[ Thomas Banyacya is a Hopi elder who, I am given to understand, claims
to be the keeper of a set of prophecies which foretell the future
events of our planet if we continue on our present course. I believe
Thomas also addressed the United Nations yesterday (10 December 1992)
at the opening of the U.N.-sponsored "Year for Indigenous People(s)."
I don't know whether he delivered the Hopi prophecies at that time,
however. (One of the prophecies has been interpreted to indicate that
in order to avert the disaster the prophecies speak of, it would be
necessary that they would have to be delivered to the "House of Mica,"
which has been interpreted to refer to the United Nations building,
whose exterior is mostly glass.) The talk whose transcript follows
was delivered in order to raise funds for the recent trip to New York.
--Gary ]
It's very important to me to be able to get here and to see you people
here. I'm always reminded of my old people who are 80-90 years old met in
2nd Mesa Simopuasvi Pueblo. Some of you perhaps been out there. Simpouave
and Oribai are the other villages. In ???? they still have their own
spiritual ceremonies, they've been there a long time. And they still have
their initiations. Just a week ago they had a Wilchu Society the highest
Hopi religious society still performing and initiating young people. It
takes about a week to go through that very important ceremony. It involves
the One-Horn and The Two-Horn societies who are the foremost ____authorities
to take care of this land for the Great Spirit. And when they have this
initiation, they close all the roads going into the pueblo. Down below to
the north and south, but they leave the west trail open because in the
middle of the night when they have a ceremony, the spirit people will come.
And they will eat first, no sign of relatives and then they will go on the
house top and watch the ceremony. But the living people in that village all
move to the south side and they be watching the dances. They knew that the
spirit people are there. And if you cross the roads that are closed by the
sacred corn meal, with the sacred prayer feathers something happens. If its
animal or cryptic thing or human being, if you cross that something
happens.
One man, a white man, married to a Navajo lady that lived close to Window
Rock area Crossed that road. They didn't know that a ceremony goes on. And
they went up to the village. And the Two-Horned...One-Horned Society...
caught in that place. And the Two-Horned Society rushed up and told them to
get in the house right away. Knock on the door, but they didn't know what
was going on. They locked the door, they didn't want to get out. ANd they
told them to; "Get out fast!" But the One-horned Society if they get hold
of them there's no way to help them out. But somehow they don't want them
so they turn around and went back out and cross another line again. The
Navajo lady realized what happened So they went to one of the Hopi who had a
little gas store, a little Food Villa place, and they filled their tank and
they went to Tuba and they went to Flagstaff. They went to a restaurant to
eat. When they came back out, their car was all burned up. Everything
burned up. There was no fire or anything, no alarm or anything but their
car was all burned up. They lost everything. Many things happen to people
who cross it. So that's very powerful thing. So we always announce to the
people not to cross that. And they have police now to tell them there's a
detour around it. They have to get around.
These are some of the things the Hopi has. And other religious societies,
like the Kachina Society which some of you've seen, perform their ceremony
they have to fast three days and perform their ceremony on the fourth day.
Then after that they gradually cut out their fasting and then they eat in
the morning and after eight days they complete their..They have a feast
day. But that is part of the system we go through. Every month there are
certain ceremony goes on. And the Hopi say that's the only way we keep this
land alive in balance. Because it's the law of nature.
The Great Spirit told us how to take care of it, use our song, use our
ceremony, use our languages and sit certain ways in a circle fashion so that
we can communicate with everything around us. Because as you know our
thoughts are in a circle shape. Earth in a circle, moon, sun, trees
animals. Everything that contributes comes in the shape of a circle. And
circle is always a part of the spirit that's in us. So every one of you
have that spark or soul within you and we all we're related to each other.
we're not separate. Because we're breathing this air. So powerful. Living
power in there that we're breathing. It keeps us alive. And we're all one
and that goes until Mother Earth. Go through the rock. to the trees. Go to
the animals, the birds. This whole universe filled with this power that's
flowing through this air that we're breathing. So we're not alone. We're
all related together.
But we all are supposed to have this responsibility to take care of Mother
Earth. And then the baby when they get hungry, they look for the mother's
breast for food. And we are like the children of this Mother Earth. We all
came from this Mother Earth. ANd the way we walk on this Mother Earth
every day looking for food. But we don't think of this land as our Mother.
