A moment opened. A flurry of color took flight. Lips opened in awe, then transformed into multicolored beaks and wings. Voices thinned out, and tangled in throats that turned into other voices. A song of birds. Grandmother and her sisters soared over the heads of the Hispanos and dropped excrement on them. Then they flew away. For many days and nights, people from other clans said they saw a flock of strange birds crisscrossing the Ahepatanichi, the river that caused all life to rise up. When these variegated creatures reached our present homelands, their wings fell off. The sisters went back to living according to customs. They built our seven original Choctaw towns. Yanabi Town is one of them.
-- Shakbatina ("Blood Sacrifice")

Importance: Shakbatina tells the story of her ancestor's origins. This quote is important because it highlights the role of the past in the present for the Choctaw.

I’d run back to...
-- Shakbatina ("Blood Sacrifice")