My first Pueblo

In 1943 my parents bought a set of encyclopedias for us kids, we were a family of readers. In reading through the many books, I saw a picture with the caption of "Cliff Dwelling" but no information was in the books. As we lived in a new residential area without a city library, and the local school had no library at all, my search was delayed. After WWII was over we moved back to the Monterey Bay Area to live. There the local schools and the public library were lacking in resources of Native American Indians. Later while in the  US Army stationed near Washington DC I became friends with a fellow from California who was getting out of the service and going to college in Arizona. After completing my service time i worked in the Architectural field in the DC area for a couple of years before I saw that people working under my direction were being paid more than I was, the difference was they and  completed college and I hadn't. So I kissed my fiancé and took off for Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo California. I started college in 1960 and she followed me that December when we were married. In 1962 I found that my old Army buddy Bob was located in Flagstaff Arizona, teaching 6th Grade. Bob asked that we come for a visit so we did. Bob had a list of places for us to visit while there. One of the sites was south of Flagstaff a few miles so we went there first. Upon arriving at the site, we went through a small exhibit and exited down a path into a dry creek bed. Walking down the path we came to a bend in the river and upon following the path I looked up and saw the same Ruin I had first seen in 1942. My search had ended and now I'm hooked on researching ancient Native American Indians. And of course my wife is related to several indian tribes from the north midwest.

Mudhead

This Mudhead kachina was bought in the early 1960's from the Museum of Northern Arizona.

My understanding was that a young boy and his sister were separated for many years, living their lives in different communities. After many yeas they met accidentally and fell in love and may have married. Son the boy found out that the love of his life was his sister and became so distraught and embarrassed that he started to disfigure himself by pulling on his head, ears and nose, disfiguring him as we see now. This Kachina is common through out the pueblo region of the southwest.