FW: A Message to the Moon

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

> Received in the mail:
> 
> 
> Navaho Wisdom!
>  
>      When NASA was preparing for the Apollo Project, it took 
> the astronauts 
> to a Navajo reservation in Arizona for training. One day, a 
> Navajo elder and  his son came across the space crew walking 
> among the rocks. The elder, who  
> spoke only Navajo, asked a question. His son translated for the NASA
> people:
> 
>      "What are these guys in the big suits doing?"
> 
>        One of the astronauts said that they were practicing 
> for a trip to the  moon.
> 
>        When his son relayed this comment the Navajo elder got 
> all excited and  asked if it would be possible to give to the 
> astronauts a message to deliver to the moon.
> 
>        Recognizing a promotional opportunity when he saw one, 
> a NASA official 
> accompanying the astronauts said, "Why certainly!" and told 
> an underling  to 
> get a tape recorder.
> 
>      The Navajo elder's comments into the microphone were 
> brief. The NASA  official asked the son if he would translate 
> what his father had said. The  son, laughing uproariously, 
> refused to translate.
> 
>       So the NASA people took the tape to a nearby Navajo 
> village and played 
> it for other members of the tribe. They too laughed long and 
> loudly but also  refused to translate the elder's message to the moon.
> 
>        Finally, an official government translator was 
> summoned. After he 
> finally
>  stopped laughing the translator relayed the message "Watch 
> out for these  assholes - they have come to steal your land."
>