him and pinned him down. Then they dragged
him outside.
The man to whom I referred as Bob had gone about
with Tall Chieftain from the very first as an interpreter.
Some more soldiers went in, grabbed, and dragged outside
another Navaho who was with The One With Magic
Power. They were both taken outdoors. This man called
The One With Magic Power had been performing c
curing ceremony. He was singing over a woman who was
sick. The soldiers threw his medicine pouch away.
After these things took place they held the prisoners
there, and as the followers of The One With Magic Power
came running over there, the soldiers arrested them. As
a result they gathered together a large group of people.
One of the close relatives of The One With Magic Power
was a very old man called He Sniffs Os Himself. He was
so old that he couldn't lift anything, (couldn't harm a fly)
but in spite of his weakness he came running over. The
soldiers tried to grab him, but he kept flailing his arms
and kept right on running. But they arrested him too.
The soldiers were told to look around, so they began to
run about on their horses.
Over toward the south there sat a brush shelter, behind
which there stood a chopped off, forked cottonwood tree.
The crotch of the fork was about the height of a man,
and the Navajo who had run off that morning to carry
the news was standing behind the tree peering through
the fork. A soldier shot him right in the forehead.
As for myself, I was with some other people at a place
farther up, and two of us started running over to the home
of The One With Magic Power. But by that time they were
taking The One Magic Power and his gang away.
They had set out with him and with all the rest of them.
The Navajos were marching along ahead on foot, with
the soldiers behind on horseback. That is how they were
being driven along. And the Navcho policemen were riding
a'"ead of the prisoners. So the prisoners were going alone
in between. We got to the hogan about the time this
troop was going up the bank on the other side of the river.
We got to where the man was carrying on the ceremony
and the one over whom the ceremony had been carried or,
was sittihg by the fireside. She was gray with ashes. There
were no sheepskins in the hogan. They were.all scattered
around outside. The man's medicine was likewise strewn
about outdoors. Rattles and feathers and many other
things were lying scattered out there.
So we two again started to run. We ran to another
hogan, and there we found the womenfolk weeping and
wailing and saying that their menfolk had been taken
away.
A pair of soliders who were still around there came to
us at t e hogan. They were searching around behind packs
and from there they pulled out some homemade spears.
I think it was two they pulled out. They went off wit;
t ! em, and I don't know what they did v/ith them.
• "A shot was heard from up that way. I wonder who it
was? Why don't you two go there and look?" the woman
said to us. So we ran up there.
We ran there, and found the man who had taken my
gun that morning. The gun was merely sticking in the
brush shelter to one side. Another man, by the name of
Toothless, who was a relative by marriage to the victim,
had gotten to him first and had taken the gun off him.
He had wrapped the gun belt around the holster and had
stuck it in the brush shelter. Then he went back up to
where the victim's hogan was. He reported what he had
found and presently womenfolk began running down from
up there. His wife and his close relatives too came
running from there. His wife was my sister. When they got
we put him on a blanket. And then we started off
with him in the blanket. The hogan was a long way off,
but even so we carried him there in the blanket.
Despite the fact that he was beyond all aid, a singer
who was concerned with Life-way ceremonies was used.
He sang over him for one night, but on the following day,
about the time it began to warm up, he died. So that is
how he came to be killed. His name was Little Wet One.
Still further down the river the soldiers Saw another
Navaho who was carrying a gun. When he came close
the soldiers ran toward him on their horses. This one was
called The Nephew of The One With Magic Power. When
he saw the soldiers coming toward him on horseback he
dashed away. He ran through a nearby fence. While the
soldiers were making futile attempts to get through the
fence, he ran a long way from them. They shot at him,
but missed. Three soldiers were pursuing him, but just as
they were about to catch up with him he ran through
another fence. Then he was wounded in the calf of the
leg. While the soldiers were again delayed in opening the
fence, he luckily escaped down into the river. He crossed
the river and climbed up the bank at a point where the
water had cut the adobe into a steep wall. The soldiers
on their horses stopped there at the steep bank. Then they
gave up and started back.
As these soldiers went back they saw a' man standing
in a cornfield leaning against his gun. It was the son-in
law of The One With Magic Power, a person called Little
Warrior. As he merely stood there leaning on his gun the
horsemen rode up and shot him. Then they kneaded some
mud and stuck it on both of his eyes. He was found lying
that way. The soldiers took the gun. These events took
place in the morning, before they marched The One With
Magic Power and his followers away.
When these (three) soldiers returned, then they started
off with The One With Magic Power and his group. The
route led across the river and downstream. Tall Chieftain
was at a point still further down known as Barely Enough
Pep To Make It (Arieth, Utah). The trouble-makers were
driven down there on foot. They were taken there to Tall
Chieftain. '
Back home (here) the people who had been living near
their cornfields moved southward, up onto the hill. They
took their families up there, and drove their sheep up
there. It didn't really give them safety, but they did it
anyway. They moved up onto the hill and stayed there.
