Theodore Pratt

“ George said. "If we can talk with them we can learn everything we've tried to know in all our work and solve in a minute what we're ready to spend the whole summer, even years, digging for."
Sidney brightened. "That's what we wanted to do."
George studied the Indians again. "I think they're just as surprised as we are. When they discovered themselves here and saw us—and you must remember we're the first white men they've ever seen—their immediate instinct was to attack. Now that we don't fight back they're waiting for us to make a move." ”

“ The medicine man spoke. At first the scientists were puzzled, then George told Sidney, "That's Pima, or pretty close to it, just pronounced differently. It probably shows we were right in thinking the Pimas descended from these people. He wants to know who we are."
George gave their names. The medicine man replied, "The man who has white skin instead of red speaks our language in a strange way. I am Huk." He turned to the young man at his side and said, "This is Good Fox, our young chief." He indicated the girl. "That is Moon Water, his wife." ”

“ Even modern ones have done things that are pretty impossible to explain. I believe they have spiritual powers beyond the capability of the white man. The prehistoric medicine men may have developed this power even more. I think the old man there is their medicine man."
"So?" Sidney invited.
"I'm just supposing now, mind you," George went on. He rubbed his bald pate again as though afraid of what thoughts were taking place under it. "Maybe way back—a good many hundreds of years ago—this medicine man decided to have a vision of the future. ”

“ George put it formally to the Indians, addressing Huk, Good Fox, Moon Water and the rest. "You have seen something of the modern world. We would like you to stay in it if it is your wish. I don't know how long you could stay in Huk's vision, but if you can remain here permanently and not go back to your time and—well, not being alive there any more—we hope you will consider this." ”

“ Sidney observed, "none of them look like those kind of Indians. And those arrows they shot." He stared at the two sticking in the U-Haul-It. "Those aren't arrows, George—they're atlatl lances!"
"Yes," said George.
Sidney breathed, "They aren't holding bows—they've got atlatls!"
"No modern Indian of any kind," said George, "uses an atlatl."
"Most of them wouldn't even know what it was," Sidney agreed. "They haven't been used for hundreds of years; the only place you see them is in museums." ”

“ Another theory ran to the effect that enemies wiped them out or made off with them as captives. Still another supposition, at least for the Hohokam desert people, the builders of Casa Grande whose impressive ruins still stood near Coolidge, had to do with their land giving out so they could no longer grow crops, forcing them to go elsewhere to find better soil. ”

“ They exclaimed and Good Fox said, "With this we could see our enemies before they see us."
"You have enemies?" George asked.
"The Apache," Good Fox said fiercely.
George handed him the binoculars. "It is yours to use against the Apache."
Solemnly the young chief answered, "The man with white skin is thanked. The red man gives in return his atlatl and lances." He held out his throwing stick and unslung his quiver of lances. George accepted them with thanks; they would be museum pieces. ”

“ At first the two scientists thought the Indian attack on them was a joke perpetrated by some of their friends. After all, modern Indians did not attack white men any more.
Except that these did.
George Arthbut and Sidney Hunt were both out of New York, on the staff of the Natural History Museum. George was an ethnologist who specialized in what could be reconstructed about the prehistoric Indians of North America, with emphasis on those of the Southwest. He was a tall, lean, gracious bald man in his early sixties. ”