Hah-Nee stepped carefully into each toehold as he made his way down the steep cliff to fill his gourd with fresh water at the spring. Suddenly the stillness of dawn was broken by a rustle in the bushes as a stone whizzed past Hah-Nee's head, and shouts came from all sides; "Hah-Nee's a funnyhead," "evil," "Ute," "enemy." Hah-Nee was frightened and puzzled. Why was this happening to him?

A little later, Wupa, his wise old friend, told the puzzled boy the curious story of his babyhood, and the reason why his head was round and not flat. "I thought everyone had forgotten about it. But now that times are bad, someone recalls it." Times were fearful for the cliffdwelling Indians who lived by farming, for the GREAT DROUGHT which had begun in 1276 had not yet ceased.

Mary Buff has written a dramatic story, based on the history of these now-vanished peoples, of one Indian boy and his family, forced by superstition and fear to creep secretly away from their beloved home to begin a new life in the distant land of the Great River.

In many black-and-white drawings, but especially in several double-page spreads in glowing color, Conrad Buff, known as an artist who interprets our western landscape boldly and vividly, brings alive the mystery and glory of the cliffdwellers. The Buffs have visited many times the Four Corners Area, as it is called, where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona meet. This is the land of the cliffdwellers whose rich native culture was ruined by the historial thirteenth century drought.

From the dust jacket