High up on Black Mesa, surrounded by the Navajo Reservation, sits the Hopi village of Old Oraibi, Arizona. It is the oldest, continuously inhabited settlement in the United States. The Hopi began settling here in 1050AD. They are descendents of the ancient cliff dwellers, the Anasazi Indians. Their language is Uto-Aztecan, connecting them to the Aztecs. They live in multi-storied adobe buildings known as pueblos, like many of the distantly related New Mexico Pueblo Indians. In spite of all of these connections to other native tribes, the Hopi have their own distinct culture, religious practices, and traditions.
The name Hopi means good, peaceful, or wise. They call themselves Hopitu, the Peaceable People. In recent years, a group of traditional Hopi’s has split off from the rest of the tribe in order to preserve the traditional culture and beliefs of their Ancestors and to prepare for the time when their Prophecies will be fulfilled. These Hopi’s eschew the conveniences of modern society, preferring a more spiritual and traditional lifestyle.
Many versions of the Hopi Prophecies exist today, each speaking of the destruction of the earth, which they believe is imminent. According to their myths, we now live in the Fourth World, Tuwaqachi, World Complete, and are approaching the Fifth World of Illumination. Their God, Masaw, is the caretaker, guardian, and protector of this Fourth World. The prophecies say that in the beginning of this world, a stone tablet was given to each color of mankind, the red, yellow, black, and white, or the four colors of the Medicine Wheel. Their stories tell us that the four races of men then migrated in separate directions, to learn the lessons for their color and direction, or Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. The Hopi believe that one day these four stone tablets will be brought back together again, and the teachings will be shared.
One aspect of the Hopi’s spiritual life is the Kachinas, who represent the Hopi Gods, Ancestor Spirits, and the spirits of everything that exists in our world. These masked and costumed figures make an appearance at their ceremonials, dancing, playing the part of the spirit they represent, and interacting with the tribal members. Doll-sized representations of the kachinas are hand-carved from Cottonwood for the Hopi children to play with, and to teach them about the Spirit World. Many Kachina dolls are made to sell to tourists, and are prized by collectors of Native art.
The Hopi have a fascinating culture, with a history stretching back for centuries, and containing many beliefs and traditions. Their prophecies are profound, and should be read by all. Most of all, the Hopi are a spiritual people, who live close to the earth. The prophecies and stories of the Peaceable People only entice you to further explore their intriguing culture.
Techqua Ikachi: Newsletters of the Hopi Nation
Hopi Chief Dan Evehema writes, “We Hopi believe that the human race has passed through three different worlds and life ways since the beginning. At the end of each prior world,h uman life has been purified or punished by the Great Spirit “Massauu” due mainly to corruption, greed and turning away from the Great Spirit’s teachings. The last great destruction was the flood which destroyed all but a few faithful ones who asked and received a permission from the Great Spirit to live with Him in this new land. The Great Spirit said, “It is up to you, if you are willing to live my poor, humble and simple life way. It is hard but if you agree to live according to my teachings and instructions, if you never lose faith in the life I shall give you, you may come and live with me.” The Hopi and all who were saved from the great flood made a sacred covenant with the Great Spirit at that time.”
Chief Dan Evehema’s Message to Mankind
I am very glad to have this time to send a message to you. We are
celebrating a time in our history which is both filled with joy and
sadness. I am very glad that our Hindu brothers have given us this
opportunity to share these feelings with you because we know many of you
are having the same troubles.
We Hopi believe that the human race has passed through three different
worlds and life ways since the beginning. At the end of each prior world,
human life has been purified or punished by the Great Spirit “Massauu”
due mainly to corruption, greed and turning away from the Great Spirit’s
teachings. The last great destruction was the flood which destroyed all
but a few faithful ones who asked and received a permission from the Great
Spirit to live with Him in this new land. The Great Spirit said, “It
is up to you, if you are willing to live my poor, humble and simple life
way. It is hard but if you agree to live according to my teachings and
instructions, if you never lose faith in the life I shall give you, you may come
and live with me.” The Hopi and all who were saved from the great flood
made a sacred covenant with the Great Spirit at that time.
