WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.130 align:middle line:90%


00:00:02.130 --> 00:00:04.350 align:middle line:90%
"What made this earth red?

00:00:04.350 --> 00:00:06.510 align:middle line:90%
These rocks red?

00:00:06.510 --> 00:00:09.180 align:middle line:84%
Was it the light
from earth and sky

00:00:09.180 --> 00:00:13.500 align:middle line:84%
to remind us at day's end,
the color of our births?

00:00:13.500 --> 00:00:17.130 align:middle line:84%
Is it all the trails we took
upon ourselves or that were

00:00:17.130 --> 00:00:22.140 align:middle line:84%
forced upon us, begun with our
blood trails taken to Hwéeldi

00:00:22.140 --> 00:00:23.310 align:middle line:90%
and back?

00:00:23.310 --> 00:00:25.980 align:middle line:84%
Our fragile lives,
tentative, brave,

00:00:25.980 --> 00:00:29.070 align:middle line:84%
wavering through all the
worlds we've traveled.

00:00:29.070 --> 00:00:33.870 align:middle line:84%
And each time we arrived, the
quickening of our hearts."

00:00:33.870 --> 00:00:36.660 align:middle line:84%
I should give a
preface to this poem.

00:00:36.660 --> 00:00:40.576 align:middle line:84%
The Canyon has also a
lot of history there.

00:00:40.576 --> 00:00:46.110 align:middle line:84%
In 1864, around that era, the
Diné people were removed--

00:00:46.110 --> 00:00:51.780 align:middle line:84%
forcibly removed by the Cavalry,
and taken to Fort Sumner.

00:00:51.780 --> 00:00:55.350 align:middle line:84%
And our word for Fort
Sumner is Hwéeldi.

00:00:55.350 --> 00:00:58.240 align:middle line:84%
So the people were
removed from the Canyon,

00:00:58.240 --> 00:01:01.650 align:middle line:84%
their food supply was
either burned or killed.

00:01:01.650 --> 00:01:04.739 align:middle line:84%
Some of the people took refuge
at this place called Fortress

00:01:04.739 --> 00:01:09.090 align:middle line:84%
Rock, and they hid up
above, and the soldiers

00:01:09.090 --> 00:01:12.180 align:middle line:84%
were down below trying to
get everyone round and out

00:01:12.180 --> 00:01:14.950 align:middle line:90%
and removed.

00:01:14.950 --> 00:01:19.860 align:middle line:84%
So there's that history,
more recent history there.

00:01:19.860 --> 00:01:23.520 align:middle line:84%
But previous to that, some of
the stories that I know of,

00:01:23.520 --> 00:01:26.790 align:middle line:84%
say that the Anasazi
people lived in that Canyon

00:01:26.790 --> 00:01:29.520 align:middle line:84%
at one time, and they
left their drawings

00:01:29.520 --> 00:01:34.470 align:middle line:84%
on the rocks, which are
now beginning to fade.

00:01:34.470 --> 00:01:38.400 align:middle line:84%
The Anasazi people were called
the swallow people by the Diné

00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:40.380 align:middle line:84%
people, and it's from
them-- that they say--

00:01:40.380 --> 00:01:48.060 align:middle line:84%
that we became agricultural,
because the Anasazi knew

00:01:48.060 --> 00:01:50.670 align:middle line:84%
agriculture, and they built
their homes in the side

00:01:50.670 --> 00:01:52.530 align:middle line:90%
of these rocks.

00:01:52.530 --> 00:01:58.390 align:middle line:84%
So after that contact in Navajo
peoples, society changed.

00:01:58.390 --> 00:02:01.260 align:middle line:84%
So there's a lot of history,
and I've written some of that

00:02:01.260 --> 00:02:04.130 align:middle line:90%
into this manuscript.