Woods Canyon Pueblo

"My name is New Morning Sun Rays. My nickname is Sun Ray. I am 10 years old. Father wakes me early with the coming of dawn. We go down to the stream to wash our faces. It is the best time to check my bird traps and set them again. Mother would find it a treat to receive birds for breakfast. By the time we return, she will have spoon bread ready with the fresh berries that we picked yesterday.

"Today my friend and I will look for straying turkeys. It is the duty of us older boys to keep the turkeys close by the village. If the turkeys stay close to the pueblo, it is easier for my younger sister and other village girls to gather the eggs. If we do not take too long with the turkeys today, Uncle said we could play shinny in the afternoon. Grandfather made us a ball stuffed with raw cotton. The sticks we made from brush oak are strong. We know we can win the game against the boys of the neighboring village, so we try hard to finish our chores."

Virgie BigBee is an educator and a mother from Tesuque Pueblo, a modern Pueblo community near Santa Fe, New Mexico. In the passage above, she imagines the life of a young Pueblo boy at Woods Canyon Pueblo.