Hopi: The People of Peace
dyarrow share   11:32 PM  May 28, 1996
(at igc.apc.org)
From: "David Yarrow" <dyarrow@igc.apc.org>
                 Restoring the Roots of Peace
       by Thomas F. Tarbet 188 (all rights reserved)
The Path of Everlasting Life still exists in what is temporarily
called "Arizona."  According to a lineage of Hopi tradition that may
well reach back to The Beginning, Oraibi -- which means "something
made solid" -- is where Maasaw solidified the Earth during Creation.
Thus the name Oraibi was given to what may be this continent's
oldest continuously inhabited settlement, goal of a migration played
over centuries in which gradually arriving clans forged an elegant
social order able to escape the dilemma of war.
The founders of Oraibi knew that if, when forced to deal with threat
of theft, domination and death, people base their security on
strength of weapons, there is no guarantee the controller of the
largest arsenal will be wise or just.  Lacking a better means of
protection, those who abstain from war can't prevent the reign of
ignorant force from dominating their affairs and drawing them into
its inescapable downfall.
Today, as we face the global climax of this process, we encounter
two possibilities outlined in certain teachings of the Hopi.  As we
pass through the last of three "world shaking events" -- the Day of
Purification -- all who cling to the reign of ignorant force --
rulers and victims alike -- thereby consign themselves to a
premature and painful extinction.  But as this ill-fated domain
meets its demise, those who know how to escape the dilemma have the
opportunity to give birth to a new era of universal peace.
Centuries ago, the founders of Oraibi learned the answer to this
dilemma and embodied it in their social order.  This is why the name
"Hopi" -- which literally means "well-mannered" -- is said to mean
"The People of Peace."  In an area where modern archaeology finds
plentiful evidence of warfare, the clans migrating toward Oraibi
mastered the art of keeping wisdom and power united, entrusting
their protection to natural influences more effective than laws and
weapons contrived by humans.  They had all the "human failings" that
make peace seem impossible, but the web of their community was so
carefully woven individual imperfections are stabilized.  Instead of
creating criminals, the system literally produced saints serving the
web of forces that governs all life.
The earth beneath Oraibi is the spiritual and physical bedrock for a
pattern of relationships traditional Hopi call the Path of
Everlasting Life, to which any mortal may aspire, but no mortal mind
could have invented.  Maasaw -- who is simply a strange and
miraculous figure in the legends of other Hopi villages -- is the
immortal teacher of the Oraibi tradition, often identified with the
Creator.  He gave them a pattern of life that is simple and humble,
in some ways hard, but long, happy and fruitful, often ecstatic,
miraculous, and loaded with humor.
Even prophecies attributed to Maasaw may be a trick to prevent blind
belief.  For example, they might all be fulfilled except the last
one, throwing his proud followers back upon their own resources.
This is religion that removes its own mask, leaving the individual
more free and wise for the experience.  The entire village is a
perpetual theater performing in annual cycles, the characters taken
up in turn by succeeding generations, enacting the continual drama
of Creation.  Some of their costumes would rival the most powerful
works of art, but will never be sold, for they are not a decoration,
but part of the spiritual governing force of the community.
This form of civilization requires no jails, no making of laws with
punishments attached, no courts, no police, and no army.  Arrows,
yes.  Priests who might kill in order to protect the web of life,
should enough mistakes be made to require such a move, fully aware
of the future grief that could result from a miscalculation.  Their
language contains no cuss words.  And prior to recent forced
acculturation by the United States, crime within their community was
unknown.
One of the oldest transmissions of wisdom in human history, parts of
the navoti -- Hopi oral tradition, including a ritual number system
on which they base their prophetic understanding -- bear striking
resemblance to the work of Fu Hsi, the father of I Ching.  Christ
would recognize the Hopi Way as the Kingdom of Heaven.  Lao Tse
would have called it the Ancient Way.  And the legendary warrior Sun
Tse would have had to admit that the gentle Hopi, so averse to
battle, possess a Supreme Strategy against which all the weapons of
the world cannot prevail.  Their prophetic tradition holds the
apocalyptic dilemma of modern civilization neatly in its palm.
Whereas most social patterns eventually self-destruct regardless of
the best efforts of their participants, the important feature of the
Path of Everlasting Life is its ability to continue in peace as long
as people remain committed to it, for the entire natural lifespan of
the human species.  It affords an escape from war not just for the
Hopi, but for all humanity.  The few true Hopi who remain are sworn
to keep this Path open as a refuge in the last days of this era.
But after a century of forced acculturation, including prison as the
alternative to compulsory schooling, the continuity of the
generations has been broken, and they are the last of their kind.
