Buffalo Mesa Mummy

Chapter 24

 The Kinaalda was a time of great rejoicing for the whole village. It was a four-day ritual that was both beautiful and moving. Sacred ceremonies were mixed with footraces and other fun and games.

On the first morning of the ceremony the girls bathed and dressed in their finest traditional Navajo clothes. Later Maria stretched face down on a blanket just outside of the family Hogan, with her head toward the door. Her Aunt Kachina then proceeded to remold her so that her arms and legs were straight, her joints smoothed, and muscles pressed to make her truly shapely.

After that was done some of the other women were called to fix Maria’s hair in a special kind of knot and wrap it in deerskin stirrings.

After she was ready Maria ran a quarter of a mile to the east and back. She did this each morning of the ceremony and by doing so tradition said she was assured of continuing to be strong, lithe, and active throughout womanhood.

The actual ceremony consisted of mostly songs. A medicine-man singing the twelve “Hogan songs” went first. After he had finished, anyone else who wanted to sing songs from the ritual could do so.

While Maria was going through the rituals her brother and Peter were being busy themselves. They attended the parts of the ceremony that they were allowed to, but much of it took place with only the women.

The boys had brought their mountain bikes and had made good use of them during their free time. Since they were kind of famous at the moment some of the older boys that lived at the reservation wanted to show them some ruins they had found in the hills behind the village.

Their new friends told Peter and Charlie they could ride their bikes while they ran alongside. Peter was amazed at how far and fast the other boys could run. Peter knew he would have never been able to keep up the pace they did. The look on Charlie’s face told him that his friend was impressed too.

They moved at a pretty good pace for almost two miles until they came to a jumble of rocks, some of them as big as a car.

“You will have to leave those here,” One of the reservation boys said, “We have to climb across those rocks and get over to that.”

The boy pointed to a tall rock tower that climbed into the sky and looked to be around a quarter mile away.

As they propped their bikes against a large boulder and began to follow their new friends it quickly became evident that the other boys had been across the rock field many times.

Their guides moved quickly, but it was their turn to be surprised. They had intended to leave Peter and Charlie behind and then wait for them on a particularly large boulder. They would lay there pretending to take a nap while the outsiders caught up with them. It was something they had done many times to visitors.

Peter stayed right on the other boys heels with Charlie beside him. They might not have been able to run as fast as the other boys across level ground but the two best friends had no trouble covering the rough terrain quickly.

The four boys jumped over rocks, went around boulders, and even under a couple very large ones that were propped up on smaller rocks. By the time they reached their destination all of them were breathing hard. They collapsed on the ground at the foot of the pinnacle and pulled out water bottles, drinking hardily.

“Are the ruins around here?” Peter addressed one of the boys named Bidzill, which meant “he is strong” in Navajo.

“They are just over there.” Bidzill answered, as he pointed to the other side of the rocks.

“But you can see them better from up there.” Joe, the other boy said with a wicked little smile. He pointed to the top of the rock tower. 

The tower was about twenty feet in diameter and looked to be at least eighty feet to the top. Peter stood and walked to the base of the tower and looked at the surface of the stone. Charlie joined him and ran a hand across the surface of the still cool rock.