Deer and elk sensed the wrath of spirits deep in the Earth, fleeing Mesa Verde National Park before a wildfire raced through the heart of the nation's largest archaeological preserve.
From quietly watching and listening to natural signs, other Indians believe the fire was predestined. They believe spirits have controlled the fight to put out the blaze, regardless of firefighters' high-tech radios and helicopters.
"I saw a spirit from the corner of my eye," said Dewey M. Neck, crew boss of a team of Sioux firefighters from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota.
The wraith shimmered in the heat and writhed in the columns of smoke, he said.
"I didn't want to look at it, but I can feel the spirits here," Neck said. "When I first came here, I didn't feel it, but I know they're here."
Respectful, stoic reserve is the attitude of many of the American Indian firefighters, who fought the raging fire for 10 days to near containment this weekend. The blaze consumed 23,000 acres and came within a mile and a half of Mesa Verde's famous ruins. When the ashes cool, federal archaeologists will scour the charred acres for new clues to the ancient people who inhabited the cliff dwellings 1,400 year ago.
But Indian firefighters cut through the scientific procedures. They rebury bones and pottery shards unearthed by the fire in knowing disregard of the Native American Grave Repatriation Act, with its bureaucratic procedures for claiming and re-interring remains.
"We gave an offering to the four directions and the spirits. Then we reburied the bones, and we didn't tell the archaeologists," said Dodger Chasing Hawk, another firefighter from the Rosebud Reservation.
"All these artifacts should be left in the ground, where they have been undisturbed for hundreds of years," Chasing Hawk said. "They don't need to be sitting in some museum."
"I truly believe the (Mesa Verde) cliff dwellings will be here to the very end," said Arthur Cuthair, a Ute Mountain tribal leader, who said his attitude was a mix of ancient tribal philosophies and the Book of Revelations.
"They've lasted more than 1,000 years already, so why shouldn't they last until the end of time?" he said.
Some of the younger Indians on the fireline said their job was to put out the fire, with the help of helicopters and prayers.
"I feel that, being a Native American, I have to help preserve the culture of the old ways," said Robert Johnson III, 20, from the Jicarilla Apache Reservation in New Mexico. "I built the best fire line I could."
Sioux firefighter Duane Rouillard, 32, said he begins each shift with a cross-cultural prayer: "We ask for protection for ourselves before we fight the fire, and we pray that the ancestors accept us here and know we're here to help."
Spirits Seen At Mesa Verda Wildfire
CORTEZ, Colo. - Spirits are taking revenge, some American Indians believe. [Original headline: To Indian firefighters,
Mesa Verde is sacred land]
The Knoxville News-Sentinel / TN | By Joe Garner - July 31 2000 •
