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It-Spo-Iotisti - Truth (The Californians 1992) (6 pages)
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Page: of 6
5 ieee
father’s collections. It was like a museum.
Everything was very old and very worn. It
seemed that every part of the clutter had a
history — sometimes a history that remembered the origin of the earth, like the bent
pail of obsidian that he had collected from
Glass Mountain many summers before,
“just in case.” He also had a radio that he
was talked into purchasing when he was a
young working man in the 1920s. The radio
cost $124.00. I think he got conned by that
merchant and the episode magnified in
mystery when he recalled that it was not
until 1948 before he got the electric company to puta line to his home. By that time
he forgot about the radio and he did not
remember to turn it on until 1958. It
worked. There was an odor of oldness —
like a mouse that died, then dried to a
stiffness through the years — a redolence
of old neglected newspapers.
The old person in the old house under the
old moon began to tell the story of his
escape from “the rock” long ago.
Alcatraz Island. Where the Pit River
Axo-Yet (Mt. Shasta), 1908. When one of the escapees
climbed the Sutter Buttes and called down that he could
see the peak, their hearts rose. Later, when they needed it
again, the Pit River Indians wondered whether this might
be where the Mouse brothers hid the “truth” from them.
runs into the sea is where . was born, long
ago. Alcatraz, that’s the white man’s
name for it. To our people, in our legends, we always knew it as Allisti Ti-taninmiji (Rock Rainbow), Diamond Island.
In our legends, that’s where the Mouse
Brothers, the twins, were told to go when
they searched for a healing treasure for
our troubled people long, long ago. They
were to go search at the end of It-Ajuma
(Pit River). They found it. They brought
it back. But it is lost now. It is said, the
“diamond” was to bring goodness to all
our people, everywhere.
We always heard that there was a “diamond” on an island near the great salt
water. We were always told that the “diamond” was a thought, ora truth. Something worth very much. It was not a
jewelry. It sparkled and it shined, but it
was not a jewelry. It was more. Colored
lights came from inside it with every
movement. That is why we always called
it (Alcatraz) Allisti Ti-tanin-miji.
With a wave of an ancient hand and words
filled with enduring knowledge, Grandfather spoke of a time long past.
ile one of the many raids upon our people
of the Pit River country, his pregnant
mother was taken captive and forced, with
other Indians, to make the long and painful
march to Alcatraz in the winter. At that
same time, the military was “sweeping”
California. Some of our people were “removed” to the Round Valley Reservation
at Covelo, others were taken east by train
in open cattle cars during the winter to
Quapa, Oklahoma. Still others were taken
out into the ocean at Eureka and thrown
overboard into icy waters.
Descendants of those that were taken in
chains to Quapa are still there. Some of
those cast into the winter ocean at Eureka
made it back to land and returned to Pit
River country. A few of those defying confinement, the threat of being shot by “thunder sticks,” and dark winter nights of a cold
Alcatraz-made-deadly by churning, freez-