Riding with Ghosts PDF
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2 This Eye Classics edition first published in Great Britain in 2010, by: Eye Books 29 Barrow Street Much Wenlock Shropshire TF13 6EN www.eye-books.com First published in Great Britain in 2000, as Riding with Ghosts and Riding with Ghosts: South of the Border Copyright © Gwen Maka Cover image copyright © Bryan Keith Cover design by Emily Atkins/Jim Shannon Text layout by Helen Steer The moral right of the Author to be identified as the author of the work has been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher nor be otherwise circulated in any form of 3 binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-903070-77-2 4 Note on terminology: While writing this book I have been conscious of the current pressure to be ‘politically correct’ in the written and spoken word. In the case of North American tribal peoples I believe that ‘Native American’ is currently politically correct among white Americans. However, not only did I find this at times clumsy and impersonal, I also, in my travels, never met any individuals who used this term about themselves. Rather, they used tribal names or, more generally, ‘Indian’ or ‘American Indian’. I also found this the case in books. When I read of a prominent Oglala Sioux (Lakota) proclaiming that ‘Native American’ reminded him of the repressions practised against the Indian, and of his belief (and of others too) that ‘Indian’ does not — as commonly stated — come from Columbus’s belief that he had found India (which at that time was called Hindustan) but from the gentleness of those aboriginals encountered by him, so that they were ‘una gente in Dios’ — a people of God, then I was satisfied that these terms were not offensive in any way. Therefore, in all cases historic I have used the tribal names or ‘Indian’. When referring to native people of the current era I have again used the tribal name where this is known and relevant, and interchanged Native American, Indian, American Indian, tribal peoples and Native people, when talking more generally. 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For Ethan and Savannah. Thanks to Dan Hiscocks of Eye Books for taking the risk of a new edition and accepting my wish to do a vastly revised script — and for his inspiring ideas and advice. To Helen Steer at Can of Worms Enterprises for her hard work and patience at my many script revisions. Thanks to John and Jane Snow, Linda Raczek, Linda of Coeur d’Alene, Selina, Martha, Armin and Maria, and many others, for opening their homes to me. To all the wonderful people I met along the way who constantly humbled me with their many kindnesses and who never showed any resentment of the fact that my ‘pains’ were personally inflicted and voluntary. Their ability to keep laughing in the face of immense daily difficulties filled me with admiration, brought colour to my days, and made me realise that you can have nothing yet still be generous with kindness. My special thanks to Julian, for his endless inspiration and for still being out there somewhere — still cycling. He made it seem quite normal to get on a bike and cycle for a year. But above all, I thank all those solo women travelling alone in every corner of the world — by foot, bicycle, train, bus, canoe, car, whatever — with confidence and courage and flagrantly defying those doom mongers who are always warning us what a dangerous place the world is. In my travels these solo women always provided intelligent companionship, 6 however short, whenever I met them. Christy Rodgers (who, when not travelling, publishes the radical journal ‘What If…’ from her home in San Fransisco) deserves special mention for her unassuming passion of quietly trying to make the world a more ‘thinking’ place. Such women can truly motivate the rest of us and show us that women alone, of any age, do not have to stay at home, whilst the older among us can dream, not of what we can’t do, but of what we can do — or more specifically, of what we can try to do! 7 CONTENTS RIDING WITH GHOSTS Introduction Leaving Seattle Hockney Landscapes Big Hole Battles Craters of the Moon Shooting Stars Road to the Rockies Red Mountain Pass Winter Wonderland Mesa Verde Hitchhiking Detour Back to the Saddle Canyon de Chelley Navajo Days 8 Hopi Horizons Border Country SOUTH OF THE BORDER South of the Border Floating on the Old Wharf Beach Bums Bag Lady Copper Canyon Doom Mongers In the Steps of Pancho Villa The House of Eleven Patios Bad Decisions in the Valle Testosterone Taxco Bikini Anna Confused in Guatemala Pacific Waves Rats at Sarah’s House 9 Deep Waters Sandinista Country Down the River Dripping Trees 10
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