A Man Named Day After Day

 "On a spring afternoon in 1936 Fred Kabotie, Porter Timeche, and I were bouncing along a desert road south of Canyon de Chelly, Arizona. We had been on an eventful three-day trip around the north end of Black Mesa and were heading back to Grand Canyon by way of the Hopi villages. It had been a long day. We'd pulled off the road for a few minutes to stretch our legs, and had just gotten started again when Porter Timeche grabbed my arm.
 'Hey, hold it--there's a rabbit!'
 The little '34 Ford convertible skidded to a stop and we jumped out.
 'I don't see any rabbit,' I said.
 'There he goes, behind that bush.'
 'I still don't see him. Where?'
 'Shoot! Hurry up before he gets away!'
 'But--'
 'He's right in that bush. If you don't shoot, he'll run.'
 I eased the .22 to my shoulder and fired.
 'You got him!' yelled Porter Timeche.
 'Good shot,' Fred Kabotie added, pounding me on the back. 'Bring him in so we can get going. Let's try to make Shungopavi before dark.'
 I ran out through the cactus to the bush. There was the rabbit, right where they said. It was dead, too, and had been for a couple of days. There was a string around its neck.
 In all my sixteen years I'd never heard such laughter. Back by the car my Hopi friends howled uncontrollably, tears running down their cheeks.
 It took a few seconds to figure out how they'd done it. When I'd wandered away from the car during our rest stop, Fred and Porter had run out with a poor bedraggled rabbit we'd shot the day before and dropped it in a bush, a hundred yards ahead. Then they'd let me get rolling again before Porter 'spotted' it.
 I'd been initiated.
 Having been born with an incurable interest in everything Indian, as a teenager I was fortunate enough to become friends with Porter and Fred, who were then in their mid-thirties and working at Grand Canyon. Somehow they always found time to answer endless questions, teach me Indiancraft skills, write thoughtful letters, and make sure that I knew the dates when important ceremonies would take place" (xiii).