Nativo Lodge

There's no valet service.

There's plenty more to say, but I wanted to get this posted. It's my last night here.

The next morning, having loaded my soiled pee pads into the guest laundry, I exited the building through an unexplored door and there, fluttering across the parking lot, was a chick, not a young, human female, a fledgling. I began talking to it and as I drew near, it hunkered down and became still. Cupping my hand, I gingerly covered it and picked it up. It was then I noticed Michael Toya working nearby.

I went over to consult and he pointed out the mother who, he said, had been flying down to the chick and up to a nearby lamp-post where, he surmised, there was a nest. The wind had been blowing pretty hard all morning and the chick seemed a casualty.

After some discussion, we put the chick at the edge of a nearby shrub near the base of the post. There, it'd at least be off the pavement and less likely to be run over.

Returning my attention to Michael I realized he was the artist whose work covered the exterior wall at the base of the building. You can see some of it in the picture above to the left of Phoebe. Michael told how the owners had asked all the artists who'd painted rooms in the hotel to submit proposals for the exterior....and Michael's had been selected.

Eventually, he said, the entire outer facade would be done including the huge, south-facing wall.

I asked about his background. He's from Jemez Pueblo where he'd been raised by his grandparents in the traditional way. He immigrated to Isleta Pueblo when he married.

There was an interesting moment when he paused from our conversation and seemed to assume a more upright stance. He told how they used to hunt Oh-Kee-Dagh, the little bird, a type of finch. He said the male's bright yellow chest feathers were used in ceremonies by his grandfather, but since his death they didn't hunt it much anymore.

The first time he named the bird he made a sound in the back of his throat that I've written as Dagh. The sound was sort of like a cough, but different. After saying it, Michael looked at me as if he expected me to attempt a pronunciation, but he must've seen my reluctance as he then repeated the name but simplified it to: Oh-Kee-Dah....without the problematic, for me, "cough."

I asked about taking his picture and he returned to work.

I'd been gifted with a bit of insider knowledge.