This earth is a living being, a powerful being. And taking care of us.
growing things, food, everything. But we don't seem to respect our Mother.
We just destroying it. Things that was put here for a bunch of reasons to
keep this land in balance. We're chopping trees every day to make more
money. Accumulate the material things. We don't care what we do the
universe or plant life. We're digging holes for coal, uranium, iron and
things to get more money and power. But we're disturbing Mother Earth. And
we're so caught up with making money and power that we'll do anything to
just to get that money quickly.
And our old people said in 1948, that our Native People with this color,
brown, red-people call us- we spread out in the 4 directions. We spread out
in 4 directions to the edge of the planet to keep this land in balance that
way. This circle represents that, represents the 4 corners area, represents
the points out of this world. There's another side of the world that's like
this.So that we, the Native People , continue to perform the ceremonies.
WE drum. We sing; we go fast; we go to sweat lodge; we go to Sun Dances.
Other ceremonial plant are here for us to use. We kept this land, called
the Western Hemisphere. It's beautiful, it's clean. Like they mentioned,
someplace in the Bible it's like the Garden of Eden. It was like that.
Long grass, flowers, plant life, all kind of things was here. And we, the
human beings, were supposed to take care of it for the Great Spirit from the
heart with a prayer. And appreciate something and take only what we need.
We offer prayer, we fast for it, to thank them for these things. But we
today don't seem to understand that. And we are just about destroyed this
world.
The night before last we had a big meeting in Northern Arizona University
about the so-called Hopi-Navajo land dispute. That was cooked up by big
political figures cause they wanted to get a hold of the metal resources and
take it away from the Native People ; Navajo, Apaches, Piutes, and others,
by law. They created that; passed by Congress. You're citizens; you're
taxpayers; you sent those men in Congress. ANd they passed this law that
said you will have to be moved, to be relocated. They put fences in between
the Hopi and Navajo. They said this is Hopi land and this is Navajo land.
If the Hopi get caught in Navajo land they must be relocated. If the Navajo
get caught in Hopi land they must be relocated. The government says they
have to be relocated. But those Hopi area, created by law, before that we
shared that land together. Hopi and Navajo, Piute, Havasu, Pima, Papago,
all the Pueblos of New Mexico, we shared that together. we followed the law
of the Great Spirit. We performed the ceremony. And there was trouble at
first between the Apaches and Navajo, first time when they came there. But
we make a sacred covenant, an agreement. we exchanged our sacred bundle,
that we designed in a spiritual way. And if any one of us violated that
then something's going to happen to those people. So we kept it. We lived
there peacefully and shared land and took care of it. then the government
came up with this law. Without our knowledge, consent, they passed this
law. they said this is the law; we have to relocate you. And then they
said they have to put fences between the Hopi and Navajo, the barbed wire in
between us. And I don't know whether they made an intermarriage between the
Hopi and Navajo and a lot of them had children. The children don't know
which tribe they belong to. Maybe the babies will have to be hanged on
that wire, barbed wire, because they don't know which way they belong to.
The government says this is Hopi land, this is Navajo land. But people say
this belongs to both of us.
So they had a big meeting over there in Arizona University. And there were
over a thousand people there. And then the Navajo, Piutes, Shoshones,
Pimas, Papagos, Havasu, many other Native People were there. And they all
fought against it, that law that the court decided that's the way it's going
to be. And they forced two chairmen to sign it without letting the people
know. This Justice Department representative of the Unites States
government signed it. The the court signed it. And so now without telling
the people that, there's about five pages, on both sides. Noone had a
chance to look at it, the people who're living there. The Hopi tribal
council kept in their own hand. And I went down to get some more copies.
They said we can't tell the people yet about this. This is confidential.
The court said so, so we mustn't release it yet until the chairmen go to
*****and talk about it.
I said, "My Gosh, this is something very important, about our land, our
religion, our way of life. Why don't you let the people know about it? Why
don't you pass this paper around? You seem to always sign something then
you let the people know it too late sometimes. So I think it's time we look
into this. So if you're not going to copy this, I'll copy it myself."
