June 2012
Page 7
Nugget
of the Little Colorado offer him some trail mix and a granola bar. The young lad declines. The Navajo boy’s name is Tyler, and he asks us if we have seen any good birds today. Tyler lives just beyond the hill and comes to the falls two or three times a week. His grandfather always wants to know what kind of birds he has seen. I ask Tyler if he knows the name of the falls in the Navajo language. Tyler fumbles nervously holding a silver crucifix he wears on a chain around his neck, replying that he would have to ask his grandfather or aunt. They would know. He relates to us a story told to him by his great grandmother about why his family now lives on this side of the river. When his grandfather was a little boy he and a friend were herding sheep, fording the river during a shallow season, flock following behind. For some reason
Murder
Continued from Page 5 and then moving to Missouri where he would become a farmer. Schaeffer was found guilty of the murder on December 22, 1911, and the jury recommended the death penalty. On December 30, Judge E.W. Lewis sentenced Schaeffer to be hanged at the prison in Florence on March 20, 1912. Schaeffer would later be granted a stay of execution after his appeal was filed. On February 26, 1913 Judge Lain sentenced him to hang on May 9. Lain asked Schaeffer if he had a statement to make. Schaeffer said, “If there is a just God in heaven, you and your kind are in a hell of a fix.” He also charged that he was “railroaded” to the gallows by public sentiment before being convicted. Schaeffer would be granted another stay. In December of 1914 Governor G.W.P. Hunt commuted Schaeffer’s sentence to life in prison.
the boys crossing the stream made a local rancher nervous as the young Navajos got closer. The rancher fired his pistol in the boys’ direction. When the boys went home and told their parents a war party was organized, the rancher was murdered and his house burned down. Tyler asks if we would like to see the ranch house. “All that is left is the chimney,” he says. We return to the vehicles. Me beating up my little Honda Civic some more and Tyler riding his ATV, fishtailing all over the road and using any good sized bump as a launch ramp. We come to a set of small ruins, chimney made of the same sandstone slabs which comprise the local hills, all that remains of a long ago conflict. Pottery shards are scattered across the base of the hill. The rancher was not the first human
being to call this hill home. Tyler talks to us about ruins and petroglyphs in the area, pointing to local landmarks. He tells us where to find the antelope. When it is time to depart I offer Tyler a copy of my book Shadow of the OhshaD. He stares at the photo of the jaguar on the cover, takes the book from my hands as if it is made of gold. If only everybody looked at my books that way. Tyler made my day. We drive away, retracing our long bumpy route back towards the paved road. While we shake and jiggle inside the car, my friend points his finger out the window to where a golden eagle hovers on the edge of a small ridge, using an updraft to stay in one place. The eagle is beautiful and I hope Tyler sees it too; it is probably just the sort of bird his grandfather would like to hear about.
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