BY LAUREL MORALES
Before the time of dinosaurs, lava cooled on this spot. Over millions of years the land around it eroded away. What remains is Red Butte. The Havasupai liken the steep red hill to a mother’s pregnant belly. They believe their tribe emerged from this place.
“We are birthed here,” said Dianna Baby Sue White Dove Uqualla, a Havasupai elder. “We come from underground ... this is our sacred home. Still this is part of our traditional homelands.”
On a recent chilly day, Uqualla and fellow Havasupai elder, Coleen Kaska, sang a prayer song to the mother. Uqualla waved eagle and condor feathers over burning sage. It’s a private, rare ceremony for a non-Native person to witness...