We Hopi made an oath that we will never turn away from Him. For us the
Creators laws never change or break down. To the Hopi the Great Spirit is
all powerful. He appeared to the first people as a man and talked with
them in the beginning of this creation world. He taught us how to live, to
worship, where to go and what food to carry, gave us seeds to plant and harvest.
He gave us a set of sacred stone tablets into which He breathed all teachings in
order to safeguard his land and life. In these stone tablets were made,
instructions and prophecies and warnings. This was done with the help of a
Spider woman and Her two grandsons. They were wise and powerful helpers of the Great Spirit.
Before the Great Spirit went into hiding, He and Spider woman put before the
leaders of the different groups of people many colors and sized of corn for them
to choose their food in this world. The Hopi was the last to pick and then
choose their food in this world. The Hopi then choose the smallest ear of
corn. Then Massauu said, “You have shown me you are wise and humble
for this reason you will be called Hopi (people of peace) and I will place in
your authority all land and life to guard, protect and hold trust for Me
until I return to you in later days for I am the First and the Last.”
This is why when a Hopi is ordained into the higher religious order, the
earth and all living things are placed upon his hands. He becomes a parent to
all life on earth. He is entitled to advise and correct his children in
whatever peaceful way he can. So we can never give up knowing that our
message of peace will reach our children. Then it is together with the
other spiritual leaders the destiny of our future children is placed.
We are instructed to hold this world in balance within the land and the many
universes with special prayers and ritual which continue to this day.
It was to the Spider woman’s two grandsons the sacred stone tablets were
given. These two brothers were then instructed to carry them to a place the
Great Spirit had instructed them. The older brother was to go immediately to the
East, to the rising sun and upon reaching his destination was instructed to
immediately start to look for his younger brother who shall remain in the land
of the Great Spirit. The Older brothers mission when he returned was to
help his younger brother (Hopi) bring about peace, brotherhood and everlasting
life on his return.
Hopi, the younger brother, was instructed to cover all land and mark it well
with footprints and sacred markings to claim this land for the Creator and peace
on earth. We established our ceremonials and sacred shrines to hold this
world in balance in accordance with our first promise to the Creator. This
is how our migration story goes, until we meet the Creator at Old Oribe (place
that solidifies) over 1000 years ago. It was at that meeting when he gave
to us these prophecies to give to you now at this closing of the Fourth World of
destruction and the beginning of the Fifth World of peace. He gave us many
prophecies to pass on to you and all have come to pass. This is how we
know the timing is now to reveal the last warnings and instructions to mankind.
We were told to settle permanently here in Hopi land where we met the Great Spirit and wait for Older Brother who went east to return to us. When he
returns to this land he will place his stone tablets side by side to show all
the world that they are our true brothers. When the road in the sky has
been fulfilled and when the inventing of something, in Hopi means, gourd of
ashes, a gourd that when drops upon the earth will boil everything within a
large space and nothing will grow for a very long time. When the leaders
turned to evil ways instead of the Great Spirit we were told there would be many
ways this life may be destroyed. If human kind does not heed our prophecy
and return to ones original spiritual instructions. We were told of three
helpers who were commissioned by the Great Spirit to help Hopi bring about the
peaceful life on earth would appear to help us and we should not change our
homes, our ceremonials, our hair, because the true helpers might not recognize
us as the true Hopi. So we have been waiting all these years.
It is known that our True White Brother, when he comes, will be all powerful
and will wear a red cap or red cloak. He will be large in population, belong to
no religion but his very own. He will bring with him the sacred stone
tablets. With him there will be two great ones both very wise and
powerful. One will have a symbol or sign of swastika which represents
purity and is Female, a producer of life. The third one or the second one
of the two helpers to our True White Brother will have a sign of a symbol of the
sun. He, too, will be many people and very wise and powerful. We
have in our sacred Kachina ceremonies a gourd rattle which is still in use today
with these symbols of these powerful helpers of our True Brother.
