"FIRST NATION" Grazina's Profile

It is written way back in the early 1800s there was a Navajo girl, she was called Whitehorse's daughter. She was about 15 years old. She lived with her family southeast of Mount Taylor, within site of this Sacred Mountain in Dinetah. It was not a mythical kingdom, but was a real place. Whitehorse's daughter lived a long time ago and she is known only to a few, but I will tell you a little about her.

She woke up early and found herself in the hooghan of her father, they lived South of the area we now call Acoma in the hills of cedar trees. Her father had risen early and had gone out, she stayed. Desbah was her name, she stretched and raised herself from the bed make of sheepskins and a blankets were rolled and put in a cleft in the cedar wood of the hooghan. Her hair was long and taking pride in it took a brush, made from horse straw, she brushed her hair. She then tied it in the traditional style in a bun with the help of one of her brothers. Desbah made them a simple meal of corn meal bread and drop wheat soup. They all ate quickly and started out to meet the day.

She went to check on the horses, she favored a strong white stallion placed in a corral made of old cedars in the small box canyon. She had a simple halter and placed it on the horse to ride. Her brothers, near her age wandered off to roam the hills until later.

Sebeyreno and a contingent of 18 farmer soldiers had left Santa Fe and were to check this area for the raiders who had been making trouble for the Spanish settlers in this part of the area southwest of Santa Fe, they werer calling these raiders, Navajo and it appeared they had come up this way into the rocky lands covered with cedars in the area South of Acoma. Sebeyreno was a farmer, who joined the militia for the extra pay and was on the excursion to earn a little extra income he recorded in this diary...His troop had been scouring the hills and found tracks this morning in the area. They might see the Navajo raiders today.

The written record states that Sebeyreno and his group encountered this band of Navajos and proceeded to chase them, the Indians were able to run into the rocks and ledges of the area and the Spanish soldiers took out their muskets and fired at them. They also dismounted and took cover. A fight proceeded, one to the life or death as he wrote. Many of Sebeyreno's group exchanged fire and could see the arrows raining down on them, but they had muskets and gunpowder, they took refuge in this. The Spanish took the offensive and charged the hiding place of the Indians there.

Sebeyreno related that a young Navajo girl, Whitehorse's daughter rode out from behind the rocks and appeared to be about 15 or so. She was wearing a dress made in the fashion of their people and had moccasins that were deer hide up to her knees. He related the horse she rode was a magnificent white animal and that she rode between the Indians and Spanish. She paid no mind to the sound of musket fire and balls whizzing by her, she rode up and down and was telling those of her people as if whe were encouraging them on . He wrote she was twisting and turning with the horse that her hair was soon flying and hung loose, making her a sight that even the Spanish marveled at her courage and watched her as she rode. She was yelling at them riding back and forth ducking and turning and pointing at them. She was telling those Indian men to fight.

It was her that made the difference; she gave them the courage to fight once agin and turned the tied. Sebeyreno was able to escape wounded with another was found by other Spanish soldiers, but in his diary he wrote of the courage of the Navajo girl, known as Desbah.. She was about 15 and it's written she did not survive, she fell that day with many others, but she lives in the words of one Spanish soldier, who wrote in his diary about this Navajo girl who lived 300 years ago. THE COURAGE OF ONE YOUNG 15 YEAR OLD GIRL LIVES IN THE WORDS OF SOMEONE WHO WAS AN ENEMY WHO RECOGNIZED COURAGE IN ANY LANGUAGE AND WROTE ABOUT IT SO LONG AGO.

~Manuelito~

Not many people realize the Dine' (Navajo) had their own "Trail of Tears" or as we call it "The Long walk". The plateaus, mesas, buttes, and canyons of Northeastern Arizona and Northwestern New Mexico were home to about twelve thousand Athabascan speaking Dine' (Navajo) at one time. They were forced to move when the Spanish came in during the fifteenth an dsixteenth centuries.

They adapted then. When the Anglo-Saxon Americans came after the Mexican War, they adapted once more In 1851, Fort Defiance was built i their country by the U.S. Army's government. There wasn't enough land to graze everyone's animals so the Dine' lost out to the U.S. Army's government livestock.

