Henry Tall Horse’s Story

My mother died when I was two years old, and since that time, I’ve lived in the San Carlos Apache reservation with my father. My experience was with two spirits. Everyone seems to think that ghosts only appear during the night, but in my case, I saw them during the day. These spirits didn’t harm me, but I still got pretty scared. My experience was a strange and powerful one that I know will stay with me for a long time. One spring morning, when I was nineteen years old, a close friend and I decided to walk over to the nearby San Carlos river and fish for catfish.
Before heading out, we found two metal beer can openers. We used two stones to pound them flat, and made them into spear points. We sharpened the metal points, grinding them against a large flat boulder.
Then we wrapped each of these points with wire to the ends of long thin, but strong, poles. It was a primative but effective tool in spearing fish. My friend and I went fishing like this many times before, so we were eager to catch a lot of fish. It was about 10 a.m. when we got to the river. We followed the river bed until we found a spot with a few trees to shade us from the sun, and a pool of water that we hoped had some fish. We each sat on the sand at oppisite sides of the pool. Because the pool of water was a short distance from the main river, the water was still. In this still water, it was easy to spot the movement of swimming fish. We fished for a few hours, and caught five fish. We decided to head home and fry the fish for lunch. Most Apache I know don’t like to eat fish because of our traditional beliefs, but that is changing. My friend and I enjoy eating fish. After our

catfish lunch, my friend went home to his house and I took a nap. Around 6 p.m. I decided to walk back to the river, only this time I just wanted to walk and not fish. I followed the path back to the pool of water where my friend and I had been earlier. As I got closer, in the distance I heard a very strange sound. The sound was a humming or buzzing noise that I couldn’t identify. I decided to investigate by following the sounds up the river bed ahead of me. The sun was starting to go down in the west, but there was still plenty of light. As I got closer, the noise seemed to change to something like the flapping wings of a large flock of birds. I decided to slow my pace in order not to surprize whatever might be making the noise. I walked as carefully as I could through the trees and spiny weeds. I had a feeling that animals might be nearby, so when I thought I was close enough, I stopped and got behind a large tree branch to hide myself. Flies were buzzing around my head, but I didn’t want to make any noise by swating them. I got down on my stomach and lay flat on the sand, so I wouldn’t be seen. In the distance, not far from me, I could see two large shadow-like figures. They were about 70 yards away from me and I was unable to make out what they were.
At first I thought they were two large dogs. They were about the same size as german shepherds. I strained my eyes to see the figures. Suddenly they changed into a shape that looked like a human figures!
They were definitely not dogs, and I knew they were definitely not human either! As I said before, there was plenty of sunlight, so darkness was not a problem.
Also, something like cloth, or maybe even animal skins, hung loose over their bodies. I couldn’t tell what this stuff