The Death of Bernadette Lefthand by Ron Querry

Author:Ron Querry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cinco Puntos Press
Published: 2019-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

In case you didn’t know it, the Hopi Reservation is plopped down right smack dab in the middle of the Navajo Reservation. Don’t ask me why, it’s just the way the BIA or somebody like that planned it, I figure. Anyway, there’s a lot of bad feelings and grudges between the Hopi and the Navajo people because of that, and they usually don’t get along too good. Come to think of it, I guess you could say that a lot of different Indians don’t have much use for Navajos for one reason or another. Of course like I already told you, in the case of Anderson and Tom George it seemed to be okay that they were Navajo.

I’d always heard that one way you can tell where you are when you’re on the Hopi Reservation is by which of the three mesas you happen to be on. Mae Lomayaktewa lived on the middle, or Second Mesa.

From Piñon, where the rodeo was held, to Second Mesa is only about thirty miles but it seemed like a lot farther because of the bumpy dirt road and all the real fine dust that comes up into your pickup truck through that crack by the tailgate, and especially if you happen to be riding in the back and that dust is coming up through the crack and covering you like it was doing to me and you-know-who. I remember it was close to getting dark when we got to the Hopi Cultural Center—which is the place where the pavement starts up again.

The cultural center is where they’ve built a nice restaurant and a motel and some shops where you can buy postcards and the Hopi jewelry and the kachina dolls that some of the men carve and stuff like that. It was a busy time of year and there was quite a few people in the restaurant eating—Indians and tourists both. And you know usually in a case like that you better find someplace else to eat if you’re an Indian because you ain’t likely to get much service. But this girl who was wearing a traditional black Hopi dress took us to a booth and gave us menus right away.

When Bernadette asked the girl about if she knew her friend Mae, the girl told us yes she knew her and that Mae lived at the village just down the road and that her aunt lived there as a matter of fact and would fetch her for us. Then she went back to the desk while we looked at the menus. We ordered some coffee and apricot pie with ice cream on top while we waited for Mae Lomayaktewa to show up. Which she did pretty soon, along with her brother.

After we’d all greeted one another, Mae and her brother—his name was Henry—sat down at the booth with us to wait while we finished our coffee before they took us to their house where we would be stayin’ the night.

Mae was a very nice person and I liked her a lot.

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