I was at the Buffalo Dances at Cochiti Pueblo in northern New Mexico when President Jimmy Carter’s spirit left his body and this Earth.
And somehow, for me, this was appropriate and poignant timing.
On a weirdly warm, very still, glaringly cloudless and very dry and snowless day in late December in the non-heat season we used to call “winter,” the people of Cochiti and invited visitors witnessed the ancient and timeless ritual of the Buffalo Dances.
There was not a cell phone or camera in sight. There was a quiet reverence as the dancers— followed by a chorus of singing men from the Pueblo and the rhythmic beat of deep-voiced drums—became the hunted animals who traditionally sustained life—not only buffalo but deer, elk, bighorn sheep, and pronghorn antelopes. Two young women from each kiva danced the part of Buffalo Maidens.
Along with the summer Corn Dances, the Buffalo Dances honor the various types of sustenance given by Mother Earth. Hunting and farming together historically formed a balance, creating a way of life in harmony with seasons and cycles, resilient to changes and fluctuations—at least up to the extreme human-caused climate breakdown we are experiencing today.
It was a relief to be away from phones, from texts and news and notifications. For some hours all of us observers—who were also supportive participants holding silence and respect—were focused only on the dancers and the dance, and the drumbeat that resonated with our hearts.
Afterwards, in the home of the family who had invited me, every visitor scattered sacred corn meal on a heap of items worn by the dancers—evergreen sprigs, antlers, feather fans, sticks representing the front legs of deer and antelope, and moccasins—gathered in front of the hearth. Before sharing food, each of us in turn thanked all the family members who had danced, starting with a quietly dignified young woman who is a senior in high school and including several young men and teen boys who had danced the parts of deer.
I did NOT take any photos at Cochiti Pueblo.
I’ve lived in New Mexico for over 30 years and have been to many sacred dances at several Pueblos. I’ve eaten lots of delicious feasts (and you MUST eat, or you are insulting your hosts, even if you are a stranger invited in by a family member), and helped serve and clean up kitchens. I drew on my own experiences to write my novel Weather Menders’ scenes at Taos Pueblo, an important part of main character Tara Concha-Garcia MacFarlane’s heritage. But this is the first time I’ve been privileged to see the thanking of family members who were dancers and the honoring of the hard work, time, and energy they put in.
In these dark times when we appear to be weeks away from inaugurating a “president” who has pledged to be “a dictator on day one” and told his rapturous cult followers that they’ll never need to vote again, it is heartening that the sovereign Indigenous nations in the US are preserving their sacred practices, their languages, and their connection to the rhythms of Mother Earth.
After dropping a friend off in Santa Fe I see the texts coming in from friends telling me that President Carter has passed from this Earth.
This causes a cascade of reflections. Those who have read my climate fiction time travel novel Weather Menders know that the plot turns on seven Time Travelers—three humans (and a cat) from a decimated and flooded world in 2050 and three from a healthier Timeline in 2350—going back to 1980 to make sure that Reagan was never elected president. Their task is to cleverly sabotage the well-documented election interference of the Republicans’ collusion with Iranian revolutionaries to stymy President Carter’s imminent carefully-negotiated deal with Iranian President Bani Sadr to release the American Embassy hostages.
What if this “October surprise” election interference had never happened and President Carter had been re-elected? He wasn’t a perfect president and my young journalist self, then in my mid-20s, disagreed with many aspects of his foreign policy. But there were solar panels for hot water heating on the White House roof—which Reagan, the darling of oil and gas interests, immediately had removed to send his oily message to the nation and the world. President Carter, had he been re-elected, planned to start addressing what was then called “global warming”—when it was mentioned at all.
Would President Carter in a second term have shown the visionary leadership that he exhibited in brokering the Camp David Accords and later put energetically to work as a leader in human rights issues, election fairness in many countries, and his humble physical work helping Habitat for Humanity build houses? An article in The Guardian a few days ago bears out my perception that Carter indeed was prescient and that we probably would not be suffering worldwide climate breakdown now if action had been taken then.
But we will never know unless we truly can leap to the alternate Timeline the Weather Menders time travelers are attempting to reweave and solidify.
A few years ago, I met someone connected to the Carter Center who said they would send Weather Menders to President Carter. I duly autographed a copy. I’d like to think that somehow it got to him, piqued his interest, and maybe gave him a giggle. In any case, he’s now in a realm where he has access to all information and art, I believe, and his spirit can take in the content and the spirit of love in which it was written through instant osmosis.
What a different world we might have had if Reagan had never come to power and implemented his regressive “supply side” trickle down economics. We would not be in what some have described as the “43rd year of the Reagan Administration” with President Biden having been arguably the only president since to even begin to call out and repudiate the policies that have led to corporate domination, a huge and growing gap between the superrich and the rest of us, seemingly endless monopolies and mergers, and the impending takeover by oligarchs.
Perhaps we can only change the past in fantasy and novels and films, but we still can do our darnedest to change the future. Following President Carter’s example, we can be kind, we can be moral and ethical, we can care about others and community, and we can work hard, each in our own way, to create an alternate world of harmony, peace, equity, and inclusiveness. We can wrest back power from the oligarchs and the tech bros and restore our common humanity while celebrating cultural diversity and the biodiversity with which it is inextricably intertwined.
President Carter wouldn’t want us to give up. Not on restoring and improving democracy, not on creating peace in the Middle East with justice and sovereignty for both Israel and Palestine, and not on addressing—and even finding the ways and the will to actually reverse—the climate breakdown that has thus far occurred by drawing down legacy carbon out of the atmosphere and rebalancing the Earth’s climatic and water cycles.
President Carter, may you rest in both peace and power. And if you can help from the Other Side, as well as your legacy being our inspiration, we welcome and embrace your assistance.
Debra Denker is the author of Weather Menders, a cli-fi time travel novel for the hopeful.
Weather Menders 