Countless battles with the "Army led to incredible fatalities on the Dine side until the winter of 1864 when the remaining sick and starving Dine' werer marched from Forts Wingate and Canby to Fort Sumner on the desolate Bosque Redondo reservation some 300 miles away. Chief Barboncito's speech recounts the instruction given by the First Woman to the Dine' in which it is necessary for the survival of the people to live within the area they were given in the beginning. Gis sense of hope is evident in the pleading words to General Grant (soon to be president of the U.S.) as he begs for their relocation once more to the ancestral homeland.

He belives that all will go well with them if they can just be back in the place that was divinely appointed for them. Barboncito is longing for "good news".

After many deaths in excess of four thousand, the Dine" were allowed to walk back to the home they loved.
They still have that home today and are many thousand strong. The Bosque Redondo reservation was abandoned and considered by the government to be as utter failure. That is good news.

Isaiah the prophet talks about the beauty of those who bring this good news over the mountains from the city of God. He says that their feet are pretty, their footstes on the mountains are a cause for great joy to those hearing them from afar. The Dine' need Isaiah's good news too.

It is never too late to be the bearer of glad tidings. It is never too late to bring the complete restoration that the pople long for. It all always a good and wonderful thing when the healing arrives over the mountains.

MY PRAYER FOR YOU TODAY IS THAT YOU WOULD HAVE BEAUTIFUL FEET.

~Barboncito~

"When the Dine were first created, four mountains and four rivers werer pointed out to us, inside of which we should live. That was to be our country and was given to us by the First Woman of the Dine tribe. It was told to us by our forefathers that we were never to move east of the Rio Grande or west of the San Juan rivers and I think then of my own country. If we are taken back to our own country, we will call you our father and mother. If you should only tie a goat there, we would all live off it, all of the same oinion. I am speaking for the whole tribe, for their animals, from the horse to the dog, also the unborn...It appears to me that the General commands the whole thing as a god. I hope therefore he will do all he can for my people...and I wish you to tell me when you are going to take us to our own country." ~Barboncito ~

ISAIAH 52:7
"How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"

Okay, it's time to finelly write the fact that I did get the chance of a life time to visit POLAND!!! And yes I did also see the camp or what is left of it Auschwitz. What a heart felt journey but I'm glad I did it it was a learning experince that I will never forget as long as I live. And I continue to tell people of this place and that it must never happen again not in this time and age.

* SEASHORE * Yaldilah! Leave her alone! Seashore cousin!

* MUSHROOM * BIA Teacher told hosteen Begay to use mushroom in a sentence. Hosteen replied, "When all my family gets in da chiddy (car) there's not mushroom.

* You could be a Navajo...If U get hit in the head with an old piece of frybread and you see bluebirds.

* A Navajo was asked if he had ever been to Afganistan or Pakistan. He said "No, only the frybreadstan."

* China & Checker. Quit china checker out! Shes your cousin!

* LAND and WITCH. "You guys need to know your navajo LAND WITCH"

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Ya'at'eeh Abini diiji naa hojooba'go nee oo'aal dooleel.

In the year 2006 of September I will be traveling to this City of Riga....Hoping to meet up with the Locals and have a mini VT meeting...and maybe they can show me some of the off the beaten path and not so much the tourist traps.

The Captial of Lithuania.

Just to let everybody know, I've seen, and done the Lithuanian tour and believe me calling all VTer's it a must place to visit. Come and see how the other side to the world lives. I found the Lithuanians to be very comfortable to be with and the city outstanding.

So what I learned on my research of this beautiful GREEN country is the people are stronge....Lithuanians are believed to have settled in the region about 4,000 years ago. During the 1st centuries A.D., their land was successively invaded by Goths, Poles, Germans, Russians and I even think Vikings. In the 12th Century, the Lithuanians were the only Baltic people to maintain their independence against conquering forces from the West. They held fast to their pagan beliefs and to their ancient ways and customs until centuries later which by then accepting Roman Catholicism.