So I took that to Winslow and made 7 copies of it. cost me 7 dollars to get
that. So I spread that out to other people. Next day the Newspaper, the
Arizona Republic came out with a story that many Native People as well as
the people of Flagstaff were so angry because they were not told that they
are going to be moved too from Lake Mary, west of Flagstaff, up near the
Grand Canyon area; they going to be turned over to the Hop[i. And the
Government said they're going to give us 15 million dollars. And they're
going to let Navajo people to stay there in Big Mountain, to live there 75
years, leasing that land from the Hopis. I don't know what's going to happen
after 75 years, but that's what the law says. But that type of thing's
never been told to the people so everybody's angry about that. So they're
not going to accept that. But the gov, political figures in Congress, some
of the Senators, said O.K. Bureau of Indian Affairs Secretary Lujan says
it's OK. Even bush, the President of the US says it's OK; he's going to
approve it. Because now they got that land under that law to take it away
from the Native People . And they're going to relocate them.
That's our home. We been there for thousands of years. Our ancestors are
buried there. We have ruins spread out all over, sacred shrines. They want
to take it away from us. It's like the prophet said, someday our white
brother supposed to help us with the rules, laws, rules and regulations and
with his inventions. When he comes he's supposed to help us so our
spiritual material will be joined and take care of this Mother Earth for
the GS. So this land will last forever. But they again misused the power
of writing so tricks are being played on us. They use inventions; they have
guns; they have police; they have jails. They're pushing our people all
across this country and put them in jail if they stand up. This is our
home. Right now there's thousands of our Native People in their own
country, they're landless, homeless, starving, sick. They can't get medical
help. They're dying just like they're talking about African People.
They're talking about Somaliland People starving. Because they took that
away from them and they're starving. That's what's going to happen here
today.
If you don't make great changes Great Spirit says he's going to bring a
great purify here. And nature might also hate us. earthquake, more
powerful going to open up many buildings so people fall in. Mother Earth
is going to eat more people in later times. Hail stone's going to get
bigger, hit people. Destructive thing's going to happen. Soon big cyclones
going to rip up big areas in seconds, which has happened already.
Hurricanes ripped up that great area in Florida in a few seconds. Everybody
homeless, landless, hungry. Tidal wave going to get big and strong, destroy
many people around the earth.
When Dalai Llama was here in SF not very long ago. I came here to meet him.
but thousands of people came up on the mountain to see him. They felt he's
going to straighten out this world. We was just bringing the spiritual
message to the people to do something right, correct themselves. Stop the
leaders from creating wrong things. I had my sacred corn meal and my prayer
feather. And I gave it to the leaders that were with the Dalai Llama cause
he kinda got sick that evening and couldn't come speak at this church.
Thousands of people waiting for him. So I gave that to the next leaders who
came with him, five of them. I said take this prayer feather; take this
corn meal. And pray tonight. I hope that many of you will survive.
Something's going to happen here, soon, maybe tomorrow or the next day. So
pray so that maybe you'll be able to survive. You may not last very long.
I left that evening; I came here. There was a meeting of Native People
that night. Then we went over to North of San Francisco over to Mill
Valley; we stayed there. Next day they took me over to San Francisco. Some
of these Japanese people wanted me to stay there, but fought so strongly. I
needed to get out of this place. I called my friend down south, about 80
miles down, and they came and picked me up. But I still felt I needed to
get out from there. So we made some reservations 7 o'clock in the morning.
So they put me on that plane the next morning and I flew back to Arizona.
And I got home that evening and there was an earthquake. Terrible thing
happened. Two times, four times that's happened. And I felt nature is
acting already.
And I found that this whale came into Bay to tell the people what are you
doing to the ocean out there? So polluted out there, the whales, the fish
are dying. You better stop it. That is what is the message that came from
that whale. It came to this bay. A Hopi in New Mexico came to the villages
to say to the people, "What are you doing to us? You're chopping those
trees down. We can't live like that now-a-days. Birds flying up in the sky
falling down cause they're dead because of the air up there. Animals,
birds, plant life are going to be warning us there's something that we
should correct and change. Cause if we don't, terrible things going to
happen.
Some say that when I talk like this I'm just making up stories and scaring
people. But I'm telling you what old people say in 1948. Old people, 80,
90, 100 years old. It really struck me that they know something. That they
select 4 of us with education to interpret this message, to carry with us
as far away as we can. So I travel all over this country with Native People.
East, west, south, north. Comparing this. I went up to Alaska, clear up
in the Yukon. I went down to El Salvador to compare \with the Native
People in South America. I went down to Puerto Rico and I met with the
people in Hawaii. We compare this knowledge. They know something that
we're running into right now.
