Chapters (41)
- PART ONE
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- PART TWO
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- PART THREE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
At the neighbor’s door, Eunjoo rang the bell. Calliope worried briefly the girl’s parents would think she’d kidnapped her after all this time. Yet she had faith the Ancestors would work it out. She turned toward her corn girl and rock baby now flesh-and-blood girl as Eunjoo’s mother answered, shrieking her shock and relief, hugging her daughter, risen from the dead.
Calliope’s heart fluttering, a wild bird thrumming, she took her twins from the corn girl’s booster seat, gave Mara one last hug, then headed away from the truck, up her own front walkway.
She took a deep breath.
She still had work to do. Her old life wasn’t hers anymore. She had joined the stories, the ancient choir of rocks, and she must sing their history, the stories of the Ancestors.
But first, she had to open the door.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Iam indebted to Barbara Tedlock for her ethnographic memoir The Beautiful and the Dangerous (UNM Press, 2001), which recounts her experiences living with the Zuni people for over twenty years with her husband, Dennis Tedlock. Tedlock’s memoir proved invaluable as I researched, and the Zuni phrase “Ulohnan uteya k’ohanna pottiye” and its English translation are taken from Tedlock’s book, as are many of the Zuni words and phrasings.
I am likewise grateful for the Zuni people’s own accounts, such as those found in Virgil Wyaco’s A Zuni Life: A Pueblo Indian in Two Worlds (UNM Press, 1998), as well as conversations I’ve had the honor of participating in with tribal members on the reservation, at Zuni Pueblo Main Street, the Inn at Halona, the Ashiwi Awan Museum & Heritage Center, and elsewhere in Zuni and across New Mexico. I am so thankful for your insights.
The stories recorded in Frank Hamilton Cushing’s Zuñi Folk Tales (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, the Knickerbocker Press, 1901) proved vital to my quest for the Ancients, and many of the Coyote tales of my fictionalized novel are adapted from sacred tales that Cushing recorded, specifically: “The Coyote Who Killed the Demon Síuiuki: or Why Coyotes Run Their Noses into Deadfalls.”
The Solstice Project’s documentary “The Mystery of Chaco Canyon: Unveiling the Ancient Astronomy of the Southwestern Pueblo Indians” (Bullfrog Films, 1999), directed by Anna Sofaer, likewise provided much original inspiration for my story.
Countless other anthropological accounts of Paleo-Indian and indigenous myths have gone into the creation of the worlds and characters this book imagines. I am indebted to archaeological and environmental field research conducted by Colorado College and the University of New Mexico, which is available online. And I’m thankful for my own hometown’s wonderful library system, including the Taylor Ranch Library branch down the Boca Negra hill, which I frequent with my armfuls of books.