Star People Legacy Smith, T.L. (e book free reading .TXT) 📖

ugliest of everything I had, but he’d packed for hunting. Nothing to draw attention. Jeans, dark t-shirt, boots, my cowboy hat.

I shoved my dirty clothes into the duffle as I heard a rapping on the door. It was Daniel. He didn’t say anything as I let him in. He just gathered up our stuff. Frankie wrapped an arm over my shoulder as he walked me down the stairs to their truck. “How you doing, Sis?”

“Tired, confused, scared.”

“If you weren’t, I’d be worried.”

He kept his arm around me, a ball cap dangling from his hand. I realized it was intentional, raised just enough to cover the rest of my face. He kept me on the inside railing, using his body to block anyone watching street-side. Daniel added another layer of coverage for the few steps it took to reach the truck.

They put me in the back passenger seat. The windows were dark tinted, but also had pull down screens to further block out the sun. They were down already, even though the sun was just creeping over the horizon.

As we headed for the highway, I saw Joey pull out of the convenience market across the street, driving Billy’s truck. He fell in behind us. Not so close as to be obvious, but close enough we could keep an eye on each other.

Daniel looked at me in the rear view mirror. “Ricky will join us on the Res.”

“I’m pretty sure you know he hates being called that.”

“I’m pretty sure you know I won’t stop.” He winked at me, then shrugged. “However, in mixed company we’ll give Officer Delgado the respect he deserves. That work for you?”

“I’m sure it will.”

Frankie turned around in his seat to face me. “He’s a good man. We’ve never had anything but respect for him. We knew from the first day he was a keeper. It’s not easy to find that one person our inner Spirit can bond with.”

“A pure Spirit.” I shook my head, looking out the little crack between window and shade. Maybe if I’d known a bit more about…us, I could’ve saved a lot of late night fights.”

“Yeah, you’d have believed us. Hey, Sis, we’re aliens tasked with the job of chasing down other alien monsters, and killing them.”

I jerked my head around to look at him. “Who said anything about us being aliens?” Out came the denial he’d just used as their excuse for not telling the truth.

Frankie stared back at me, unblinking. “Gods, spirits, ghosts, demons… we all grew up with TV shows espousing they were aliens. Guess what, in this case we are. Primitive humans needed to explain what they saw in the simplest ways possible. Earth’s people are humans, everything else isn’t. That includes us.”

He didn’t blink and glancing at Daniel, he didn’t look at me. So much for someone telling me we weren’t aliens. I wanted so much to hear those words.

Frankie laughed at my silent attempt to cling to hope. “You’ll see. When mother brings you the rest of the way over.”

Daniel shot Frankie a glare and he turned around. Daniel’s eyes met mine for a second, then back to the road ahead. “You know all this. Your Star Spirit is waking up. You just don’t know how to integrate yet. You will by the end of the day.”

He was using his leader of the pack voice, flat, firm and inviting no questions or dissent.

CHAPTER

19

 

I turned back to the window, watching as he got on the highway heading west. I knew where the new casino was. I’d grown up hearing my parents discussing Nation politics, teaching it to us. After being shattered by the spread of the white man across this continent, the People finally reunited in this century, as a true Nation.

All the People were now one People. As one People they entered into court battles against the U.S. Government to regain their most historic homelands. Unity and determination yielded rulings all over the country, even involving Canada and Mexico.

For the Cocopah, they won back their traditional river lands grabbed by the U.S. Government and Mexico over the previous two hundred years. The revised Cocopah territory carved out four hundred square miles, mostly between Arizona and Mexico, spanning both sides of the Colorado River.

There was an immediate panic as Imminent Domain was established. But the Cocopah worked to quickly quell the unrest. One-hundred year land grants were issued to many of the current non-tribal home and business owners who wanted to remain inside the new territory.

There were no grants offered for the lands immediately around the Colorado River itself. That long swath of river land was declared sacred Cocopah land. The tribe removed all offensive buildings, cleaned up the wetlands and rebuilt recreational areas.

Lands too damaged to be returned to wild lands were used to build new hotels, restaurants and shiny casinos all interconnected along the river, creating a Cocopah Riviera. Eco-friendly tourism brought in revenue for new schools, hospitals and community programs.

The tribe balanced the new with the old. Every Cocopah spoke their native language and observed tribal traditions, but also spoke English and excelled in U.S. standardized education. The younger generations were effectively encouraged to be competitive with the rest of the United States, and the world.

In less than a decade, Arizona had a Cocopah woman in the U.S. Senate. One elected mostly by the non-tribal population. Their successes and failures set example to all the other tribes in the Nation. Restoring harmony to the People. A harmony my parents talked about with personal great pride, at the same time keeping the truth of my heritage a secret.

A pothole jarred my thoughts away from the past. Ironically we were headed south on 95. We passed signs warning people they were entering the reservation and subject to tribal laws. Nothing other than the signs really changed, except that being the last pothole we were likely to hit. Arizona wasn’t as progressive as the Nation on their side of the 95.

The tribal side of the highway