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Dance of the Dead
A lore of the Luise People of Southern California
Once a year the People of Kamak left their village and went up Palomar Mountain
to gather acorns. Everyone went, young and old, and even the ill were carried
along on litters so that the village could stay together at this important
time. The house were left empty, no one was afraid to thieves in those days.
While the village was deserted, a man from anther nearby village called Ahoya
came to Kamak. He found everyone gone. He knew where they had gone, and why, so he knew he could not see his friends this trip. He decided to spend the night and go on his way the next morning. He did not go into anyone's house, but
rather he took a large basket normally used to store grain and turned it over.
He crawled under the basket, where the wind could not bother him. He fell
asleep.
In the early evening, but long after dark, he was awakened by someone calling
People out to dance. At first he thought the People of Kamak had come back
from acorn gathering. Then, being a old man, he began to recognize the voices
of People he had known many years ago, but who were now long dead He began to realize that the voices were spirits of the Dead! While the People of Kamak
were away, the Dead had returned to dance.
The old man lay quietly under the basket, listening to the voices of all the
People, all the way back to the ancient days. He heard the Woman-who-was-turned -into-rock as she sang, He heard the Man-who-scooped-rock-with-his-hand as he sang. All the People of the ancient days were here n the village again.
The old man could not stand to wait any longer. After he had listened for
hours, he wanted to look at the People he had known as a young man and the
faces of the People he had only heard about in old stories. He threw the basket
off and looked where the Dead had been dancing.
There was only a flock of birds, and they flew away, startled by the basket
overturning. The turtle-shell rattle the Dead had played all night as they
danced lay on the ground. It was now just a piece of soaproot.
The old man was not allowed to see the Dance of the Dead.
"All things in the world are two. In our mind we are two -- good and evil. With our eyes we see two things....things that are fair and things that are ugly....we have the right hand that strikes and makes for evil, and the left hand full of kindness, near the heart. One foot may lead us to an evil way, the other foot may lead us to a good. So are all things two, all two."
"Eagle Chief (Letakots-Lesa) Pawnee"
Mexican gray wolves, called Mexican wolves or lobos, were once common through western Texas, southern New Mexico, central Arizona, and northern Mexico. By the early 1900's, however, growing numbers of livestock in the region and fewer and fewer natural prey species resulted in increasing numbers of livestock losses to wolves. Intensive control efforts were largely successful in eradicating Mexican wolves by the middle of this century. Since then a few wolves were caught and killed; the last confirmed wild Mexican wolf was reported in the United States in 1970 and in Mexico in 1980.
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