Connection

It's funny being from two places. Not funny HA-HA but funny as in "kinda where do I fit it?".

I was born and bred for two years here in the Valley of the Sun..then we moved back to San Carlos cause shi'ta was elected into the Tribal council. That is the place where I grew up and call, to a certain extent, my home. However, I have not lived there in over 12 years. I now reside on my other Rez, the Mighty Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, smack dab in the middle of the Phoenix metro area. This is the place that my brother and I spent summers, countless vacations, weekends, living with my maternal side. My mother's home, a place where I live next door to my aunites, grandma, cousins, and to some extent my mommacita.

Back in San Carlos, I never knew that I was much different from the other kids..except when I was called ," sukina cho," aka the dreaded ,"Fat Pima." Not that I was very fat, just that I was Pima...half to be exact, and I guess peepz felt that i needed to be reminded that I wasn't full Apache. It's trippy know when I think of it..I never really realized that I was half..kinda just thinking that everyone had family elsewhere, got up before the sun rose on Saturdays and ate McDonalds pancakes for breakfast on the trip to see their Hoo'oo down the mountain. Like clockwork, we left almost every weekend to see my sh'cousins in Salt River. I learned to walk on asphalt with no shoes, ride a bike in traffic, eat sno cones from the ice cream man, learned to skate at the funky lil skateland, and see movies with a fistfull of popcorn and orange pop. My cousins even had cable on which to watch fraggle rock!! But even in Salt River, I knew that eventually the fun had to end and I had to go back home, my other home, San Carlos.

San Carlos was more isolated, a little harder, and a lot colder. To get any type of shopping done, we had to take the 25-30 minute drive into Globe, and that man, was such a thrill.

But growing up in San Carlos was so fun..we didnt' have xbox, cable, or even that many toys to play with. We had out imagination and vast rolling hills and a playground that consisted of about 20 miles. We could play all day and not have our parents worry about whether we were "safe." Our clock was the sun, and when that set, our little uths'(booties) had better be home. I learned how to bleed and not let it bother me, how to always (even to this day) show the boys that I could hang, how to run with a lungfull of clean air, how to fish in two feet of water, how to live and enjoy the toys that the "Man Above" gives us free of charge.

I love both of my homes..even if I truly do not feel I belong to either..I belong to both.