Episode 1164






 * Buffy stops by the New Mexico ranch, and tells Maria that she's heading out to Taos Pueblo. Maria offers to take her there in the pickup truck.  Big Bird says that he'd like to come along, although he doesn't know what a pueblo is. Maria explains that it's a town where Indians live, and Big Bird likes the idea at first, but then becomes frightened. When they arrive at the pueblo, Maria confesses to Buffy that she's worried about intruding in the community, or making a mistake. It must be easier for Buffy, because these are her people. Buffy explains that she's a Cree Indian, from Canada. There's about 300 different kinds of Indians, all with their own languages and customs. They're all visitors together. Buffy introduces Maria and Big Bird to her friends.


 * Cartoon: A girl picks up a stick and imagines she is a circus magician, a conductor, and a baseball player.


 * Ernie and Bert sing "Feelin' Good/Feelin' Bad."


 * Cartoon: A boy imagines that if the clouds were cows, it would rain milk.


 * Buffy and Maria wonder where Big Bird went. Maria recalls him saying he had to do something very important.  He is playing tag and follow-the-leader with the pueblo kids.


 * By the river, Buffy and the kids sing "I'm an Indian."


 * Cookie Monster sees styrofoam letters that spell the word FOOD. After he sounds them out, he dons a bib, sprinkles salt and pepper on the letters, and not only eats those ... but the salt and pepper shakers AND the bib to boot!


 * Sign Cartoons: "BAD DOG"


 * Film: A dented car door is repaired and re-painted at an auto body shop.


 * Cartoon: A caveman finds a rock on the ground, and visualizes the invention of the wheel and the car, ultimately deciding to toss the rock away: "Who needs it?" he says.


 * Big Bird says that he's had a good time at the pueblo, but he hasn't seen any Indians. Buffy tells Big Bird that everyone there is an Indian. Big Bird thinks they're fooling him: "I happen to know that Indians wear lots of feathers!" Buffy explains that Indians sometimes wear feathers on special occasions -- but then they take them off, and they wear clothes like everyone else. Big Bird says that someday maybe he'll take off his feathers and look like everyone else too.


 * Maria, Buffy and the kids observe how they have different ways to say the same things. The kids get their water from the river, and use firewood to keep the house warm during winter.


 * Cartoon: a parrot is camouflaged in its surroundings.


 * Buffy plays an Indian instrument, the mouth bow, and sings an Indian song.


 * Sesame Street Animal Films: African lizards.


 * At the pueblo, a mother donkey nurses its young.


 * Sesame Street Animal Films: roadrunner.


 * Maria and Big Bird say goodbye to Buffy and the Pueblo kids at the end of a happy day. A little girl gives Big Bird a kiss, and Buffy gives Maria a hair ribbon to bring back to Sesame Street, so that she'll bring a piece of Taos Pueblo with her. Gordon annouces the sponsors. The story of the New Mexico trip concludes in Episode 1165.