HOW THE RED WINGED BLACKBIRD GOI HIS WINGS this was written by a full blood indian school girl going to the gov school at phoenix arizona we copy it from the official tion of the school the phoenix red skin one autumn day some blackbirds made a plan to meet in the woods by the rio pueblo they invited other blackbirds tor for the big dance the chief got the things ready tor for the dancers in a second a whole crowd came and they started to paint their bodies black and their shoulders red when they were all ready the drum mer started the songs there was thick ice on the river so they chose a shallow place under the tall wll wil lows they gang sang and danced so hard that they were sweating from jump ing up and down just a little wiy up the hill lived mr and mrs fox with tour four little foxes when mr fox went out I 1 for supper he told his wife ho lie would be home it if he had luck and should get a tat fat rooster while he was sneaking around making his way toward the chicken coop he heard a nice song he be came interested and forgot all about hunting oh what a nice peppy song III join the crowd he said I 1 just wonder onder from which direction the sound comes from he listened and listened at last he got the direction so he went along under a tall willow tree where a big crowd of painted birds were dancing very hard mr fox went in and greeted them with a hello they all greeted him very iely so that he t t bite them they asked him to join in and the birds looked so pretty all painted up that he wished to be painted up in the same manner so mr fox asked them to dress him up which they did Il before that the birds had made up a plan to play tricks on him mr fox asked the blackbirds how they got their red arms they all told him they had cut the flesh oft off and that it was the blood that made them red he asked for a sharp knife and told two of the blackbirds to cut the flesh oft off on both sides of his shoulders he stood there as brave as he could they cut his flesh off and he was bleeding more than any cof the blackbirds now let us start dancing said all of the blackbirds they sang louder than before and danced hard jer ter they put mr fox in the middle of the circle he also danced as hard as he could although he was in pain the blackbirds jumped hard pr and harder just to break the ice fee where mr fox was dancing they all jumped so hard they br broke oke the ice lee and mr fox tell fell into the river and disappeared under the tile ice all the blackbirds then flew away to their nests all painted up and couldn coulden t go back to the water to wash the paint oft off so it stayed that is how the red winged black bird ird got its wings painted red margaret lopez