What the people would be doing.
It's all inter-related.
So some of the keywords, you could say, is a sense of interrelationship of all
things, it's very important as a way of knowing, anything relational.
Another thing that's very important are ways of knowing process,
everything's moving, it's a dynamic universe, nothing is static.
And these things play out through the language.
But in the native languages, particularly Navajo, it's all to do with the verbs.
It's a totally different way of looking at the world when you look at everything in
motion, everything's alive, everything has relationship with each other.
So that sense of place is comforting because you know
where you are, you know what you should be doing.
And I'll give you an example, there's a constellation that we think is
absolutely fascinating called the Thunderbird, i'ni it's called in Navajo.
And the constellation will take nine months to manifest,
so it's across time and it's across space, and
western constellations are not thought of in this way.
But this is a grounding, you will always know where you are.
And so you will see certain stars will come up October, November, December,
January, February.
And at a certain point in February, when the sixth star appears,
that's when the first thunder will come down, the first lightning.
And those thunder waves will go deep into the Earth, you can imagine thunder.
And that's when a part of the Thunderbird constellation,
a part of a Bear constellation are just peeping over the horizon.
And at the same time those sound waves go down the Earth,
they wake up all the animals that are hibernating, the snakes and the bears.
And the plants start growing.
And so there's a knowledge there that
exactly where you are in that cycle of seasons.
At the same time that people stop telling winter stories and
stop talking about coyote stories or star stories, and
you just leave them and you will pick them up again in the fall.
So it is a plant cycle, it's an animal cycle, it's a water cycle,
it's a meteorology cycle.
The stars have to line up and the people are doing things.
And so it's a way of being totally interrelated with where you are.
>> And I can imagine in those large, open spaces, the power of thunder.
>> Yeah.
>> And certainly lightening.
>> Yes, yes.
>> And all the people know it immediately.
>> Yes, yes, you know that's first thunder.
And it'll come up on the radio stations, too.
They'll say, Window Rock just had its first thunder, or
White Rock's just had first thunder.
And then you don't do anymore winter ceremonies.
There's a real transition there.
>> So spring ceremonies begin, or the next season gradually comes into being.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> And then in the fall, it's at some point the same.
And because of climate change,
there are some things happening where what the animals and plants are doing don't
exactly line up with the stars anymore, because of the global warming.
And so even at home, people are trying to discuss,
well, when should we start the ceremony?
Should it be according to the stars, or the plants?
And it's all nature, so they are having to make some decisions.
>> And do the elders pretty much make those decisions?
>> Yes, uh-huh.