Basso spent decades at Cibecue, and it started when an elder asked him to make a map with the real names on it. Apache place names turn out to be whole sentences — water flows down over a succession of flat rocks — and each one carries a story about somebody who went wrong there. People drop the names into ordinary conversation and the listener knows exactly why. The title is a teaching Basso got from a man named Dudley Patterson: you drink from places. Sit with the names and the stories long enough that they run in your head on their own, and your mind goes smooth and steady. That is what wisdom means here — not knowing more, but a mind that holds.
Wisdom Sits in Places