2006-06-11T17:19:00.000-07:00

Excerpts
(click on titles below)

from Rivers in Her Eyes
by antoinette nora claypoole

Winter Before Days Were Counted
Intro: Big Mountain, Az.
First Man, First Woman (from Journal of Experimental Fiction)

"The Creator told us what kind of homes to have.
It is a long story and really hard to explain.

We had a song that starts from the East and then goes to South and goes to West and to North and back to East. And this mountain from the East we start with and is Mountain Blanca. On the south side is Mountain Taylor and on the West side is San Francisco Peaks and on the North side is Mountain Herbst. We still pray to these Four Sacred Mountains.

The song goes from the foot to the head. The head has a feather. Big Mountain has a feather in it and in offering a prayer they took some of those turquoise and abalone and jet and white shells. According to the song these mountains are the posts to the hogan and if we are moved out of this natural hogan it goes against the song. The song does not allow us to have a hogan outside of the Four Sacred Mountains.

This is the main thing. I cannot live without a hogan. "

--Roberta Blackgoat, Dine'
Summer 1986

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