And in order to go to foreign country, because I represent Native People
and their leaders who had their own form of self government before any
nation came. No one put us there. Great Spirit put us in that four corners
area to take care of it for him. But that's something that most memories
?????. Surrounded by four sacred mountains, and that's the the future of
??? that must be left alone. No one should disturb that. Because they said
that if we keep it in that way, and pray and meditate and fast. Old man
mentioned that if white brother make most destructive thing from mineral
resources. And he said in the Hopi language, he named some of the things.
That's uranium. That once you disturb it, there's radiation coming off of
it. And you can't stop that. It's coming, lotta that radiation coming, but
nobody's testing the air because you can't stop that. Lotta it's still
going on, still coming out of the ground over there in Hiroshima and
Nagasaki and other places. It's coming like that. Are we going to continue
to develop that we know is dangerous? Get cancer, lung diseases,
sicknesses, deformed babies appear. Are we going to stop it or not? That's
the big question right now for the people.
We know it's dangerous, now this country. Like we said if I throw a rock up
there in the sky as hard as I can, that rock is going to come down very fast
and hit the ground much harder. If this country, these people develop this
power and throw it around the other side of the world, sell it to other
people around the world and show them how to make this destructive thing on
their site, sooner or later the most powerful thing's going to come back
here. And they ????, that is what really got me. They told what happened
in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And that if that powerful thing ever hit this
country, one little bomb will hit the West Coast and will wipe out
thousands of acres in a few seconds, burn up. In the east Coast and it's
going to hit different areas as it comes to this Four Corners area. It was
hoped by the elders that other Native People as well as white people here
will help to protect us. They may even form a human chain around the Four
Corners area and take all the dangerous things out and let that be in a
natural state, let that be taken care of by ceremony from Taos, New Mexico,
Zuni on down to Hopi, so that this will be protected. So if they thought
that bomb there so they should not let anything there cause it's so
powerful, Great Spirit is helping them. That's some of the things that they
said would be at this moment, but human beings are looking for ways to
survive.
That's the only way we're going to survive. With prayer within us, with the
power within us. Everyone of you have power to heal. To protect other
persons. With the mind, the five senses you have. You can do it with
faith, with courage, with simple ways, you can do many things. But we're
looking for someone else to do it. We don't do it ourselves. We can do
it. Those are some of the things that come from the spiritual ways. When
you pray, meditate somethings happen. I've seen it in the ceremonies, I've
seen it in other Native People at ceremonies, something's happened. If we
form a circle, build a fire go through a prayer, a ceremony, deer will come
through the brushes; they want to be part of us. Sometimes a little bird comes
in the circle and goes around the circle to be with us. Another time a big
eagle, maybe 5 or 6 eagles, flying around up there looking down at us.
Sometimes a great big rainbow around the sun appears. And sometimes right
after a 3 or 4 day meeting rain will sprinkle a lot, it will rain. Nature's
act. Cause that is where the power is, the spirit within us.
So we are looking for survival now. In 1988 there was 100 spiritual leaders
who met in Oxford University. 100 spiritual leaders. The Dalai Llama was
there. And 100 parliamentarians were there. They had a big group in the
stage. And they had a word up there: Global Survival. People in London,
political figure says the world's in trouble. We humans all living on this
one world. How are we going to survive? Who has the answer? They asked
every spiritual leader there. They seemed to lack the answer. They asked
political figures. They don't seem to know what to do. So they said,
"Let's ask the aggressor people, what do you have? Have any written
instructions or warnings or whatever? We want to know cause we have to
survive some how." And a scientist from Russia was there. He told us all
the power they developed over there was, nuclear power and the other power
they have. And they know what United States have. And he said if there is
a nuclear war, and they throw it at each other, this whole world is going to
burn up to ashes. That's what Hopi says. We don't stop this, we're all
going to burn ourselves up to ashes.
If nature acts also, it may be that nature is going to bring warnings like's
already happening. Severe droughts and winters, earthquake, tornados,
volcanic eruptions and lightning start hitting. Maybe one of the tornados
going to just pluck up this nuclear power plant. And ash is going to blow
all over and 1000 people are going to be wiped out in a few seconds. That's
the danger they're talking about. They even said that even they test too
many chemicals, and they go up in the sky. The poison that is coming, and
be like a gas fume up there. If it ever lit up that there would be a fire
up in the sky and we wouldn't be able to get out--put it out, they said, for
a long time. We can't go through that time. They said when we see the world,
people using this atom bomb, nuclear power, poison gas, highly developed
military might, if they start using that all over they are going to
eventually destroy one another more and more.
