Sky People (3 page)

The country of Belize is made up of six distinct districts. My visits were centered around four of those districts: Belize, Cayo, Stann Creek, and Toledo. I made three trips in all, following the footsteps of the 19th-century explorers. The Stann Creek District was the home of the Garifuna, also known as the Black Carib. The Garifuna were descendants of the Carib, Arawak, and West African people. The majority of the Maya lived in the Toledo District, although I interviewed Maya in both the Belize and Cayo districts. Their subsistence, based on ancient agriculture, which required shifting cultivation of small plots of black beans and corn like their ancestors, was still practiced. In addition to their small gardens, they also raised pigs, chickens, cattle, and tobacco. Unlike the Garifuna, they did not assimilate to any great degree with other ethnic groups in Belize. Although the majority were Catholic, or at least accepted some of the symbols and beliefs of the Catholic Church, they often mixed them quite seamlessly with their ancient native religion.

Stephens and Catherwood only spent two days in Belize City before leaving for Copán, which is located in the country of Honduras today. They did not travel outside the immediate area; instead they used the city as a place to rest from their ocean voyage and to seek out government officials so that Stephens might present his official credentials. On my first trip I stayed five days, which allowed me to visit a few small ancient Maya sites that were unknown to Stephens and Catherwood. Along the way, I interviewed Maya and Garifuna people, who told me about their encounters with UFOs and Sky People. Many of the stories were about sightings of strange objects, but several stories stood out as unusual and unique. In the following chapters, I will share those stories.

M
y first night in Belize City turned out to be one of the most interesting nights of my trip. My driver, Buddy, took me on a prearranged sightseeing trip of the city. Little did I know, this tour would include a five-minute sighting of a UFO hovering over Belize City, a visit to the house of one of Buddy’s ex-mothers-in-law, a stopover at the hospital to visit a friend recovering from surgery, and crashing the wedding reception of his cousin. It was at this nuptial celebration, when most of the guests had left, and the discussion turned to the earlier UFO sighting over the city, that I first learned about the “backward-walking people” from the stars
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“My grandfather said he saw them when he was a boy. My grandfather is a Red Carib. He is 102 years old, so they have been around for a longtime,” Serena explained. “Their bodies are tall and skinny, but their legs are huge. Their knees allow them to walk backward. We call them the backward-walking people. They have strange heads. When they are walking, their heads flip backward so they can see where they are going.” I watched as this tall, angular girl, not yet a woman, mimicked the vision she unfolded. Her cousins laughed as she backed around the room demonstrating the exaggerated movements of the alien creatures she described. She was a striking young woman with long black hair that fell in waves down her back. Unlike her cousins, who were dressed in bridesmaid dresses, Serena (a name she adopted from a movie character) wore designer jeans and an embroidered
blouse with a gathered elastic neckline, which allowed her to reveal one shoulder. A mixture of Red-Carib Indian, Spanish, and several other ethnic groups, according to her description of herself, Serena was a beautiful young woman.

“Have you seen these creatures up close?” I asked.

“Not too close. But close enough to know how they walk. I can’t describe their faces, but I can tell you they had big heads.”

“Do they walk forward?”

“Oh yes. They walk forward, but they also walk backward like they are constantly checking what is behind them.”

“What else can you tell me about them?” I asked.

“They stay away from the villages and cities. I don’t think they want us to know about them. They come from the stars. That’s what I think,” she said.

“Why do you think they come from the stars?”

“Because we always see a UFO when we see them,” she answered.

“Tell me about the time you saw them.”

“I’ve seen them more than once. In those days, Papa [her grandfather] had a small farm in the Stann District. I spent many weeks with him when I was a girl.”

“How old were you when you saw the people who walked backward?” I asked.

“I think I was about six the first time. I thought they were funny. The last time I saw them I was about fourteen or fifteen. They were no longer funny. They made my skin crawl.”

“Can you describe anything else about them?”

“I was never close enough to see exact features. But what I did see was terrifying. I saw their spaceship, too. It was long like the cigars my father buys in Havana. Round and long, but huge. I never saw anything like that before. It had no wings. I don’t know how it flew.”

“What else can you tell me about them?” I asked.

“Papa said their skin was like a snake, but their features were human-like except for their heads, legs, and skin. I should
say they were shaped like a human. I was never close enough to see their skin. Papa said that when he was a boy, the men hid women and children from them. There were stories that they abducted women. I never knew if those stories were true, but they scared me when I was little. They scare me now. What if they did abduct women? What did they do with them? It is frightening to think about it. Can you imagine having sex with one of them?” She shivered, shaking her whole body and the bridesmaids, who were as captivated by her story, as I was, giggled.

“Can you tell me anything else?” I asked.

“You should ask my cousin, Bud. He has seen them.”

“Do you mean, Bud, my driver?” I asked.

“The same,” she replied.

On the way back to the hotel, I asked Buddy what he knew about the backward-walking people.

“Sounds like Suzzana—or is she still calling herself Serena?—has been talking,” he said. “It comes from my uncle. He tells stories about these strange aliens that visit the countryside. He says they walk backward.”

“Have you ever seen them?” I asked.

“To tell you the truth, I have seen them. I have seen the UFOs and the giants that come with them—the backward-walking people. I know it is too strange to believe.”

“What can you tell me about them?”

