© ROBERT MORNING SKY 2008 -
IT BEGINS...
STAR WARRIORS
My story begins many, many years ago.
My grandfather and I were sitting on the side of a hill in the darkness. We had been there for a long time. I knew not to say or ask anything.
‘They will arrive soon,’ he said.
He kept looking up at the stars, so I turned my head upwards, too. I did not want to miss anything. Then all of a sudden, it began. Some of the stars streaked across the sky, then stopped! Then they began to dart back and forth, over and under, around and around. They zigged and they zagged, then they stopped again. I had never seen anything like it! ‘What are they, Grandfather? What are they?’ I asked excitedly.
My grandfather never looked down at me, he kept staring up at the lights in the sky. ‘They are Star Warriors’, he said simply.
‘Wow!’ I thought to myself. ‘Star Warriors! Star Warriors dancing in the night sky! Incredible, just incredible!’
We sat there for what seemed like a long time. The stars twirled and spun and danced, I never forgot them. My grandfather took me to that very special hill several times. The wonder of it never failed me.
I was only five on that first night on Star Hill. We went back a few more times, I loved it! And the images of the ‘Star Warriors’ never left me. My grandfather said that I could become one of the Star Warriors some day. That is why I became a fancy dancer. It was like dancing in the stars.
THE STAR ELDER
But there was another story that would affect me even more. Hidden in the highlands near the then small town of Flagstaff was a place where the Elders of many tribes gathered. They would meet to talk and tell their stories. Sometimes I was able to go.
The nights near Flagstaff were cold and on this particular night they had gathered around the fire to tell their stories. I was laying on the ground, wrapped in a blanket.
As I listened to my Grandfather and his friends I was becoming sleepy. When all of a sudden, I heard an incredible story that would affect the rest of my life.
My Grandfather and his friends were talking about the time one of the ‘dancing stars’ had fallen from the sky. I immediately sat up, I loved those stars. As they continued, I heard how they had found one of the fallen stars and how they had found a little man where the star had fallen. It was incredible! There was a little man from the stars!
They talked about how he talked to them, what they learned from him and some other things I did not understand. They said they called him the ‘Star Elder’.