I know that with scientific things they're going to get to the moon. They
told us not to bring anything from the moon to earth. If we do, we're going
to have more unbalanced life down here. More sickness that'll last for a
long time. We can't cure them. Season's going to change. More tidal waves
will take place. And they will continue messing with the moon and stars.
And someday in the last stages they may be able to build a house way up
there in the sky carrying people and things. When that becomes fulfilled,
then this whole world's in trouble. Maybe some people will want to save
themselves by going up there and destroy this world by throwing more
powerful things down here. And we're all going to burn up.
There are many thing they mentioned that really get me. So they select
three of us, four of us, but I'm the only one left now out of the four
selected that was there at that 1948 meeting. They were high spiritual
leaders, like the Pope, Dalai Llama. High spiritual leaders were there to
talk about it and they authorized me and gave me a sacred prayer feather
when they do that. I'm the only one to carry this message in the right
manner. So I've traveled all over this country, Canada, every province,
Yukon. Then I went to foreign countries, Sweden, Belgium, Germany,
Switzerland, Moscow, Czechoslovakia, France, Rome, and other places. I
spread this message. Cause that's what old people say. Since I represent
the Native People who have this original native way of self gov, that have
no treaty with any nations, not with the US, so I can't go to the United
States for a passport. So we made our own Hopi passport, with a buckskin
cover. And they went through a ceremony and put a sacred prayer feather in
it. So I went to Sweden Environmental Forum taking place in 1972, I believe
it was. I was the only one that was authorized, but I take four Hopis with
me. So 4 Hopi passports was made. But they wouldn't let us go on the plane
in Los Angeles. But one white brother jumped out and said that they would
stay with us. Then he went to every agent, agency, there for ticket to be
approved. But none of them wanted to approve it. Then he called up here
to San Francisco to the Swedish embassy. And they were so surprised that
the Hopi are using their own Hopi passport. So he let us go in the
airplane, right over to Stockholm. When we got there, United Nations, some
people came, Chief of Police came, airport official came and they showed
that Hopi passport around. They were so amazed to see that buckskin cover
on the Hopi passport. They said, "My Gosh, we've never seen anything like
this before." Well we had to do that because you people required it. We
don't have to have a passport to travel, but since your require it we took
this. But I tell you, many of you white people been to our country. You
didn't have any passport either. You just walked in there. So I'm going to
check on you. If you don't have the Hopi passport, we'll take you back
where you came from. So they said don't ever let anyone tell you not to use
this Hopi passport. You have every right; you've sovereign power and
authority. That represents your land, your leaders, your spiritual
foundation, and you represent all the Native People when you use that. So
that is what they said. So I've traveled all over those places. And
someplace they started stamping it. And that was recognition of the Hopi
nation. So those are the ones that I represented. And I want to bring this
message as far as I can, because I know what they say is danger that we're
facing. You elders are here. You are concerned about this. I know that
you have different organizations that save trees, animals, endangered
species,
___lost some when tape turned over___.
...Third world war because they have this instruments of
warfare developed. Terrible thing happened in the First World War, a lot of
people died from it. They stopped for a while. They didn't learn; they
started making some more destructive things. So the Second World War
starts. That's when this uranium was used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and
other places. Poison gas was used. Terrible things happened. And they was
supposed to stop, their own organizations, supposed to stop war. The United
Nations was set up; it's supposed to stop war. And they have laws, rules,
regulations to direct change to stop these things. But they said there
might be a Third World War start. And the Hopi today felt Persian Gulf was
the beginning of Third World War. All the moneyed people, all big
organizations pooled all their might and power, all their military might and
together throw it on one country. Thousands of babies dying. Womans
dying. Animals dying. Environmental issues so great over there. No one
cares about that. But you know what the Hopis say? When you do that to
other countries, you are inviting much greater punishment here. Sooner or
later they're going to come here. They're all going to get together and
come here. If we don't stop this. That's what really happening. I hate to
see my own country burn up like that. And I believe that there will be a
lot of good people here who will help us.
