Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
we ran. Jutaine and I walked behind the others. I looked at the sky and sun had died.
Because we shot the bulldozer. The world went dark. The women began to cry. We
did not know where to run. The women cried. We men became enraged. Jutaine is a
powerful shaman. he said, “That truck said to me that it would kill the sun.” It would
empty the sun and make it red.” A shaman cannot speak directly about his vision. I also
saw that those
Cojñone
had been in our other camp and learned a lot about us from
looking at our things and then they shot their guns in all directions. My eyes were full
of spots. We thought we would die but we blew away the badness.
The forest bands said they were also afraid of the pure white Zebu and
Brahman cattle that soon appeared to populate the vast clearings left in
the bulldozers' wake:
We were afraid of the noise of the trucks and the bulldozers and we ran. We were afraid
because the
Cojñone
always killed our people before. We went to a road to look for the
things of the
Cojñone
. We saw some cattle,
Aquiejnanie
. We thought that cattle knew
how to speak. We began to speak to the cattle. We spoke to them but they did not speak
back. They did not understand. We thought that those cattle would speak with us. We
spoke to them but they did not answer. We said to the cattle, “cattle, we are your Fa-
thers too!” We thought that the
Cojñone
were like Fathers to the cattle and that is why
they obeyed them. We wanted to tell the cattle to leave us alone. But we left the cattle
behind there because they did not speak to us. They did not understand our language.
The bulldozers made roads that cut up Totobiegosode lands. These roads
were particularly difficult to cross without being seen or leaving tracks.
To cross, the entire band would hide near the road and wait until no
trucks were visible. Siquei followed behind to wipe out their tracks. Cutai
described one crossing.
We arrived before dawn. We did not cross because we were afraid. We wanted to cross
but we did not know where to cross because there was much movement on the road.
I waited because I also wanted to see a truck. The trucks are very fast; they do not walk
slowly. We waited there for the trucks. I wanted to see one. We lay there under the
brush at the side of the road. They said that one was coming. We prepared ourselves.
But it passed so fast that we could not see it. We had waited for no reason because we
did not see it. so we waited for another to pass and caught a glimpse. . . . At dusk the
women said we are going to cross the road. We were afraid because there were cattle
behind us and in front of us the road. The cattle made sounds like
ooo ooo ooo
. The
women stayed behind with one man to guard them. The men said, “let's cross now
because the moon has come out.” We crossed the road. siquei erased our tracks and
we walked all night to the east.
