| I accept the reasoning of my white friends. They say that I am a good example of what takes place when a person is uprooted and forced to adjust to a new way of life, because I was an ordinary Hopi child at the time education was brought to us through the white man's schools, and because I had only limited experience with white people. (As a family we had known the white Voth family, who came to our village of Oraibi in 1893, when according to my officially determined birthdate I was only one year old.) |
| Also, they point out, my experience was typical of Indian children of my era and, to a less drastic degree, of Indian children of today. They also argue that because I continued in the educational field, facing problems of bringing Indian beginners into conventional school procedures, I should be more than ordinarily capable of understanding their problems. |
| It has been painful to recall my long-drawn-out struggle in living. Many of the episodes, buried deeply, emerged slowly. However, now that the effort has been made, I am grateful to my good friends who insisted that this account be written. I am especially grateful to Miss Marion Bowen, and to my biographer, Mrs. Vada F. Carlson, who has had the patience and skill to weld my reminiscences into manuscript form. |
| My grandmother, prophetic woman that she was, used to say: "It is to members of Coyote Clan that Bahana [white man] will come, within your day, Polingaysi, or within the day of your seed, and you of Coyote Clan will be a bond between the Bahana and the Hopi people." I am Indian enough at heart to believe that her prophecy has been fulfilled. |
 | | POLINGAYSI QOYAWAYMA |
|