So get to your Congressmen and Senators and stop this uranium mining. Stop
this uranium testing. Stop these poison gases. Even stop United States
Army from going into foreign countries, destroying other people who have
never bothered us. We throw a lot of stuff over there, uranium, over
there. Destroying many people in Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Hawaii, Mexico, and
other countries. You know what you're doing? Your're inviting greater
punishment if you don't stop it. So the Hopis are very concerned. Because
when you throw that stuff over there in other countries like the Persian
Gulf, you're stirring up an ant hill over there on the other side of the
world. You know what happens when you stir up an ant hill. Those ants will
come out angry, looking for whoever disturbed their home. They're going to
be fighting a dispute over on the other side of the world, but soon they're
going to get together. Pretty soon maybe someone is going to have the most
destructive thing and they are going to throw it here. There will be a
nation-wide blackout and all the electricity will go out. All the machinery
will come to a standstill. Everything that's made from metal, iron, zinc,
copper, will freeze. Guns can't go. We'll be helpless. Then the purifiers
will come in here. We need to clean up this mess, for the Great Spirit.
Cause they don't want to see the Mother Earth destroyed. That belongs to the
Great Spirit.
I was so amazed to hear all these things from my elders. and I thought that
since they selected me that I want to do all I can to get White House people
to come and meet with the elders and the Hopis. But we sent letters to four
presidents. That's the limit. But none of them came. Then they said
there'll be a house of mica on the eastern land some day. And I know what
mica means in the Hopi. It means 'dreuapie', a little transparent rock like
a glass. We used to have that window a long time ago. Mica. And finally I
want to look for English word for this. So I went to the dictionary and
found it. Mica is the name of that rock or glass-like thing. And i don't
know how they know it, but they said they'll be a house of mica standing on
the eastern land someday. World leaders will gather there, laws, rules
regulations, talking about human rights, equality and justice, and good
life. And they stay on our land, homeland and talking about it. But up to
this present time they never opened their door to native people to speak at
the assembly. They let other nations in and enemies speak there. But no
Native People yet speak at the assembly. We have troubles; we have
problems; we need help. We need to warn people about the dangers we're
running into. So I'll make my efforts to knock on that door four times.
Last October, I sent my last statement. The final one. Hoping that United
Nations will open that door so that one of the Hopi elders, a high spiritual
leader will go over and deliver that message to the assembly of the United
Nations. Because they know something that I don't; I don't belong to the
high society. I know a few things, but they have the message they said came
fro the Great Spirit. They went through all the societies up to this point.
Now the United Nations people here, they say they're going to give it to
them to see if they will do something. First they said they will help us.
Hopis say the white people are supposed to protect this land for us.
They're not supposed to use Native People to go in the army to destroy other
peoples on the other side of the world. Our mission was to take care of
this through prayer and ceremony. So when Second World War came, I didn't
register in the army. And finally FBI and US got hold of me and
three times I was in prison. First time I was in prison for a whole month
without trial. They let me go for a while in the county jail in Prescot.
The second time they caught me again. This time they gave me a year and a
day in the Federal prison camp down in Tucson. They were building a road up
in Mt Lemon. I spent a year and a day over there. I came home. Then they
picked me up again a third time. This time they gave me five years. So I
almost spent almost seven years in the Federal prison for trying to be a
peaceful Hopi, truthful Hopi, ??? person. And I went through all that. And I
know there were a lot of white people there also Quakers, Jehovah's
Witnesses, and other members of Friends Service Committee group. They were
in that prison. And I learned a lot there. And I studied the life of
Gandhi who was a spiritual leader, a non-violent man in India. Went through
all kind of trouble. I found that my Hopi People in old times have that
same type of person. Called 'U-Q-Ma' (?) who was a quiet man who had sacred
stone tablets and that's why he stayed with the high leaders in Oraibi. And
Oraibi had another two sets of stone tablets about a foot with and an inch
thick. And they had those there that contain all these prophecies warnings
and religious instructions; how to take care of it for the Great Spirit.
And that's also for Mother Earth They still have them in Oraibi. They
supposed to have given a copy of it to a white brother who went around the
other side of the world. So the Hopi always say that are you our real white
brother who will come and help us? Hope you'll not lie and steal and take
our land away from us, but will really help protect this land. So the
U-Q-Ma was a great influence Because he was, to me, because he was a
non-violent man. He was a humble person, a peaceful person. He had a great
faith in these religious instructions. He made his own clothes, wear them.
