Catfish McDaris

Apache Dream Lady

  

Quick had lots of stories about women he’d been with. Many were odd, but this one blew my mind. He told me he’d met Antelope Dancer at a powwow in Gallup. Her beauty took his breath away, it made his legs grow weak, she was indescribable. It was lust at first sight for both of them. They shacked up in a motel on Route 66 for a week, then traveled south along the Gila River camping until they hit Geronimo’s raiding grounds. Antelope Dancer said she was a relative of Geronimo from the Bedonkohe Chiricahua Apache and Quick told her he was related to Wilma Mankiller of the Panther Clan of the Cherokee. They settled at a hot springs where the Apaches would rest after raiding into Mexico. It was surrounded by peyote cacti and datura. Dancer made a potion for Quick and her to shapeshift and to dream and seek visions. It contained Lophophora williamsii peyote, moonflower jimsonweed datura, yerba buena, yucca flowers, and mesquite beans made into pinole. Quick dreamed of a warrior sitting atop Mount Rushmore first offering sage to the four directions and chanting. The warrior moved over to sit on each president and he filled his long ceremonial pipe as he smoked, his body became enveloped in a turquoise cloud. He chanted four times and the mountain carvings crumbled into sand. The warrior did this to all four presidents until they disappeared. Then a huge cloud formed over the clean mountain in it was a herd of buffalo with mounted warriors chasing them. He ran and vaulted bareback onto spotted horse and they galluped toward the horizon. Quick woke up hearing the sounds of hooves running like thunder in the sky. In the sand were perfect images of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. He was alone except for a tarantula, a scorpion, and a rattlesnake, looking at him, like he better hit the road.

Catfish McDaris’ 25 years of published material is in the Special Archives Collection at MarquetteUniv. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He’s listed in Wikipedia. His ancestors are from the Aniwaya Clan of the Cherokee Nation. He won the Thelonius Monk Award in 2015.