“They are giants. Twice as big as an average man. When I was growing up, the old men talked about them. They came from the stars. They stole women, and the women were never seen again. The old men would speculate about what happened to the women. The believed they were raped and were forced to have their babies. That was the most popular conclusion. I listened to their stories. But one day, I was at my uncle’s house. It was daylight. Not a cloud in the sky. And I saw a UFO. It was a long, cylinder-shaped craft. It glowed orange and then turned gray. I crouched down to make myself small so they would not see me. The craft landed, and I saw a giant creature get out. At first it walked forward, and then all of a sudden, it began
to walk backward. Its knees actually reversed, its head pivoted and it walked backward. It is difficult to describe. It rotated its head around so it looked like it was going forward even though it was walking backward.” He stopped for a moment. “I know this doesn’t make much sense. But that’s what I saw. I can’t explain it any better. All I know is that this creature I saw is not of this earth. I called my uncle and he saw it, too. We both said it was best not to talk about it.”

“I’ve never heard of the backward-walking people,” I said.

“You probably won’t again. Sometimes I think it is only my family that knows about them. But if that is the case, they have been targeting my uncle’s farm and his father and grandfather before him. They must come here for a reason. The old men say that it was for women, but I’ve never heard of any disappearances of women in my lifetime. I know these creatures exist. And I know they come in spaceships. That’s all I know, and frankly, I don’t like to talk about it. I think there are things in the universe that we are not suppose to know.”

W
e pulled in front of the hotel, and Buddy stopped the van. He got out and opened the door for me. He offered no other information, and I expected he would give none. We parted with a promise that he would pick me up the next morning at 9 a.m. Thus ended the first day of my trip in search of Sky People and Stephens and Catherwood
.

I
n 2008, a series of UFO sightings, which occurred for several weeks south of Belmopan, the capital city of Belize, made international news. The general consensus among witnesses was that the lights were definitely UFOs especially because they were repeatedly seen in the same area. The observers described the lights as “circular disks” that appeared in groups ranging from four to twelve for a period of more than two hours. Witnesses likened the lights to extremely bright headlights or big balls of light as bright as the moon. These visits became commonplace in Belmopan with the lights appearing approximately every two years. According to local accounts, UFOs had been appearing for more than fifty years
.

I was scheduled to visit the village of Hopkins the next day. After years of serving as the director of the Center for Bilingual Education at Montana State University, I wanted to visit Hopkins, a village known as the last place on earth where Garifuna was the first language. The trip to Hopkins turned out to be far more than I anticipated. Along the way, Buddy told me about a fifth or sixth cousin who saw the Belmopan UFOs when he was a toddler and had been abducted repeatedly ever since. The last time Buddy saw his cousin, he was living near Hopkins
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In this chapter, cousin Stephen tells his story
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Buddy told me about the Garifuna people as we drove to the village of Hopkins. “I am a Red-Carib Indian. My people never married with the African slaves who came to our land. The Yellow Carib didn’t either. But the Garifuna, they are mixed,” he
said. “They are a mixture of Carib, Arawak, and West African. The British colonial administration called them the Black Carib, making that distinction over a century ago, and the labels have stuck, just like American Indians where blood is counted. The Yellow and Red Carib are the true Amerindians. The Garifuna are hybrids.” It was in Hopkins that the Garifuna people lived off the sea and the rich swamp soil in the area around their village, as they had done for centuries, and still spoke their native language. We had chosen the “local road” from Belize to Hopkins. This road, which is about ten miles inland and the shortest route, is avoided by tourists, because it is not paved. According to Buddy, there were many days when the road was impassable.

As we traveled the dirt road, Buddy told me about a cousin of a cousin of a cousin who had witnessed many UFO events. Even more important, he reported that this fifth or sixth cousin had been experiencing contact with space travelers since he first witnessed the UFOs of Belmopan about forty years ago. Despite my previous night’s experience with Buddy, who had taken me from private homes to the hospital to a wedding celebration, all unannounced and unexpected, I decided to throw caution to the wind and allow him to take a detour in search of the elusive cousin whom he had not seen in thirty years.

According to Buddy, his cousin, at one time, worked with a farmer’s group in Hopkins. He moved there shortly after graduating from the university and remained there, marrying a local Garifuna woman.

Although Buddy wasn’t sure his cousin was still working with the farmers, he stopped at the local co-op to find out information about his cousin’s whereabouts. We arrived just as the workers were taking their lunch break. Within minutes I saw Buddy walking toward the van with his arm around the shoulder of a man who could have been his twin. I rolled down the window when they approached, and Buddy introduced me to Stephen. “I found him hanging out with the local farmers,” he said, as his cousin climbed into the vehicle. Within minutes we were sitting in Innies Restaurant ordering local food and drinking Coca-Colas.

After a half hour of the cousins’ reminiscing, I approached the subject of Stephen’s encounters. “Your cousin, Buddy, told me that you have a history of encounters with Sky People,” I said.

“Yes. I saw my first space men when I was about three. At first I did not know they were from space.”

“Was there more than one?”

“Sometimes two came, sometimes four; always in pairs.”

“Where was your first encounter?” I asked.

“It was the day after the lights appeared in the sky. My father took me out to watch the lights zip around the sky the night before. The first time I came into contact with the space people was the next day in our garden. I was tending my little garden that my father set aside for me, when white balls of light burst out of the sky and dropped to the ground around me. Out of the balls of light came these little men. From that moment, I remember nothing, only that they brought me back to the garden. There were four of them. Two were holding my hand and telling me that I was now their friend. I did not understand it at the time.”

“Do you think they abducted you?” I asked.

“I was young, not much more than a baby. I wouldn’t have understood that concept. I also had a feeling of happiness around these small beings. I remember laughing with them and playing, but I don’t know where we were at the time.”

“So at what time did you realize they were aliens?” I asked.

“Probably when I was about nine or ten. Although they came into the garden several times over the years, it was not until I was about nine or ten that I became aware that they were taking me aboard their space ship. As time passed, I had recurring strange experiences with the space travelers. Sometimes I entertained my friends with stories about a boy who traveled into space. They didn’t know they were true. But it wasn’t until I became a teenager that I fully understood my experiences. By then it was too late.”