In 1906, their lineage was evicted from Oraibi by villagers who
preferred to yield to threats and enticements of the United States.
Amid great hardship they moved to the place called Hotevilla (cedar
slope), where they remain in exile.  Their uncompromised title to
the original Oraibi land was usurped by the military-industrial-
legal complex through which most of us obtain the basics of life.
This impact on their approximation of the divine order was
anticipated, and its severity has been attributed to known mistakes
in their past.
In effect, the final defense of traditional Hopi from the ravages of
modern civilization is to offer inhabitants the means of escape, for
it is their world that crumbles next.  Mass media cover stories now
proclaim the crisis the Hopi warned of since the first atomic bomb,
and have foreseen from time immemorial.  The attempt to build a fake
prosperity through lying on a global scale has reached its limit.
The lie is the industrial world's concept of land ownership versus
aboriginal title rooted in natural order.  Contrivance of
international banking gives us license to destroy the biosphere, yet
fails to measure the debt we incur through robbery of nature and
indigenous people.  But this debt is as real as the forces that
sustain our existence and determine the final score.  Through the
Hopi, and other besieged ancient cultures in the world, we have one
last chance to reconcile our debt as we enter the final test of this
era: the Day of Purification.
Kotshongva, the late Sun Clan leader of Hotevilla, described the
branches of the human family as the bloodlines of the continents,
formed through centuries of migration.  They are vital to the life
of the earth from which they live, and to which they give.  He
compared the Day of Purification to the hatching of an egg, or a
birth process, in which the "bloodlines of the earth" will "shake
and turn red" in the effort to produce a new world.  During this
process, those aspects of society that have outlived their
usefulness, along with whatever aberrations have developed, will be
purged.  The danger now is that the entire industrial world will be
purged as afterbirth through unstoppable wars of annihilation and
cataclysms of nature, since it exists as a parasite on the
bloodlines of earth.  The aberration is so great this could result
in the equivalent of a stillbirth, eliminating human life, and
possibly all life on earth.
Since the usurpation of aboriginal land title is the very
cornerstone of industrial economy worldwide, political and legal
attempts to rectify this violation throughout the world are seen as
threats, and crushed by the reign of ignorance.  This is possible
because vast numbers of people depend on industrialized economies
for their sustenance and support the effort to forestall their
collapse.
Nothing short of direct biological and economic revitalization of
the indigenous bloodlines can reverse the trend and enable at least
a portion of humanity to emerge from the events that lie ahead.
This requires the restoration of the quality of their actual blood,
through a return to native foods, supported by a local agricultural
economy.  The question is how this can be initiated amid powerful
influences that drew them away in the first place.
In this respect, the exiled Oraibi lineage may play a unique and
influential role.  The Hopi nation is among the last to fall under
the sway of foreign influence, and Oraibi is that last of the Hopi
villages to yield.  The few individuals who remain loyal to the
original purpose of Hotevilla have never yielded their sacred
aboriginal title, which is the covenant their ancestors made with
Maasaw at Oraibi.
From the time of this covenant, the effect of the ceremonial cycle
performed at Oraibi has been to extend spiritual roots to every
corner of the continent, influencing the entire fabric of life.  A
healing of the "bloodlines of earth" within the last of the living
Oraibi tradition, among those who have never yielded to the "great
lie" of the modern world, would have an unseen influence throughout
the continent.  This would especially affect other aboriginal
bloodlines, which have been far more severely damaged than the Hopi,
and could lead to healing of bloodlines of the entire Earth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   For additional information about Roy Steevenz, Titus Qomayumptewa,
the Hopi Indians, Global Moccasin Ceremony, Chief Arvol Looking Horse,
World Peace and Prayer Day, and the white buffalo calf, please access
the following topics:
                Global Moccasin Ceremony
               Journey for Health & Peace
               World Peace and Prayer Day
            Miracle: The White Buffalo Calf
          Tree of Peace: New World Democracy
These documents available by fax or snail mail from Turtle EyeLand.
For more information, send $1 and your address to Turtle EyeLand.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 for a green and peaceful planet for the Seventh Generation
              David Yarrow    at    Turtle EyeLand
          c/o Broeckx, P.O. Box 6034, Albany, NY  12206
          dyarrow@igc.apc.org              518-426-0563
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Birth of the White Buffalo Calf lets us know we are at a crossroads
     -- either return to balance or face global disaster.
It's our duty to return to sacred places and pray for world peace
     -- if we do not do this, our children will suffer.
         -- Chief Arvol Looking Horse, Lakota-Dakota-Nakota Nation
            19th Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe
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**  WORLD PEACE AND PRAYER DAY ** JUNE 21, 1996 ** JOIN US IN PEACE  **
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