He want to speak Hopi language. He want to teach the young children in the
Hopi way. And he don't want the white government to take the young people
away in the schools. And he stood fast and he had many followers then. And
the government picked him up and throwed him in prison, road work and
several of them with Pumas came to Alcatraz, spent two or three years
there. 1906. When they returned home, there was the biggest earthquake in
SF. They felt the power of nature watching us. So U-Q-Ma stood fast. He
set up this Hotevilla. So Hotevilla still follow that non-violent way. And
from that, leaders and others from Second Mesa, spiritual leaders, that I
learned that we, as Hopis, should not be in the army, destroy other people,
end their life, anyplace. And the Native peoples should not be forced to go
in the army. And we want to hold on to this in a spiritual way. And it's
the white people who have writings, who have inventions, be the ones to
protect this land. But no one seems to have obeyed these orders. They go
to other places, destroy a lot of people over there. So I don't know what's
going to happen. And I mention the Hopi have these spiritual instructions.
Our old people teach us this. But now we're grown up, and Uncle says;
"don't you lie. Don't you steal. Don;t you take anything that doesn't
belong without permission." And many other things that are written in the
Bible. Ten Commandments. Same principle. The American people say they're
Christians. That's part of the law of the Great Spirit or God. The ten
Commandments are from him. And even the President of the United States
swears on the Bible. Now what's going to happen in the future. These are
some thing that the old people knew. It's time we turned around and do
that. So I went to Six Nations and they know that. Then I went to every
nation across the country, six years of holding meetings to revive out
religion, culture, ceremonies. Now they wear their badge, the long hair,
feathers. They're not afraid any more; they're proud people. And then I
went over to United Nations and I told the executive officer there that you
made a mistake by supporting war. To go to Iraq and destroy them with the
war. They should not do that. And he said you realize we made a mistake.
They try to bring all the security members who voted to give the war back
together to change it but only a handful of people came and they couldn't
change it. And the man that I talked with he's a member of the United
Nations. He's a member of the United States government , and I told him you
should change, you should stop this. You should say that you're, thank God,
you're not going to support war. So that is what Hopis say. So even though
that's happened, the elders said we must take this message to the nation.
So I'm going to do all I can to help bring this..If the White House people
let me come in I'm going to talk about these things. But so far they
haven't invited or listened to me. So now I go to the United Nations
hoping that they'll open that door. So my name was on to Speak on the tenth
of December. They have ten other indigenous people who are going to speak.
First time they're going to speak to the UN. But it's not the way the Hopi
wants it. The Hopi want to have the United Nations to open the door or not.
We want to hear them. If they don't want to open the door, then that's what
we want. If they want to open the door, then the Hopi explain to them, then
maybe they correct changes according to teachings, with your help. This is
why I'm anxious to travel wherever I go. I don't have any work; I just
volunteer to do that, going through all this hoping that out of all this
message many of you will recognize what I'm saying. I want you to do
something, maybe get to your political figures to stop this relocation of
Hopi. Repeal Public Law 93-531. Stop Big Mountain Coal over there,
misusing all that stuff there that desecrated our burial grounds, our sacred
shrines. And rules they find ?????, that's a spiritual center there. That
should be left alone. It's creating too much acid rain. And those things
should be stopped. And all this uranium mining should stop. These are some
things we want to bring to the public to see if they can help correct
changes before it's too late.
And the last minute the old man that the Kachina leader mentioned, he said
I'm going to talk about woman. And he said,"You know a long time ago I
guess during a migration somewhere, moving around to different areas, man
used to walk up in front with woman and children following him to protect
them where they were going. Then later after they settled down, then man and
woman walked side-by-side and the children followed them wherever they go.
