Matthew Countryman
mcountry@umich.edu
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 1996 16:31:05 -0500
From: Louis Pena <l-pena@SKI.MSKCC.ORG>
To: Multiple recipients of list FFF <FFF@UNCCVM.UNCC.EDU>
Subject: fwd: moon message
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>[Since I work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the NASA site that flies
>Voyager, and not Los Alamos (GRRRR!), I had lunch one day with Peterson Zha,
>then President of the Navajo Nation. He told us the story and to make sure
>it's told properly I'll tell it again as it was told.]
>
>
> About 1966 or so, a NASA team doing work for the Apollo moon mission took
>the astronauts near Tuba City where the terrain of the Navajo Reservation
>looks very much like the Lunar surface. With all the trucks and large
>vehicles were two large figures that were dressed in full Lunar spacesuits.
>
> Nearby, a Navajo sheep herder and his son were watching the strange
>creatures walk about, occasionally being tended by personnel. The two Navajo
>people were noticed and approached by the NASA personnel. Since the man did
>not know English, his son asked for him what the strange creatures were and
>the NASA people told them that they are just men that are getting ready to go
>to the moon. The man became very excited and asked if he could send a
>message to the moon with the astronauts.
>
> The NASA personnel thought this was a great idea so they rustled up a tape
>recorder. After the man gave them his message they asked his son to
>translate. His son would not.
>
> Later, they tried a few more people on the reservation to translate and
>every person they asked would chuckle and then refuse to translate. Finally,
>with cash in hand someone translated the message, "Watch out for these guys,
>they come to take your land."
>
>--Charles Phillip Whitedog, Ojibway and Network Manager
>Multimission Ground Systems Office (Mission Control),
>Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA
Louis A. Pena, Ph.D. phone: (212) 639-8678
Sloan-Kettering Institute : (212) 639-8573
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center fax: (212) 717-3053
1275 York Avenue, Box 254
New York, NY 10024