About 1966 or so, a NASA team doing work for the Apollo moon mission took the astronauts near Tuba City, AZ, where the terrain of the Navajo Reservation looks very much like the lunar surface. Amid all the trucks and large vehicles were two large figures that were dressed in full spacesuits.

Nearby, a Navajo sheepherder and his son watched the strange creatures walk about and occasionally be tended to by personnel. The two Navajo people were noticed and approached by the NASA personnel.

Since the sheepherder did not know English, his son asked for him what the strange creatures were. The NASA people told them that they were just men that were getting ready to go to the moon. The sheepherder became very excited and asked if he could send a message to the moon with the astronauts.

The NASA personnel thought this was a great idea, so they rustled up a tape recorder. After the man gave them his message, they asked his son to translate. His son would not.

Later, they asked a few more people on the reservation to translate. Every person they asked would chuckle and then refuse to translate. Finally, with cash in hand, someone translated the message: "Watch out for these guys, they come to take your land."


-- Charles Phillip Whitedog, Ojibway, Network Manager
Multi-Mission Ground Systems Office
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA

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