they called themselves "E-YEIS"

Lunchtime at JB's and a step in time fifty years ago to Flag Bordertown Dormitory, the Litthe Eagles in Flagstaff (KINLANI) Arizona. About a week ago I had the chance to have lunch for a friend who is retiring after a long in time in law enforcement. I almost did not make it, getting there late things had already started and found a spot at table where three people were seated.

I sat down quietly and watched and listened as presentations and talks were made. This place was near Salt Lake City, quite a ways from Navajoland. It was interesting to see that these three seated were of my own people, older and grayer than me, so I was just a kid to them. There was a couple and an elderly gentleman sitting there.

After a time I heard thay had travelled from Rough Rock a place near Many Farms, a place midway west of Round Rock and Rough Rock, they told me they were "orphans", because they lived in an area between all the chapter boundaries but had chosen Many Farms as their place, I guess what they were telling me was they lived way out in the middle of nowhere, far off the beaten path.

They had come quite a ways to have this meal for their relation, a cousin to them. After a time we started to talk and when I told them my name they looked at me and said we know someone with that name who worked at the Flag Dorm. I knew then they were talking about my father.

It was this table I had visit with my Father's boys. You see sitting there, it was like going back to my youth to a time when my father would come home and talk about the boys and girls at the Flag Bordertown dorm where he worked as an aide. You have understand my father was a quiet man, but he loved to talk about traditional things, his experiences and wanted to preserve a little of what he knew so he started an Indian Club and taught these young people how to dance and sing.

After introducing myself, I found that Hosteen Tsinijinnie and his wife were there during the time my father was there. They were children then and school teachers now, the mister is at Rough Rock and his wife she is at Kayenta.

After the talks and eating were over we sat and talked over a cup of coffee. Tsinijinnie said when he heard my name he had to ask me, do you know this person. I told him he was my father. A look of recognition and remembrance came over him and he then said to me, your father taught my traditions, to sing in Navajo and to dance and how they were done.

I looked him, his hair is going gray, but he said I taught my children what he taught me and so now they know these things too. I felt humbled by his words, because he honored my father by this. His wife also was there during that time and had been involved in the Indian club my father had put together and they did performances for the school, the public and other students. This couple met there, and ended getting married, had children and now their children are now grown.

Seated next to me was a man, Larry Gene, a water engineer by chance, who
got in his truck in Phoenix and drove many hours to come North to share
this meal with his uncle who was retiring. His hair is a little gray
and his smile was easy.

He spoke about the dorm, and remembered the old pine trees just outside the fence in forest, there he had put up some wire cable and set up a "bucking barrel". He said he learned to ride bulls on that barrel, and the dorm attendants would take it down, and they would put it up again to ride. I suppose that barrel is still there just South of the dorm.

I remembered his name, as well as many others and we spoke about some
of them. These are the ones I remember, the Sloan boys, Calamities, Etsittys, Yellowman brothers, Jackson boys, Whitehat boys, Rockbridge, Clahs, Bedonies, Silentmans, Neztsosie, and many others. It was like going back to when children played, they called themselves "E-Yeis", a child's funny name.

I sat there and saw the kids of my youth, young and strong and full of hopes, dreams and a smile thinking about those times.

My father spent many hours with them and many others, their names come
to mind, some have gone on and others have left to who knows where. My
father was a simple man, he loved to sing old Navajo songs, and made
many outfits and practiced his singing over and over again. He used to make the boys and girls learn the dance, where to stand and how to move. Some of these dances were the ribbon dance, dances done at sings, yei-be-che- fire dance and many others. He would fashion the outfits and then sing the songs when they performed.

He made feathers dance in a basket and he could dance ye-be-che again and again teaching the young kids how to move, and to make sounds like a hooting owl, a blue jay. and others. I can sstill ee him getting ready to to perform for the annual outings and performances they did for the dorm.

At times he went to the parent teachers nites for some of these kids,
one time I remember he walked clear across town for one of the Sloan boys during the winter snow. We did not have a car then but felt he had to make a showing for them those Sloan boys from Marble Canyon, and worried about others.

My friend Andy Tom who was retiring was one of them, and having a meal with them was visiting my father, he lives through their memory and they gave me a look at those times from long ago.

There were many things we talked about, the huge playground the forest made and they told me some things about my father I didn't know and also about a whole bunch of kids that we knew who are now all old folks I nd where they have gone I don't know. I told them my father spoke about each of them in his old age pulling out the school yearbooks and pictures and telling us funny stories about that time.

My father passed away in 1991. Having lunch with them was nice, I can't
remember what we ate, but it was a good meal. I guess it is that way
with such things. We go on and hopefully do somethings right and I am
glad to say I am my father's son. Francis Cambridge, some called him
Jackie Gleason, but he didn't like that too much but now when I look at
his old pictures he did look a little like him. Anyway that is what I
saw when I sat with Larry Gene, Stella & Leroy Tsinijinnie and Andy
Tom, a part of the ones they called, "E-Yeis".... ..


rustywire