nasu: Fw: Navajo Wisdom -Forwarded (fwd)

[David Lewis]

>> Subject: FW: Navajo Wisdom
>> Date: Monday, November 16, 1998 6:49 PM
>>
>> >>
>> >> Navajo Wisdom
>> >>
>> >> Around 1966, a NASA team doing work for the Apollo moon mission took
>> >> Several astronauts to a site near Tuba City where the terrain of the
>> >> Navajo
>> >> Reservation was believed to be similar to the lunar surface. Along
>> >> with
>> >> several NASA trucks and vehicles used for the training session, there
>> >> were two men wearing complete Lunar spacesuits.
>> >>
>> >> Nearby a Navajo sheep herder and his son watched what they thought
>> >> were
>> >> Two strange creatures walking around. Before long, some NASA personnel
>> >> Noticed the sheep herder with his son and decided to speak with them.
>> >> Since the
>> >> sheep herder didn't speak English, he told his son to ask the NASA
>> >> personnel what the strange creatures were. The NASA people quickly
>> >> explained that
>> >> they were not foreign creatures, but they were just men in space-suits
>> >> preparing for a voyage to the moon.
>> >>
>> >> The boy explained this to his father, who suddenly became very
>> >> excited.
>> >> The man spoke to his son, and the son explained that his father wanted
>> >> to
>> >> Know if he could send a message to the moon with the astronauts.
>> >>
>> >> The NASA personnel thought this was a great idea, so they found a tape
>> >> recorder and recorded the sheep herder's message in Navajo. When they
>> >> finished recording the message, they asked the son to translate the
>> >> it.
>> >>
>> >> The boy refused.
>> >>
>> >> Later as the training session was coming to an end, the NASA personnel
>> >> Were eager to learn what words of wisdom a Navajo sheep herder would
>> >> want to
>> >> Send to the moon. They tried asking several people on the reservation
>> >> to
>> >> translate the message, but every person they asked would hear the
>> >> message, chuckle and refuse.
>> >>
>> >> After dozens of people refused, the NASA personnel decided to offer
>> >> money
>> >> for a translation of the message, and finally they found someone to do
>> >> it. The translator listened to the tape recording, smiled to himself
>> >> and then
>> >> spoke the message in English:
>> >>
>> >> "Watch out for these guys, they come to take your land."
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
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