Manuelito Wheeler

And...

You know, the reason I thought about Star Wars and it stuck is like it's such a timeless classic.

And there are themes in the movie that I really felt connected with Navajos slash Native people.

This idea that the universe is connected.

And if we do something that affects this side of the universe, it's going to ultimately affect this side of the universe.

The idea that there's good and there's bad and how we choose to use it.

is up to us, but it will have its consequences.

So I really felt that those ideals would really stick with Navajo people, especially our traditional elders.

So, you know, this is a time when the internet was brand new and there was that thing that was like AOL and you've got mail and like the computers were huge and you would clock away on them.

And so I get on the internet, I find the script to Star Wars episode four, for those of you that need some clarification.

And it comes in the mail and I look at it and I put it on the shelf and forget about it for a few weeks.

And then, you know, I find it again, I look through it and there's my wife and I tell her like, you think you could do these five pages and translate them in Navajo?

And she's like, yeah.

And I'm thinking, I'm not gonna get this back until a few days or a week or so.

She comes back in like about 30 minutes and it's all typed up and she hands me the papers.

And I'm like, whoa, that's when I had the moment, that light bulb moment of this can be done.

This is real.

So again, I research Lucasfilm, of course, and send emails.

And this process goes on for about 10 years of going to different parts of Lucasfilm.

There's the emails, there's the 800 numbers.