Chapter 451: The Vibrant Red and Green
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After the girls were rejected, they never came back to ask them for another drink.
Instead, a lot of men came over to toast with them, with a respectful attitude. Li Du and the whole group thought it might be inappropriate to refuse their toasts and so they drank bowl after bowl of wine.
As a result more and more toasts kept coming; Li Du broke out in cold sweat looking at the long line of the people waiting to toast with him. He didn't understand why there were so many people, so he asked for help.
It just so happened that the tribal secretary, Marsali, was beside Li Du. He inquired, "Hi, madam, why does everyone come to us for a toast?"
Marsali chuckled and explained, "Two reasons. First, we Hopis are warm and friendly people. Second, they saw the video of the confrontation you had with the Navajo. They sincerely admire you for that, so they each want to personally give you a toast."
Li Du could not refuse such goodwill.
If ten men were a single unit, then tons of units queued up in front of Li Du in an orderly manner, forming a long line.
The queue over at Hans was much shorter. He looked at Li Du, who was forcing himself to maintain a smile, and started to gloat, "Ha! Bud, you're like the winner of the 19th century Texas gold mine—everyone's queuing up waiting to give you a f*ck!"
Li Du glared at him. "Fine," he sneered, a creepy look in his eyes. "You've annoyed me, I want revenge."
Hans was afraid of his little tricks and hastily said, "I'm just joking—"
Before he could finish talking, Li Du dragged Hans over and started to announce,
"My fellow warriors, I'm not the only one, my brother and I faced the Navajos together!"
"No, no, no, I didn't." Hans waved his hand as if it were cramping.
Someone asked, "Why didn't we see him in the video?"
Hans nodded. "Yes, yes, yes, this warrior is right."
Li Du already had an answer prepared: "Although you can't see him in the video, half of the credit should be his! Think about it, who do you think made the video? Yes everyone, it's my brother here!
"When he started recording the video, the Navajos threatened him, insulted him and also beat him up so he would not take the video. But he's not afraid of threats and insisted on recording the truth!"
Li Du spoke with great emotion, and Hans listened with his mouth agape.
Turis patted his shoulders and said, "Well done, Big Fox! I didn't know you were so brave."
The Hopis looked at him in admiration and soon enough, the queue in front of Li Du was split into two, with the other half coming for Hans.
Hans raised his bowl of wine in despair. "Let's drink, drink till the last breath!"
Li Du released the little bug to consume his energy while he drank. In this way, the alcohol was converted to energy so that he would not get drunk easily.
The Native Americans respected men who could drink. Li's forthright manner in drinking successfully won their respect—every now and then cheers and applause could be heard.
Throughout the whole celebration, he was like the groom in a wedding who had to accept all the drinks toasted to him and frequently made runs to the restroom.
The celebration finally came to an end when midnight arrived.
Li Du could finally take a break from all the drinking. He felt bloated as his stomach was filled with wine. However, he had hardly eaten anything. He was uncomfortable from the bloatedness and the feeling of hunger.
He took a roasted leg of lamb and cut a piece of meat, rubbing it on top of the salt block. When the saltiness was just right, he ate it up contentedly.
Godzilla was still happily feasting upon the food and drinks. Unlike Li Du, he did not rub the meat against the salt block, but he used a knife to scrape the salt block and applied it onto the meat, which was more enjoyable to him.
The group of them slept in their respective cottages till late morning. Although the Hopi green wine did not have a high alcohol content, they had drunk a bit too much, so it was inevitable they would be drunk.
The convoy slowly left the Hopi Reservation after they returned the feathers and loaded the goods onto their trucks.
The treasure hunters gained nice valuable items with their trip to the Hopi tribe. Apart from the hunting knives, they also secured a variety of handicrafts which were hugely popular and could therefore be sold for a neat price.
The last destination before embarking on their journey home was Lake Powell.
Lake Powell was actually a reservoir straddling the border between Arizona and Utah. Because of its unique history and environment, it was a famous tourist spot in the southwestern United States.
The lake was not very old: it had been built around the same time as construction for Glen Canyon Dam started in 1956. The construction was not really completed until 1980, when they successfully guided the Colorado, San Juan and Escalante rivers into the lake.
After they hit the road, they cruised along a highway not far from the San Juan River and saw Lake Powell.
The well-known lake covered an area of 65,000 hectares, a depth of 170 meters, a length of 300 kilometers, and had a 3,500 kilometers long coastline.
As they got closer to the lake, Li Du could see many Native Americans along the road. They even saw a roadblock setup by them at a certain point of the road.
According to the way these people dressed, he could tell they were Navajos. "What are they doing?" asked Li Du. "Are they collecting a fee or what? The government just lets them do what they want?"
In actual fact, that was not the case. The Navajos were not entirely an unreasonable and overbearing tribe. They had set up the roadblock to force vehicles to decelerate so that they could pass something over.
Hans knew what was going on and explained, "They are holding a protest to demand the resumption of land ownership around Lake Powell."
Their vehicle stopped and a Native American girl smiled and passed them a few leaflets and a small gift with humility.
The leaflet was about the history of the repairs to Lake Powell. It contained almost the entire history of the region and how they had been oppressed by the American government.
The land had originally belonged to the Navajo. But when the government wanted to build a lake and dam, they exchanged a piece of land with the Navajo in the southern part of Utah.
The Navajo objected to the exchange as the land around Lake Powell was fertile whereas the piece of land in Utah was barren and could not be used to grow crops.
At the time, Uncle Sam was very high-handed. It was already benevolent of them to not slaughter all the Navajo, as there were instances of such massacres in their history.
Now, with the increase in the number of Native Americans and their rise in social status, they had begun to revisit history and wanted to reclaim the ownership of the land. This was not impossible, as Congress had already started discussions on the issue. Of course, they were debating on whether to dismantle the dams and open up Lake Powell.
If Lake Powell were abandoned, the government would have no need to occupy the land. The Navajo could then reclaim their rights to the land.
Maybe it was because they were quite hopeful of a favorable outcome, but the Navajos did not adopt radical measures in this matter. They instead chose to put pressure on the government through protests.
Lake Powell entered their horizon.
This lake had a magnificent view—it was surrounded by crimson red rocks and red earth surrounded by a large area of greenery. The colors were rich and radiant!