WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.160 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.160 --> 00:00:07.500 align:middle line:84% So this is-- in Mojave, the way we call the policemen, 00:00:07.500 --> 00:00:10.110 align:middle line:84% it's a translation of a Mojave word. 00:00:10.110 --> 00:00:12.960 align:middle line:84% So when we translate, it doesn't mean policemen, 00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:15.780 align:middle line:84% it means the men who will rope you like an animal. 00:00:15.780 --> 00:00:18.180 align:middle line:84% It's the same word for tethering or roping 00:00:18.180 --> 00:00:22.755 align:middle line:84% that you would use for a cow, or a goat, for a bull. 00:00:22.755 --> 00:00:25.530 align:middle line:90% 00:00:25.530 --> 00:00:28.080 align:middle line:84% And that says a lot about our relationship 00:00:28.080 --> 00:00:34.170 align:middle line:90% with that type of authority. 00:00:34.170 --> 00:00:36.450 align:middle line:84% So this is kind of a conversation 00:00:36.450 --> 00:00:40.050 align:middle line:84% I've had with my teacher, with Hubert. 00:00:40.050 --> 00:00:42.030 align:middle line:84% And it's a story he tells me quite often. 00:00:42.030 --> 00:00:44.430 align:middle line:84% It's some place he goes back to a lot. 00:00:44.430 --> 00:00:47.400 align:middle line:84% And it was a story his mother told him 00:00:47.400 --> 00:00:49.440 align:middle line:84% about one of the moments when they 00:00:49.440 --> 00:00:53.280 align:middle line:84% came and took one of the largest group of Mojave children 00:00:53.280 --> 00:00:54.000 align:middle line:90% to the school. 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:56.790 align:middle line:90% 00:00:56.790 --> 00:01:00.190 align:middle line:90% "The Stars Watching It All." 00:01:00.190 --> 00:01:02.590 align:middle line:84% Just so you know, this looks like this. 00:01:02.590 --> 00:01:04.709 align:middle line:84% So I'm reading all over the place with it. 00:01:04.709 --> 00:01:06.600 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:06.600 --> 00:01:08.350 align:middle line:84% And if I have a conversation with someone, 00:01:08.350 --> 00:01:09.360 align:middle line:90% I add a little more. 00:01:09.360 --> 00:01:12.601 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:12.601 --> 00:01:13.990 align:middle line:90% 00:01:13.990 --> 00:01:16.390 align:middle line:84% Grandmom told me how it was when they 00:01:16.390 --> 00:01:18.910 align:middle line:90% took the kids to the school. 00:01:18.910 --> 00:01:21.250 align:middle line:90% The soldiers snuck up. 00:01:21.250 --> 00:01:23.980 align:middle line:84% There wasn't time to hide the kids. 00:01:23.980 --> 00:01:26.290 align:middle line:84% There wasn't time to disappear them 00:01:26.290 --> 00:01:28.690 align:middle line:90% in a stand of Mesquite trees. 00:01:28.690 --> 00:01:31.480 align:middle line:84% Too late for them to make it out to the cliffs 00:01:31.480 --> 00:01:34.210 align:middle line:90% to hide with the owls. 00:01:34.210 --> 00:01:37.420 align:middle line:84% A few didn't care and ran anyway. 00:01:37.420 --> 00:01:40.900 align:middle line:84% Soldiers on horses snatched them up fast, 00:01:40.900 --> 00:01:43.060 align:middle line:84% lifted them right up into their arms 00:01:43.060 --> 00:01:46.780 align:middle line:84% while the horse was still running, or knocked them down 00:01:46.780 --> 00:01:49.240 align:middle line:84% and turned their horse around sharp 00:01:49.240 --> 00:01:53.440 align:middle line:84% to pick them up from the dirt like broken sacks. 00:01:53.440 --> 00:01:57.070 align:middle line:84% Lassoed them like little goats and dragged them 00:01:57.070 --> 00:02:02.920 align:middle line:84% back full of dust, strings of snot or slobber, and scrapes. 