He came from a city of stone and temples beyond their comprehension. Iguanas rested on the strangler figs and children fed them papayas in times of plentitude. The stone face of the jaguar looked down from the highest point of the city and in times of famine and death and world's end the priests before his grandfather's time had done horrible things in its mouth. Travelers came and when they left spots appeared and soon the iguanas rested on the steps of the temple and on top of the jaguar.

He had a family he loved and cared for and buried after the spots and they found him maybe three dozen others alone in the city. Most were dead most who weren't had left seeking mercy in the villages but he had stayed. They looked like him but they wore clothes that covered most of their body and they spoke to him in his native language and talked of a foreign deity and how he needed to be purified then they took him and maybe the three dozen others and no one resisted because they were all too weak.

They gave him iron which he knew and had him dig holes underground. He wondered of the underworld and whether they were trying to find an entrance to it but they told him such thing was fable. They whipped him sometimes and he didn't know why. They covered him in clothes that covered most of his body which scratched him and the ones who took him taught him their foreign language. He and the maybe three dozen others toiled like this as the sun set and rose and his hair grew long and the welts on his back grew and one day he saw the red soil in the soft orange hue of the candle and in the light behind him and in front of him were men he recognized but none came from his city of stone and temples.

The ones with the red beards and the wide eyes asked him of his city. He told them as best he could of the temples and the prosperity and their eyes grew wider. They dressed in iron and dressed in white robes with the cross of their and his savior and gave the ones who looked like him shovels and pickaxes and had them push their iron cylinders and he led them to his city. They walked the temples and searched in the river and climbed in the stone face of the jaguar then planted the cross of their and his savior in its mouth and walked back with bags full of pots and stones.

He went underground after but was sold to others with red beards and wide eyes. He led them to his city and they whipped him two days after they arrived. He was sold to others and he led them to his city and they called him a liar and a thief and chopped off his right hand. He was sold to others and he led them to his city and they explored it and planted the cross of their and his savior in the home of his city's high priest. He was sold to others and he led them to his city and they stayed in it for sixty days and asked him of gold or iron or copper and he said there was none and they called him a liar but when none was found they branded him with two triangles overlaid on top of each other and mirror images of each other.

He was sold to others and they made him walk west. They loaded him onto a boat of wood and iron and fabric and his land faded into the water and he would never see it again. They brought him to a city of wood and stone where rain was a fable and the cross of their and his savior was on the highest structure. When he was brought from the docks into the gates the priest who blessed travelers sprinkled him with water. When the priest saw his brand he laughed.

He spoke Spanish to the priest and the priest was surprised. The priest asked where he came from and he said he came from a village of no more than six houses. The priest had him sweep the temple as best he could with his left hand and feed and wash the dogs as best he could with his left hand and taught him of their and his savior and said everything could be forgiven if he let Him into his heart and into his soul. He said the left hand was the hand of the devil but even this could be forgiven. He said his brand was the symbol of those who betrayed their and his savior but even this could be forgiven. When he was loaded onto a boat of wood and iron and fabric the priest blessed him and him only and gave him the cross of their and his savior small made of iron and copper. The city of wood and stone where rain was a fable faded into the water.

They brought him to a land where there was no stone. The buildings were short and long and wooden and the inhabitants came out in canoes with furs thicker than two of his fingers and they had the same skin as him the same eyes of him but were taller and stronger than him. Taller and stronger than the ones with red beards and wide eyes. They gave him to them. They placed him in a house with others and the ones who had flat foreheads made him do small tasks and he learned their language this way. When the ones with red beards and wide eyes came he would talk to them in Spanish and talk to the ones with the flat foreheads in their language.

It rained incessantly and became darker during some times of the years than he thought possible and became colder during some times of the years than he was used to. They fed him large fish and gave him worn furs to sit on their benches with and since he knew spanish the ones with the flat foreheads would come and talk to him. They asked him of his home and he lied. They asked him of the cross of their and his savior and he lied.

One woman bore his child. She was freeborn. He was not so his child had a roundhead. He gave his child the cross of her and his savior and though the woman who bore her had a different name for her he called her María and told her of their and his savior. He told her of his home, of the temples and the stone head of the jaguar, of his underworld, of the iguanas. She thought he told her fables. He never told of the brands, the welts on his back, his missing right hand. He never told of his family. He remembered the names of each child he buried.

He died fifty-two years after his birth. He never talked of his family. His daughter out of respect for her father kept the cross of his savior and gave it to her son. Her son lost it nineteen solstices after his birth. The son of her son traveled away from the brightest star and was captured by a tribe that lived on a river of black rock and canyons. He became a slave and his son became a slave and his daughter became a commoner and her son became a respected warrior and his daughter became the wife of a chief and her son became a chief they called Ti'lomikh.

