would they live in the swamps of the south with the
Tuscarora and the big lizards, when they could be
dwelling among the Yar-Ons?
One morning, when I was still a young brave, I
was out fishing, alone, when I saw some very big
war canoes coming on the water. It looked as if they
sailing out of the sunrise. I ran back and told
everyone, and they came down to the shore to see.
I did not know it, but this was the coming of the
Whitemen, and I had been the first to see the ‘dis-
covery’ they write about in their books. (We had
been living in our land forever, but we had never
discovered it! Think of that!)
That night, there was a great Council Meeting
among the Shining People. We human beings hid our
eyes from all the Spirits who gathered in our village.
The tall-as-jack-pine ones came, and the gold-skinned
ones. People who were half-goat, half-horse, half-fish.
Very small people, wearing red hats. Their moccasins
curled up at the toes. People from under the sea, who
dressed in clam shells and seaweed and smelled
strange because of it Tall people with horns on their
heads. No·wonder we hid our eyes!
The Council lasted all night, and we could hear
them shouting horribly and breaking pots in their long
house.
In the morning, one of the Shining People came to
us and explained that those war canoes out on the
water belonged to Men from the Old World, the land
they had run away from.*
He said it was time now for all the Shining People to
say goodbye to us and to disappear. I myself said to
him that I would kill all the Men who were coming if

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