Woods Canyon Pueblo

"My name is Turquoise Lake. I am seven years and eight moons. Auntie said that I could play under the old juniper tree today after I help her and my older sisters finish grinding last year's corn. The sand under this tree is a nice place to make a pretend village, and I brought my favorite rock doll. I will play with her and my cousin Yellow Corn Pollen. She is older than I and almost my brother's age. I like her very much because she has watched over me since I was a baby. I can hear Grandfather's voice echoing from the other side of the canyon, cheering the shinny game.

"Tonight, by the warm fireplace, Mother will give me a bath before I slip into the mountain sheepskin bed that I share with my sisters. Sometimes we lie awake and listen to Grandfather and Grandmother telling stories of long ago. I imagine the story characters in silhouettes cast on the walls by the firelight, and then I fall asleep."

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 girl at Woods Canyon Pueblo.