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Anasazi Diaspora -- Navajo myth, Shonto Begay

ANASAZI DIASPORA,
BY SHONTO B EGAY
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"Shi cheii, My Grandfather, where did

the Anasazi people go?"

"Shi' tsoi, My Grandson, the Anasazi

had to leave the land long before Dinh,
the Navajo people, came into the Fourth
World."

"But Grandfather, their villages are still

here. Please tell me the story of the people
who disappeared."

"Yes, My Grandson, those ancient ones were blessed in many

ways. They were taught by the spirits ways to live productive and holy
lives. They lived and enjoyed the blessings. They built great cities,
they made beautiful pottery, they had fields of golden corn. They
needed nothing beyond that. But they became lazy. This offended the
spirits."

"How?"
"They chose to live easy lives instead of living by the rules they
were taught to maintain holiness."

"What were those rules?"

"They were to recognize the gods. To pay them homage. To
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Anasazi Diaspora -- Navajo myth, Shonto Begay

observe ceremonies. To celebrate seasons. To celebrate births and

other stages of life. Special healers were appointed and given power to
remove illness and restore harmony. But the healers decided to
perform this ceremony for everyone, regardless of their health and
age. Four times they were warned not to abuse the ceremony. Four
times, they chose not to listen."

"And . . . ?"
"On the fifth day, the great wind rose out of the canyon walls and
roared throughout the land. People were lifted out of their homes, out
of their villages, out of the canyons and valleys. They were scattered
throughout this land never to come together again. The buildings were
left standing to remind us for all time what will happen if we choose to
forget our history, our stories, and above all, our relation to our
mother, the earth."
-- from Navajo Visions and Voices Across the Mesa, Shonto Begay,
Scholastic Inc., New York: 1995

The blue ghostly figure, flung head

down from the cliff house at the top of
the page, here, is one of the old Anasazi
in Shonto Begay's story. This is part of a
large painting running the double width
of his oversize book's pages (and in
actuality, it's a 24 x 36 inch arcylic on
canvas painting). Begay's whole painting
shows a small city built inside a cliff cave
-- like Mesa Verde's Cliff Palace -- with
the spirits of the people described in the
above story flung out of the city and
swirling in the surfaces of the rocks. The
photo here shows an inaccessible ruin
called Square Tower. The info page
linked-to is a U.S. Park service booklet about Mesa Verde, one of the
main cliff-caves townsites of the old Anasazi, which inspired Begay's
painting.

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Anasazi Diaspora -- Navajo myth, Shonto Begay

Shonto Begay, a well-known Dineh artist has written

and illustrated two other children's picture books,
Ma'ii and Cousin Horned Toad (1993 Arizona Author
award), and The Mud Pony, a Rainbow Reading
selection. He was born in 1950 in a hogan, near
Shonto, AZ, fifth of 16 children. Many of his paintings -- including
some from his children's books -- are part of museum collections.

In his introduction to Navajo Visions and Voices Across the Mesa, he

wrote: "The paintings and poems in this book explore facets of Navajo
life that are rarely touched upon in Western literature. They will take
you into the corners of my world, so that you may experience daily life
on the mesa in the 20th century. You will also feel echoes and
reverberations of the way things were here on the mesa many
hundreds of years before Columbus."

I am really sorry that my poor little scanner, and the poor resolution
of web cannot capture the small, swirly brush strokes and fine details
of his paintings, which are reproduced large in these books,
supposedly for kids, but really for anyone who loves beauty. Begay
also writes beautifully, poetically and clearly. Buy all his books for
your school library, or why not get quite a lot of copies for reading
circles? Instead of Dick and Jane get mugged on their way to the
store.
Continue--Heishi and Other Shells

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Webmistress --Paula Giese. Text and graphics copyright 1995,

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Anasazi Diaspora -- Navajo myth, Shonto Begay

1996.
CREDITS: The painting of Mesa Verde's Anasazi Cliff Palace,
with ghostly traces of the former inhabitants, is by Dineh artist
Shonto Begay, from his wonderful book Navajo Visions and
Voices Across the Mesa, 1995, published by Scholastic. It is
slated for review in Native Books, here. Don't wait. Buy this
beautiful book of poetry and short true-life stories! Available ($16)
from Oyate, 510-848-6700. Every school library should have!
Last Updated: Tuesday, September 10, 1996 - 7:43:05 AM

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