 E ARE The Ancients, and our
skin is red: with us, the Sacred Color. These are our legends told about
the campfires on winter’s evenings When you string them together, remember
our great pride. Now we are looking down and our feathers are drooping Tell
the legends so that our young men will realize that the ancestor , threads
run in many directions. Through the tribes we have captured and with whom
we have intermarried there is a red thread which runs back to the Red Land
long sunken in the Destruction. There is a thread which runs far to the south
where the mountain tops touch the sky and the Thunder Bird moves through
the lightning There is a golden thread which touches Tollan, The Mighty,
and beautiful Tula, while through some of our mothers there is a, white thread
to the words of The Prophet Tell my young men to listen.” – Asa
Delugie, War Chief of The Mescallero Apaches. ”This is our book. May
you write it in beauty as we have told it in beauty,” – Zeahley
Tso, Chief of The Navaho. ”There is evidence that some of our ancestor
may have come from the ancient trading empire of Chanchan centuries before
the rise of the Inca Power in Peru. Tell my people to learn of this great
power which once ruled eyes. Tell them to look up and learn.” –
So-Sah-kuku, Chief Snake Priest of Oraibi. ”This is our book –
these legends of Ancient times. They are of the blood which courses though
our veins. We of the Seven Tribes of the Black Tortoise once had a Dream
of Empire. Yet farther back through the cycles of Time we knew the Great
Wakon- Tah, but we forgot His words. These legends should help us to look
up and remember. - Shooting-Star, of the Hunkapa, Dacotah. go
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