In the afternoon they saw the menfolk (who had been
taken to Aneth) being driven along back from down below.
They came to where the killings had taken place, and
continued on up. Still further up there was another hogan.
Here lived a very old man by the name of The Son Or
Former Mean Man, and the soldiers came to him. As we
watched from the hill we could see horses all about the
hogan for some time. Then they again set out. "You're
not making any trouble, so it's not surprising that you
didn't run away," the soldiers told him. And they didn't do
anything to him.
The trouble-makers were taken back to Shiprock. There
the ringleaders were picked out. These turned out to be
Big Tangle Clansman, Gap Man, Furry Hat, The Son of
White Rocks Run Together People, B. O. Man, Sidewise,
as well as the one I referred to before as He Smells Os
Himself, and Cisco.' ,
After that happened the people who had been holding
back their children all brought them in to school. They
even brought in mature young women who had divorced
their husbands. That's what the womenfolk did.
These events took place, and afterward the people
were told to dip their sheep. The dipping was carried out
for t em at Shiprock. Some spent three or four days get
ting their sheep to Shiprock where they were dipped.
The men who had been arrested were taken to Fort
Wingate. Tren they were taken to some place still further
away and put in jail. The old man was released from
Shiprock—this was the one I referred to by the name of
He Smells of Himself. ''You could go cn with the rest, but
you'll soon die of old age probably. You're not strong
enough. Only the young ones will be taken. You just go
back home" they told him, setting him free. He had a
hard time getting back to Aneth it is said. At that time
the place was called The One With The Open Mouth.
Afterward it was renamed Barely Enough Pep To Make It.
Some of those who were taken to jail spent three years
there, some four. So they came back in two groups. The
One With Magic Power, along with another man who was
arrested with him in the hogan, spent four years in jail,
and were the last to come back. Seven of the men were
the first to return. They spent three years in jail. The
One With Magic Power returned from prison, and a year
later he drowned. Despite the fact that he had been
warned against it, he went out in a boat which filled with
water and sank with him. He was probably carried down
by the weight of a pistol and a full cartridge belt which
he was carrying strapped around himself. The man who
had been his companion in jail for four years lived a few
years longer, and then he died too.
That's what happened long ago. The man called The
One With Magic Power made a lot of useless trouble over
schools. He brought it about, saying that "We don't want
any schools." Such attitudes now belong to the past.
Now money is being appropriated and school buildings
are being built. All one hears nowdays is people saying
"Put your children in school as soon as they,reach school
age." Our leaders keep telling us that. That is what is
going on at present.
And I think that they are really right. It's terrible for
a person who doesn't know English. I speak from
experience in that regard, because I do not know English.
I was placed in school a long time ago, but I only spent
one year there. I was put in school at Fort Defiance.
When my mother and father moved over along the river
they took me along with them, away from school. And I
never went back.
If I could have remained a longer time in school I
often wonder how much knowledge I might now have.
Whenever I pick up a book or paper, or when someone
looks at such things in my presence, I have a desire to
look at it. I often wonder what the writing says. I often
wonder if the writing says things in the same way as we
say them when we talk to one another. I guess that's the
way it does.
Those who are learning the English language, and
learning to read books, are really smart, I think. They
look at those black specks on the paper, and then they
read it and say "Here's what it says—." And they tell
the truth.
Our leaders talk to us and stress the necessity for our
putting our children in school, and they speak the truth
too. They're really right. So I recently placed in school
my only son, who used to take care of me.
I am now very old. I can no longer see, and there is no
one to make a fire for me—no one to bring in my wood.
There is no one to bring in water for me, no one to bring
in my horse. I have placed in school the one I used for
those purposes. I just made up my mind to suffer these
hardships. People in the neighborhood will probably help
me. For education is the best thing for my baby. In days
to come he will be able to get along well by means of it.
He will be able to support a family with it. And he will
thank me for it in days to come. I don't want him to
speak ill of me for not doing well by him. That's why I
have put him in school. * ,
What I have told you, my friends, is true. Carefully
consider what I have told you. You who have children,
make them go to school. Nowdays we who cannot under
stand suffer terrible hardships and we are a drawback.
We who cannot understand are nuisances. That's why
I am saying this, my friends.
B|
■ I mmm
TIT--.. '^2
Ha’at’ii shii ’oolye KU KLUX KLAN. ’li Bilagaana
haashii daat’ee shii yee ta’i daniljjgo yee ’cifah nadlceh.
’Ako t’aadoo baa nijoya’ ’adaat’eii yaa naakai ha’niigo
baa dahani’ leh. ’t\ ’akodaat’ehigii t’aa shighan doo
shit dah diijee’go k’asdqq’ dashiisxi jiniigo hojilni’ 1a
dii kwii naaltsoos bikaa hwe’elyaa yigii. K’ad ’ei la’ hot
’adideeshdoot jiniigo bee’eldqoh dah jootijt.
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