Romancing the Genres: Legends of the Northern Paiute

If you follow me on Facebook or read my personal blog "Writing into the Sunset" you know I like to get outside and enjoy the fresh air, birds, animals, and plants.

My "Sunday Service" is taking a hike up on the hills and ridges on and around our property. Nothing fills me with more awe and awareness of how small we all are in the scheme of things than standing on a hill and peering out at a mountain or lake or hill miles away.

I even have names for some of the rocks I pass each day on my walk. Spirit Rock, Lady in the Cave, and Head Rock.

Spirit Rock looks a bit like the statues on Easter Island. Though not so bulky. To me, it looks like a head and body with one arm extended and his finger pointing east.

Spirit Rock

Lady in the Cave is a small cave in the side of the ridge with rocks inside. The rocks look like an old woman stooping over a rock as if working. Perhaps grinding berries and dried meat into pemmican.

Lady in the Cave

And Head Rock is a rock that is shaped like a head and sits all by itself on top of another rock facing north. I had the great fortune to meet Wilson Wewa, a Paiute member, at a book signing. When I saw the cover of his book, Legends of the Northern Paiute, and it had a rock that looked like a face on the cover, I asked him about the rock. He said the face or head rocks were signs for the Native Americans. Unfortunately, because I didn't write down what he said right away, I have forgotten the rest of what he said. But he said I should be honored that it is near us. And I am. That is why I wave and say hello every time I walk by the rocks.

Head Rock

While I know I haven't a drop of Native American blood in me, I feel a connection to nature much like they do. I think that is why so many of their sayings resonate with me. I especially like this saying:

"The Creator-The Great Mystery- lies in the heart of every aspect of life. It inhabits every tree, every stone, every creature, and every event." Voices in the Stones by Kent Nerburn. This book resonated with me in so many ways, I'd finally found something that explained how I felt.

Birds float and drift on the air currents, their songs in the morning when I do my chores, and the thump of a covey of surprised quail flying away are all wonders I can lose myself in. Watching deer going up or coming down a hill. Fawns playing in a field. Badgers digging, throwing dirt. Sage rats running through the grass and tumbling as two begin to fight. These all amaze me.

My favorite pastime in the spring is scouring the hills, looking for wildflowers pushing through the dirt and blooming. Giving color to the drab dirt, sagebrush, and rock.

First buttercup this spring

As a child and teenager, my favorite place to draw or read was sitting on a small island of land between the Lostine River and the irrigation ditch. I sat among ferns in the shade of cottonwood trees. The roar and murmur of the river on one side and ditch on the other were a contrast to my body sitting still and my mind devouring the book or creating an image to capture on paper.

Nature has always been the force that lightens my heart and gives me strength.