But now in the third period, women have a very important role to play at
this time. He said, in the legend, it's very simple and very funny some
places, but he told in the Hopi language that the woman stay up late trying
to put baby to sleep. Maybe the baby's sick, want to go to sleep. About
two or three o'clock in the morning. When she went to sleep she go down to
the kitchen and clean up the mess a little bit and then go to sleep. And
after about two hours she get up again early, start cooking and put on a
nice table, clean table and give out the children," come and eat." All the
children come and eat and rush off and left the mess there. The mother have
to clean up the mess again. That's what the Hopi said the women should do
now. He said in the funny ways the women should get to the rear of the
husband say, " Hurry up. Clean up this mess." That's another thing that
needs to be stopped right now. We better get together and clean this mess
up, because woman's going to be the producer of the next generation. What
kind of a generation are we going to leave for the younger people, life for
the next generation. The woman is a representative of ME. ME is very shaky
right now. And it's up to mothers now to really start looking into these
things. And I kinda felt encouraged, and I believe what old people say
because 10-15 years now it seems like women have kept coming active. They
start coming more and more, because it's their time. It's time for them to
move and act and help these things and correct them and clean up this mess
before it's too late. And I hope that will happen. And that's what I said
when I talked to the United Nations people in October, I told them these
things. I told them they're destroying the earth. I told them about the
Hopi prophecy. Then I said, over right across the building from the United
Nations there's writing on the wall from the Bible instructions that said
turn swords into plowshares or something. And underneath it said, "Study
war no more." I think it's time that we stop war, and study war no more,
and live in peace and harmony from the heart. And recognize that we are
brothers and sisters, that we are together going to share this earth fro the
Great Spirit. And we are gonna do it in a way that will be in a peaceful.
This is what I would like to see happen. And I told our people in Arizona
University the other night what Hopi means, kind gentle truthful people,
persons, humble persons. Columbus, they said he discovered America, He
didn't discover America. He just drifted into an island over there, and
they welcomed him. But in a few years he wiped them out. And today is
seems like that same thing going on. They call us savages, heathens,
cannibals, and if we were that kind of people, I don't think any white
people would be living here today, because we would eat every one of them
when they come in. But we are a peaceful people, humble people with food
and lodging and live here in this goes to the last stages. District Six,
the only land we have, is under government law. And it's time that we look
into it. I told them, the people there, and they knew it's time to
investigate the laws, rule and regulations. And put a stop to these
things. So once they repeal the Public Law 93-531 there won't be any
problem in the Hopi area, And other places, people want to save their
trees.
They don't want disturb(ing) road building going through there. Tearing up
their sacred shrines, burial grounds. They don't care what they do to
them. One year I suggested down in Sherman Oaks University Indians'
meeting They complained about some white people that they jump on
their burial grounds. They get bones, studying them, and selling them fro a
lot of money, selling to foreigncountries. I said I said we should form our
own archaeological Native Peoples' society, and put out big headlines
tomorrow saying we're going to start studying white man's bones. Maybe
we'll dig up his grave and find out, maybe we can sell his bones. I don't
know how much it will cost. Any way we'll start digging up his grave.
They're doing it all across the country. They won't stop. So I think we
can do that too. We'll have to do it. Even Jefferson started that,
studying Indian bones to see if he's savage or he can be civilized. To see
if his head's not big enough, he's going to be destroyed like an animal.
There are a lot of things that I found out that was put in writing. But I
think as the Hopi said that there are a lot of good people going to be
here. A lot of organizations are looking for ways to survive. A lot of
people still have faith in their religion, and I think as humans we're going
to come together, and work together. And really clean this mess up so that
next generation will have a good clean life and somehow it may be able to
get there, because that's what it says. Like in the Bible one teaches about
??? it becomes new again. A lot of animal, birds, plant life it become
clean. And that's what I'd like to see happen. And so I'm willing to do
what I can. So I want to ask you to do what I (you) can to get (me) to the
United Nations members and tell them to open that door. Because I'll be
there and I'm going over there on the 8th. Ninth I meet with the other
Native indigenous people who will be there. And then on the 10th I hope the
United Nations will approve me so I can speak there. And I will just bring
this message to them that they must open the door to the Hopi and Four
Direction leaders. So I hope that you will do that, because, as I said, I
don't have a job and money. So what ever contribution you will give I will
have that to use. And I want to thank you, for I believe that you are very
sincere in many things that you've been doing. And I know that many
activities are taking place on the western part of this country. And they
said from this western part we're going to start east with truth and fact
and not with this symbol (raised fist) but with the peace symbol (hand palm
forward). We're going to walk with truth and kindness. And all the
nations will get together and we're going to undo the wrong doing. And I
hope that will happen. Then we'll become one big one, we'll going to speak
one language in the end. We're going to bring that about.
Thank you very much.