Xavier,
I have heard of Leslie Marmon Silko, but have not read her as yet. Laguna is 50 miles from here, and I can see the top of Mount Taylor from my front yard. She is indeed in the company of Native American literary briliiance---N Scott Momaday. I heard him speak years ago here at the Univ. of NM when I was an undergraduate.
I look forward to reading
Ceremony. I love the Laguna and Acoma Pueblo people. Years ago I had a good friend who is Laguna. He taught me so much about his people. . I traveled with him to Mount Taylor ---a place that is so sacred. I could feel the energy there. Quite different from other mountain ranges in our state. We used to go fishing in the natural lake near Taos (Wheeler Peak).
Throughout my years as a teacher in ABQ, I have taught many Isleta and Acoma children. I was the first teacher to take students on a field trip to Acoma (Sky City)
Presently, Sky City has become a place of paved roads and tourist dollars. But, it still maintains the old glory of adobe home life for about 50 families who live there. In fact, last year the grandfather of one of my students came to speak to my class. He told the children stories of his life on the pueblo. Acoma is indeed a magical place to visit. (attached photos)
This year I have a pueblo, sioux and navajo child in my classroom.... Full blood. Rare these days...
N. SCOTT MOMADAY (VOICEOVER)
Once in our lives we ought to concentrate our minds upon the Remembered Earth. We ought to give ourselves up to a particular landscape in our experience, to look at it from as many angles as we can, to wonder about it, to dwell upon it. We ought to imagine that we touch it with our hands at every season and listen to the sounds that are made upon it. We ought to imagine the creatures there and all the faintest motions of the wind. We ought to recollect the glare of noon and all the colors of the dawn and dusk.
This is a video of the NW corner (four corner area near Farmington)...Shiprock. Navajo land.
http://www.pbs.org/rememberedearth/videopreview.htmlhttp://www.pbs.org/rememberedearth/
