{"id":282,"date":"2013-04-30T17:37:31","date_gmt":"2013-04-30T17:37:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/?p=282"},"modified":"2017-01-20T22:29:45","modified_gmt":"2017-01-20T22:29:45","slug":"incredible-story-of-navajo-mike-child-of-the-dust-devil-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/?p=282","title":{"rendered":"Incredible Story of Navajo Mike, Child of the Dust Devil Air"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SkJHvO8qWzc?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SkJHvO8qWzc\" title=\"Incredible Story of Navajo Mike, Child of the Dust Devil Air\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SkJHvO8qWzc\" title=\"Incredible Story of Navajo Mike, Child of the Dust Devil Air\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/IMG_4353.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"284\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/?attachment_id=284\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/IMG_4353.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"2816,2112\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;2.8&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon DIGITAL IXUS 60&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1367155063&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;5.8&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.0008&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"IMG_4353\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/IMG_4353-300x225.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/IMG_4353-1024x768.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/IMG_4353-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_4353\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-284\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/IMG_4353-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/IMG_4353-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/IMG_4353-624x468.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Navajo Mike drives to Amarillo, Texas<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cSit still, the earth will talk to you.\u201d<\/em><br \/>\n<strong>Navajo proverb<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The wind blew a small tornado of tumbleweeds onto the parking lot of the Motel 6  along the old Route 66 in Moriarity, NM., on Saturday. So many tumbleweeds it blocked the entrance to the parking lot and made parking impossible before someone from the hotel came out to clear the lot.<\/p>\n<p>I spent hours watching \u201cdust devils\u201d kicking up in the desert from my hitchhiking spot, just past the Interstate 40 East sign and in front of the \u201cno pedestrians\u201d sign.<\/p>\n<p>Dust devils are updraft funnels resembling small tornadoes and rarely do serious damage but don&#8217;t get hit in the face with a tumbleweed dust devil.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, in a cloud of desert gravel, Navajo Mike appeared in his dusty 2001 Silverado.<\/p>\n<p>He was fresh from the Gathering of the Nations, the biggest Native American powwow in the country. More than 1,500 Native Americans entertained at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque for the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m going to Amarillo,\u201d he said, a four-hour drive into the Texas Panhandle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe&#8217;re going to get to know each other,\u201d I said, he nodded.<\/p>\n<p>Navajo Mike was born in a small town in the Navajo Nation, which straddles Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, the biggest Native American semi-autonomous region in the country.<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s employed by a power company and works on substations in small towns throughout the region. He now works north of Amarillo. He has a light beard and appears strong, but doesn&#8217;t appear to be a weightlifter.<\/p>\n<p>Soft-spoken, he started talking about the powwow dancers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey each dance differently and even the world champions dance differently from the last time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But mostly, he talks about \u201cheartbreaks and mistakes,\u201d a line from a country song I heard while writing this piece.<\/p>\n<p>He almost married a girl once but she cheated on him. Another girl did something so heinous he didn&#8217;t want to be in the same house anymore and sold his $140,000 home for $8,500 &#8211; <em>\u201cnever wanted to see that place again, it held bad memories.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Love was on his mind because he has another.<\/p>\n<p>She&#8217;s also from the Navajo Nation. He&#8217;s 36. She&#8217;s 18 and in community college. He wants her to come stay this summer. She uses his debit card. He&#8217;ll take time off work \u201cto show her a good time\u201d when she comes.<\/p>\n<p>He doesn&#8217;t want this one to end like the others. He&#8217;s deeply worried and excited.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps to change the topic to something less serious, he started talking about his grandfather, \u201cwho was very strong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He was hit by cars seven times. He was hit once when inside a store, another time walking outside a store, another time in a car stopped at a stoplight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCars kept hitting him and he kept living \u2026 he had nine lives \u2026 got hit by a car seven of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But I had been at that Moriarity corner for two nights and I was uncontrollably sleepy. When I get drowsy, I can fall asleep with my eyes open. I fell asleep standing up while waiting for a ride beside the road, nearly falling over when I woke. <\/p>\n<p>I was in that half-sleep state when I noticed five-dust devils around us as we drove, one strong tower and four satellites.<\/p>\n<p>In retrospect, in the hands of someone more supernaturally minded than I am, they looked like they could have been visiting someone they recognize.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Omen on the wind<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I remember some omen birth stories from my school days. Genghis Khan was born with a blood clot clinched in his fist. And with all the <A href=\"http:\/\/sideeffectsofxarelto.org\/xarelto-lawsuits\/\">Xarelto lawsuits<\/a> no one wants to try this medication for blood thinners. Alexander \u201cthe Great\u201d (the Persians call him &#8216;the devil&#8217;) was born the night the local temple burn to the ground and a Persian magi predicted disaster. Jesus Christ had a star and three magi.<\/p>\n<p>Native Americans have numerous omen birth stories but Navajo Mike&#8217;s stands out.<\/p>\n<p>In part, because its message isn&#8217;t clear \u2026 yet. <\/p>\n<p>His mother and grandmother say he was just a year old when a dust devil drew him up into the air and above their grasp for \u201cabout 600 feet.\u201d They ran after him, trying to pull him back before, \u201cit dropped me down into their arms,\u201d he says on a video I took of him while he was driving.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s a true story and a good story,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>He clearly thinks it means he is something special, nature knew it and showed it by lifting him up in a dust devil. <\/p>\n<p>Now, when he sees dust devils &#8211; and he sees them often in this part of the world &#8211; he thinks about what it meant.<\/p>\n<p>What was that all about. What is this life all about.<\/p>\n<p>====================================================<br \/>\n<em>Journalist Michael Sean Comerford is taking a year to work in carnivals coast to coast. He&#8217;s hitchhiking from San Francisco to the East Coast to his next carnival job and writing along the way.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Navajo Mike drives to Amarillo, Texas \u201cSit still, the earth will talk to you.\u201d Navajo proverb The wind blew a small tornado of tumbleweeds onto the parking lot of the Motel 6 along the old Route 66 in Moriarity, NM., on Saturday. So many tumbleweeds it blocked the entrance to the parking lot and made [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4qqmC-4y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1767,"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions\/1767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyeslikecarnivals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}