Moenkopi Wash and Kayenta...

The Peabody Coal Mine closed and people are worried about the loss of jobs and so on. That is what has been in the news of late. I ran into a Tewa friend from Second Mesa and we had lunch and while we chewed the fat, he looked at me. He is about 60 or so and his hair is going gray, he spoke about the Bean Dance this past weekend held in Hopiland. He was one of the dancers and told me i should have been there it was a good dance. We talked about a lot of things, one of them being Havasupai since we have both been there in the canyon at one time or another. You have to either walk the 8 miles in or you can go in by helicopter if you have the big bucks. We both walked in. We spoke about how the river comes out of the canyon wall, the water flows straight out from the wall and not from the ground above it like a regular water fall. There are natural pools of cold water that look like steps you can wade in at the foot of the falls. He spoke about listening to the Supais sing their songs and how he had heard those same songs in a kiva at Hopiland and knew them, and sang along with the men singing and they were surprised he knew their songs. He laughed a little when he spoke about this. We talked about a lot of things sitting there for lunch which went from noon until three. We had our fill of iced tea and then some. The thing that caught my attention was the smile that crossed his face as he said, "You know the water is flowing again in Moenkopi Wash like it used to a long time ago when I was a boy, it is flowing now you can see it, The children have never seen it flow like that and over in Kayenta the water flows across the land again too. It is a good thing to see. I sat there and listened to him and could see it as he said it and I thought you never hear this from the news or the paper, the politicians from both tribes don't mention it, just the loss of jobs and future economic loss. But I can say that we smiled and laughed to hear that the waters flow again after being dry for so many years. They flow like they used to flow centuries before the mine came along and that was good news, yes it was good to hear for both a Hopi and a Navajo... rustywire