00:02:02.920 --> 00:02:04.930 align:middle line:84% When they had got the last kid, they 00:02:04.930 --> 00:02:06.640 align:middle line:84% tossed the little ones in the back 00:02:06.640 --> 00:02:11.540 align:middle line:84% of the wagon because they were too young yet to walk good. 00:02:11.540 --> 00:02:13.660 align:middle line:84% The ones who seemed old enough to walk 00:02:13.660 --> 00:02:15.850 align:middle line:84% got tied to the back of the wagon 00:02:15.850 --> 00:02:19.780 align:middle line:84% with the same rope they use for cows. 00:02:19.780 --> 00:02:21.940 align:middle line:84% Off they went on a dirt road that 00:02:21.940 --> 00:02:26.560 align:middle line:84% ran above the banks of the river on toward the school. 00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:30.880 align:middle line:84% Soldiers on horses with guns at either side of them. 00:02:30.880 --> 00:02:34.220 align:middle line:84% Some mothers followed as far as they could, 00:02:34.220 --> 00:02:37.090 align:middle line:84% trying to carry their baby's dolls to them, 00:02:37.090 --> 00:02:40.720 align:middle line:84% or a bit of food, or a rabbit blanket, 00:02:40.720 --> 00:02:45.250 align:middle line:84% until the soldiers fired their guns to push them back. 00:02:45.250 --> 00:02:50.230 align:middle line:84% That night back in the village was the quietest night. 00:02:50.230 --> 00:02:54.310 align:middle line:84% The women stood outside their houses, holding their faces, 00:02:54.310 --> 00:02:58.480 align:middle line:84% or walking lines in the dirt, lost in their own yards. 00:02:58.480 --> 00:03:01.150 align:middle line:84% They couldn't even look at one another. 00:03:01.150 --> 00:03:03.400 align:middle line:90% What could they have said? 00:03:03.400 --> 00:03:06.010 align:middle line:90% The worst was the dogs. 00:03:06.010 --> 00:03:08.450 align:middle line:90% They started crying. 00:03:08.450 --> 00:03:12.370 align:middle line:84% They were drunk with loss and carved a warpath of circles 00:03:12.370 --> 00:03:15.610 align:middle line:90% around all the houses, weeping. 00:03:15.610 --> 00:03:17.560 align:middle line:84% They wandered out into the desert, 00:03:17.560 --> 00:03:20.950 align:middle line:90% crying, crying all night. 00:03:20.950 --> 00:03:23.590 align:middle line:84% But it was the bluest thing I ever heard-- 00:03:23.590 --> 00:03:25.990 align:middle line:90% those dogs. 00:03:25.990 --> 00:03:31.810 align:middle line:84% The moon too that night joined in, a low bone-colored moan. 00:03:31.810 --> 00:03:36.280 align:middle line:84% And loud-- so loud, I thought it was me crying. 00:03:36.280 --> 00:03:40.270 align:middle line:84% Those dogs didn't know what to do without their babies. 00:03:40.270 --> 00:03:43.570 align:middle line:84% They cried so hard, they made new stars. 00:03:43.570 --> 00:03:47.680 align:middle line:84% And those stars fell to the dirt at their feet. 00:03:47.680 --> 00:03:54.010 align:middle line:84% And those new lonely dogs ate them like wishes. 00:03:54.010 --> 00:03:57.100 align:middle line:84% And this was how the police got their name. 00:03:57.100 --> 00:04:00.610 align:middle line:84% The men who will rope your children like an animal. 00:04:00.610 --> 00:04:05.630 align:middle line:90% 00:04:05.630 --> 00:04:12.170 align:middle line:84% And the thing about that story is that he never once 00:04:12.170 --> 00:04:15.230 align:middle line:90% mentioned that the women cried. 00:04:15.230 --> 00:04:18.440 align:middle line:84% And this was the story his grandmother had told him. 00:04:18.440 --> 00:04:20.360 align:middle line:84% And it was so much easier for her 00:04:20.360 --> 00:04:23.600 align:middle line:90% to tell him it was the dogs. 00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:25.280 align:middle line:84% Dogs, they were the ones who cried. 00:04:25.280 --> 00:04:26.750 align:middle line:90% They cried all night. 00:04:26.750 --> 00:04:30.470 align:middle line:84% Because it was still a place she couldn't take her body back to, 00:04:30.470 --> 00:04:34.900 align:middle line:84% that moment when the women broke in that way. 00:04:34.900 --> 00:04:36.000 align:middle line:90%