Native Sun

Joke:   Native Americans provide NASA with a cryptic message to take to the moon.



[Collected via e-mail, 1995]

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.



Later, they tried a few more people on the reservation to translate, and every person they asked would chuckle and then refuse to translate. Finally, with cash in hand someone translated the message: "Watch out for these guys, they come to take your land."

[Collected via e-mail, 2002]


The old man got really excited and asked if he could send a message to the moon with the astronauts. Recognizing a promotional opportunity for the spin-doctors, the NASA folks found a tape recorder. After the old man recorded his message, they asked the son to translate. He refused. So the NASA reps brought the tape to the reservation, where the rest of the tribe listened and laughed, but refused to translate the elder's message to the moon.

Finally, NASA called a official government translator. He reported that the moon message said: "Watch out for these guys; they've come to steal your land."

Origins:   This bit of humor referencing the displacement of Native Americans by European settlers and the U.S. government's abrogation of numerous treaties permanently reserving tracts of lands to various tribes was included in a 1987 Western Folklore article about "Native American Views of the Space Program" and has been a frequent entry in Internet joke lists since 1995. It's a clever "turning the tables" joke, with the Navajo outsmarting government interlopers on their land by nearly sneaking a subversive message onto a moon mission and, in some versions,
extracting a payment from the NASA men to provide them with a translation of the cryptic quote that only they can understand.

The mentions of scientific projects and government agencies (e.g., Apollo, NASA) and a bit of truthful background (Apollo astronauts did train at various sites in Arizona, including a Navajo reservation) has led numerous readers to inquire of us whether this anecdote is a "true story." Although this item might possibly have earlier antecedents as yet unknown to us, it appears to have originated with a joke Johnny Carson included in his Tonight Show monologue on the evening of 22 July 1969, two days after Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to set foot on the surface of the moon.

Last updated:   19 July 2014


    Cornwell, Tim.   "Two Tribes Go to War Over Claims to Indian Territory."
    The [London] Independent.   3 March 1997   (International; p. 10).

    Young, M. Jane.   "'Pity the Indians of Outer Space': Native American Views of the Space Program."
    Western Folklore.   vol. 46, no. 4   October 1987   (pp. 272-273).