The sun was low on the horizon, birds were singing in the small wood nearby and as the last rays of the sun glinted on the surface of the stream - I saw the blade. For thousands of years curving fine lines of sand and clay hid the blue flint blade from the eyes of those who catch the fish today. The voices of the Arapaho children and the awareness of the Native people no longer danced on the water or tested the roots of the trees at the water's edge.
Maybe it was the blue colour at the edge of the sand that cut the first line to my eye, and then to my brain, and then to my hand as I pressed my fingers below the surface of the steam and pulled at the stone below. It could have been the laughter I heard echoing behind as the angle of the voices hit the stream and caused the water to change its flow. Just in that moment the sunlight reflected on the edge of the flint in the same moment it reflected on the edge of my eye .. who knows how it all came about .. who knows where the ghost laughter came from in that frozen moment in time.
I pulled the leaf shaped blue flint blade from the sand and the water.
As the sun set the air became suddenly cooler.
I looked at the blade. It was still sharp. The people were gone, but the blade was still sharp. Arapaho wóosóó3 ni means arrowhead or flint .. toxu'éíhi vai to be sharp .. hiisíís na is the Sun .. koho'ówu' ni a small stream .. nec ni is water.
Arapaho noo3 vta - to abandon or leave behind.
"noo3 vta toxu'éíhi vai wóosóó3 ni, nec ni, hiisíís na" - to leave behind the sharp flint, water and the sun .. and that is what I found again as I pulled the long blue flint blade out of the fine sand and the clay. The flint, the water and the sun were still sharp.
Maybe it was the blue colour at the edge of the sand that cut the first line to my eye, and then to my brain, and then to my hand as I pressed my fingers below the surface of the steam and pulled at the stone below. It could have been the laughter I heard echoing behind as the angle of the voices hit the stream and caused the water to change its flow. Just in that moment the sunlight reflected on the edge of the flint in the same moment it reflected on the edge of my eye .. who knows how it all came about .. who knows where the ghost laughter came from in that frozen moment in time.
I pulled the leaf shaped blue flint blade from the sand and the water.
As the sun set the air became suddenly cooler.
I looked at the blade. It was still sharp. The people were gone, but the blade was still sharp. Arapaho wóosóó3 ni means arrowhead or flint .. toxu'éíhi vai to be sharp .. hiisíís na is the Sun .. koho'ówu' ni a small stream .. nec ni is water.
Arapaho noo3 vta - to abandon or leave behind.
"noo3 vta toxu'éíhi vai wóosóó3 ni, nec ni, hiisíís na" - to leave behind the sharp flint, water and the sun .. and that is what I found again as I pulled the long blue flint blade out of the fine sand and the clay. The flint, the water and the sun were still sharp.