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When he was young Ti'lomikh placed the salmon bones under the falls. Sometimes the water caught him and he was under so long that his lungs were on fire and his eyes saw black. Sometimes it caught another and sometimes a man drowned. One time in high water he saved a man. He placed the bones every ceremony.

White men came into the valley with iron and guns and he watched them squat in the river below and above the falls and place iron pans in the water and shake them around and look into the water. In the evening they erected white canvas tents and made small fires for cooking and large bonfires and they stripped naked next to the bonfires to warm themselves.

His people traded with the white men and they got iron cookware and guns and not much else. More came and some came with women and children and some of these white men cut down trees to build cabins like the people on the coast had. Some placed giant wooden structures within the streams such that the water didn't flow into the rivers and some placed giant nets within the rivers before the bones of the first had been placed under the falls and every season the salmon returned less and less and less and the white men needed less and less and less. The Chief Takelma when he saw the white men would smile and ask to trade and those who had been there since the first canvas tents would trade sometimes but those who had not wouldn't. The salmon returned less and less and the deer and the elk avoided the area.

Ti'lomikh stole horses and guns and clothes and meat from the white men with some other youth from his family. His father was Takelma and Takelma told Ti'lomikh to stop. He said the white men were different. He said the white men were organized and in solidarity and had taken over territory from many bands and could take their territory. Ti'lomikh said they were already taking it. Ti'lomikh said if they were not taking territory why do they fish before the bones of the first have been placed under the falls. Ti'lomikh said if they were not taking territory why do we need to travel farther and farther for elk and fish longer and longer for salmon. Takelma said the white men were different. Takelma said they operated on different customs and taboos than his and Ti'lomikh's people. Ti'lomikh kept stealing.

He and his brother rowed his canoe to the island and stumbled upon the bodies of seven. Two were his brothers. They hung from the rope of the white man. They hung naked. They hung bound. They hung mutilated. Some missing fingers. Some missing scalps. His younger brother missing his ears. Next to them were the boot prints of the white man. Scraps of the salty meat the white man ate. The cross of their savior haphazardly erected and planted firmly in the ground. The salmon return less and less every year. The elk stay farther and farther. The bodies lie under the cross of their savior.

Ti'lomikh waited a year. He didn't steal for a year. He obeyed his father for a year. His father buried the bodies according to the customs but told nothing to the white men. He is not his father. A year from the day he found the bodies he gathered his brothers. He gathered any youth that would follow him. The giant nets in the river. The white canvas tents they erected burning next to the bonfires. Their bodies stripped naked.

He took more than seven. It violated the customs of revenge but he took more than seven. The white men were different. The customs and taboos of Ti'lomikh and his people were fable to the white man so Ti'lomikh and his people had to make them fable. First it was the ones who looked for gold in the rivers and made water flow onto the ground. Then it was the ones who made their houses here. He burned their houses. He killed their cattle. He stole their horses. Their bodies stripped naked on the ground. Takelma said he loved him. Takelma said he would always love each and every one of his son's. Under the falls a giant net was in the river and it captured the first. Ti'lomikh pulled and burned the net then cooked the first then dove and placed its bones under the falls.

Winters passed. White men never disappear completely. They ebb and flow like the tide from the ocean. Ebb in the winter. Flow in the summer. Takelma said he loved him. Takelma said he would always love each and every one of his son's. Takelma cold on the flat mesa above the river he once called sacred. Those who followed him shrouded in the patched clothes of the white man. Those who followed him growing the measly crops of the white man. Those who followed him skinny. His body stripped naked lying under the cross of their and his savior. The priest praying for his son. Ti'lomikh said he would always love him. How can you love a savior that leaves you skinny?

Winters passed. White men never disappear. The salmon less and less and less and less. The elk farther and farther and farther and farther. A church next to the falls. Giant nets in the river below it. The first winter Ti'lomikh was skinny. He was the last of his brothers. He remembered the names of each one he buried. He remembered the name of his father.

He told them to go North. They went North and he remained on the land that was etched and carved into his skins and his bones. The land where he had buried his brothers. The land where his father was buried.

When he was young Ti'lomikh placed the salmon bones under the falls. Sometimes the water caught him and he was under so long that his lungs were on fire and his eyes saw black. Sometimes it caught another and sometimes a man drowned. He placed the bones every ceremony. When he was young salmon made it above the falls. When he was young there were no nets in the river. When he was young no salmon were eaten before the first had made it over.

He felt the water on his legs almost pushing him under. He felt the net heavy in his hands. He felt the bones of the first. He felt the voices of the men shouting the vibrations of their feet in the water. The blood leaving his body. Staining the bones of the first. He feels himself shrinking. He feels the hair growing on his body, white, curly. His feet the size of man's feet, hands the size of a toddler. The bullets go through him leave holes with no blood for he can bleed no more. White men bleed. Their bodies can burn. Their bones can be placed. Under the falls of Ti'lomikh.