told him it was. Then he asked me if there were any wild Indians around. He didn't even know I was an Indian. I told him that all the Indians around here were tame as kittens.

Q: Do you regret it when people don't recognize you as an Indian?

E: Yes. I hate to see the Indian pass from the scene. Most Easterners mistake me for a Mexican. One time when I was on a visit to Disneyland this tourist came up to me and started talking Spanish. Now I speak English and I speak the Mohave language, but I can't understand Spanish, so I told him I wasn't a Mexican but a Mohave. He said "What's that?"

The Indian is gradually being absorbed into the white culture. Mixed marriages and things like that. Before too long there will be no more pureblooded Indians left.

Q: I guess that's true. Well, you've told us a lot about yourself, but I'm running out of questions. Do you have any closing words for readers?

Our

E: God no. I don't know anything. Except that I would like to say that the American Indian is pretty much like the American anyone else. Indians dress like everyone else. They live in the same kinds of houses and work at the same jobs and drive the same kinds of cars. As for me, being gay has its disadvantages. But I don't think I would like to change. I guess I'm just on my own personal little warpath not against whites but against heterosexuals who think everyone should be like them. I'm not always happy, but I'm always me. And they can like it or lump it. Life's too short to spend your time being something you don't want to be. Like the old saying, "To thine own self be

true." I'm true to myself and my own nature. I think that's all anyone has a right to ask of me.

RB.

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