BOY'S DREAM - QUETZALCOATL'S PROPHECY

information and excerpt from WARRIORS OF THE RAINBOW, STRANGE AND PROPHETIC DREAMS OF THE INDIAN PEOPLES, by William Willoya and Vinson Brown

When Vinson Brown was five years old, his father, who was a doctor on the Sioux Reservation of Pine Ridge, South Dakota, saved the life of the chief of the Oglala Sioux and was gifted with a beautiful, beaded pipe bag. When the boy touched it he felt a sensation go up his arm and into his heart. From the age of five until the age of nine he had the following dream every few weeks:

"In my dreams I seemed to be floating in the sky looking down at a land of many round hills. On the top of each hill was a group of Indians. Some of them were lying on the dry grass, with their fingers digging into the ground despairingly. Others lifted their arms hopelessly to the sky. Women were huddled together weeping. All were wearing old, cast-off whitemen's clothing, just rags. Their faces were filled with a deep sadness, ....There seemed to be growing a strange light up in the sky. Looking up, I saw the sunlight flashing on the wings of a beautiful white bird, a dove...As the dove came near the top of one of the hills, a strange and remarkable thing happened. The Indians there suddenly sprang to their feet, gazing up at the dove. The white men's rags fell from their bodies and disappeared. Instead they now lifted their heads proudly under the handsome headresses and their bodies were covered with clean buckskin that glittered with beads....Their faces glowed with happiness and joy....They began to march up into the sky after the dove, marching with the springing steps of conquerers....Other dark-skinned peoples rose joyously from hill after hill....Drums began to mutter, lifting and rolling into thunder, and pipes shrilled.... Voices chanting ancient songs.... Slowly a bow formed in the sky, a rainbow of people marching to glory, a rainbow of unity...."

Many years followed and Vinson tried to get someone to interpret his dream. When he was an adult and travelling from New Mexico to Arizona he met an Otomi Indian. When he heard about the dream he said, "I know what the dream means.... Long ago there lived a great prophet-king of the Toltec Indians of southern Mexico, called Quetzalcoatl...

"He foretold that in time the white men would come out of the eastern sea....that the white men would be like a bird that had two different kinds of feet. One foot would be the foot of the dove and the other would be the foot of the eagle. The foot of the dove meant the religion of Christianity... a religion of love and kindness... The foot of the eagle meant the way most of the white men treated the Indians, by clawing them, killing them, enslaving them and exploiting them.

"But Quetzalcoatl promised that a few hundred years after the first coming of the white men other white men would come to the Indians with both feet the feet of the dove.... They would lead the Indians up from the earth of despair and defeat into the sky of hope, freedom and triumph....

"The fact that the Indians you saw in the sky were wearing the clothes of the ancient days meant that these white men would not make fun or laugh at the old Indian culture and religion. instead they would teach the Indians to be proud of their ancestors and get back the great spirit and knowledge the ancient people had. As true brothers, both the Indians and these white men would start to build a better world in which justice, peace and love between men would rule."

William Willoya and Vinson Brown began their search fot this "great spirit of change that is now growing in the world."