Jessica Crabtree

An impromptu caricature sketch of Hogarth’s Servants (more of a doodle, actually). The painting has always been one of my favorites so I couldn’t resist tossing this up in honor of Hogarth’s birthday:

About 1966 or so, a NASA team doing work for the Apollo moon mission took the astronauts near Tuba City where the terrain of the Navajo reservation looks very much like the lunar surface. With all the trucks and large vehicles there were two large figures that were dressed in full lunar spacesuits.

Nearby a Navajo sheep herder and his son were watching the strange creatures walk about, occasionally being tended by personnel. The two Navajo people were noticed and approached by the NASA personnel. Since the man did not know English, his son asked for him what the strange creatures were and the NASA people told them that they are just men getting ready to go to the moon. The man became very excited and asked if he could send a message to the moon with the astronauts.

The NASA people thought this was a great idea so they rustled up a tape recorder. After the man gave them his message they asked his son to translate. His son would not.

Later, they tried a few more people on the reservation to translate, and every person they asked would chuckle and refuse to translate. Finally, with cash in hand, someone translated the message:

“Watch out for these guys, they come to take your land.”

Note: Snopes.com has this story classified as an urban legend; but it’s witty enough to bear repeating!