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"Hmmht by the best So what else?"

"Being Navajo is about preserving the tribal lands"

"Hmmm You’ll have to explain that one" My brow furrowed in concentration

"You may not have to live on the reservation to be a Navajo, but can you io back to?"

"Well, doesn’t A to all Americans, Levanites and Navajo alike?"

"It’s not the sa pot The idea is that different people from different places coood thing The difference for the Navajo is that the land froinate is the American continent itself There is no Navajo nation across the water that, siinal people, like an Italy or an Africa or an Ireland When people frorate to America, Ireland still exists, full of Irish people Where are your ancestors from?"

I knew Denrossed in his grasp of the issue

"Okay, so i and takes Denmark and makes it into a National Park and says to the Danes, "Take your wooden shoes and get out You are welcome to move into our country After all, we are all Scandinavians, and you can live in our country just as easily as you can live here""

"I don’t think it was the Danes that ooden shoes," I chortled

"You get ht? If the Danish people don’t have a Denmark, they cease to be Danish eventually They just become Scandinavian, or whatever If you take away the land from the people, the people cease to be a people If you take away the tribal lands, the Navajo people will eventually cease to exist"

It was my turn to stare at Saive you an enormous checkmark"

Samuel rolled his eyes But there was a peace that hadn’t been there before He sighed and reached forto anyway?" He said coreen seat on the rickety yellow school bus

9 Coda

I had given Samuel all the tapes I made for him when he returned from the reservation in March I had lined the title along with its co a reference card to fit into each cassette He said he listened to a different one every night before he went to sleep I did the same, and I often looked out randparent’s house, wondering what coht He would be leaving soon, and I wanted to give hi to retheer speed,I suddenly knehat Saive to him

For the next week I perfected the piece I had written for hiot out, I asked Sonja if I could have a brand new tape She acquiesced, and I told her that I wanted to record er to coreatest height and held her littleI couldatbefore she spoke

"My dear, if I didn’t know better I’d think you’d fallen in love" There was amusement in her tone, but also a hint of apprehension Her back was to rateful for it, as I felt a flush crawl hotly up my neck She rewound the cassette and slid it into the case

"I ed the subject s in love for several rettably, I never told Sonja about Sauarded secret until it was too late to tell her, until she no longer had the capacity to care

Saraduation ceremony - he said he had earned the diploma whether they handed it to hiraduating as well, so , full of all the trite platitudes about success anda difference There were a few la the school song, which frankly could have used a little zip The Nephi school colors are criowns, and the girls wear the gold The gold was a little bit irls looked mostly washed out

Saht and the alphabetical placement of his last name The crimson looked vibrant next to his warhout He showed little emotion when his name was called, and he took his diplo moment had come in the school awards ceremony earlier that week, when Ms Whitlish ‘Student of the Year’ She said he’d shown such marked improvement and desire to learn over the course of the year that he had truly earned the award The student body probably didn’t care, but Samuel was quietly proud when he told me about it after school