Thomas Doty – Storyteller

Solstice Pictograph

Photo  |  Drawing  |  1993 Earthquake

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An elder translated the message. "At this place, on the longest day of the year, the sun will rise over the eastern hills and shine freely, just to the right of the cave entrance."

As light began to spread across the basin, the sun rose orange over the curve of the hills to the east, making the tops of a dozen cinder cones glow like fire. People gathered and watched the rock face to the left of the symbols. A few minutes after sunrise, the sun streamed between rocks and formed a fist of sunlight on the rock face. Over the next several minutes, a finger grew from the fist and moved down the rock, past the symbols, until it pointed directly to a crack that resembled the cave itself. Less than an hour later, the fist and finger disintegrated into a mass of sunlight, spilled into the crack, and was gone.

– From Where the Sun and Moon Live.

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