It is also prophesied that if these three fail to fulfill their mission then
the one from the west will come like a big storm. He will be many,
in numbers and unmerciful. When he comes he will cover the land like
the red ants and over take this land in one day. If the three helpers
chosen by the Creator fulfill their sacred mission and even if there are only
one, two or three of the true Hopi remaining holding fast to the last ancient
teaching and instructions the Great Spirit, Massauu will appear before all and
our world will be saved.
The three will lay our a new life plan which leads to everlasting life and
peace. The earth will become new as it was from the beginning. Flowers
will bloom again, wild games will return to barren lands and there will be
abundance of food for all. Those who are saved will share everything
equally and they all will recognize Great Spirit and speak one language.
We are now faced with great problems, not only here but throughout the
land. Ancient cultures are being annihilated. Our people’s lands are
being taken from them, leaving them no place to call their own. Why is
this happening?
It is happening because many have given up or manipulated their original
spiritual teachings. The way of life which the Great Spirit has given to
all its people of the world, whatever your original instructions are not being
honored. It is because of this great sickness-called greed, which infects
every land and country that simple people are losing what they have kept for
thousands of years.
Now we are at the very end of our trail. Many people no longer
recognize the true path of the Great Spirit. They have, in fact, no respect for
the Great Spirit or for our precious Mother Earth, who gives us all life.
We are instructed in our ancient prophecy that this would occur. We
were told that someone would try to go up to the moon: that they would bring
something back from the moon; and that after that, nature would show signs of
losing its balance. Now we see that coming about. All over the world
there are now many signs that nature is no longer in balance. Floods,
drought, earthquakes, and great storms are occurring and causing much
suffering. We do not want this to occur in our country and we pray to the
Great Spirit to save us from such things. But there are now signs that
this very same thing might happen very soon on our own land.
Now we must look upon each other as brothers and sisters. There is no
more time for divisions between people. Today I call upon all of us, from
right here at home, Hotevilla, where we to are guilty of gossiping and causing
divisions even among our own families; out to the entire world where thievery,
war and lying goes on every day. These divisions will not be our
salvation. Wars only bring more wars never peace.
Only by joining together in a Spiritual Peace with love in our hearts for
one another, love in our hearts for the Great Spirit and Mother Earth, shall we
be saved from the terrible Purification Day which is just ahead.
There are many of you in this world who are honest people. We know you
spiritually for we are the “Men’s Society Grandfathers” who have been
charged to pray for you and all life on earth never forgetting anything or any
one in our ceremonials. Our prayer is to have a good happy life, plenty of
soft gentle rain for abundant crops. We pray for balance on earth to live
in peace and leave a beautiful world to the children yet to come. We know
you have good hearts but good hearts are not enough to help us out with these
great problems. In the past some of you have tried to help us Hopis, and
we will always be thankful for you efforts. But now we need your help in
the worst way. We want the people of the world to know the truth of our
situation.
This land which people call the Land of the Freedom celebrates many days
reminding people of the world of these things. Yet in well over 200 years
the original Americans have not seen a free day. We are suffering the
final insult. Our people are now losing the one thing which give life and
meaning of life — our ceremonial land, which is being taken away from us.
Hotevilla is the last holy consecrated, undisturbed traditional Native American
sacred shrine to the Creator. As the prophecy says, this sacred shrine
must keep its spiritual pathways open. This village is the spiritual
vortex for the Hopi to guide the many awakening Native Americans and other true
hearts home to their own unique culture. Hotevilla was established by the
last remaining spiritual elders to maintain peace and balance on this continent
from the tip of South America up to Alaska. Many of our friends say
Hotevilla is a sacred shrine, a national and world treasure and must be
preserved. We need your help.
Where is the freedom which you all fight for and sacrifice your children
for? Is it only the Indian people who have lost or are all Americans
losing the very thing which you original came here to find? We don’t share the
freedom of the press because what gets into the papers is what the government
wants people to believe, not what is really happening. We have no freedom of
speech, because we are persecuted by our own people for speaking our beliefs.
We are at the final stages now and there is a last force that is about to
take away our remaining homeland.
We are still being denied many things including the rite to be Hopis and to
make our living in accordance with our religious teachings. The Hopi
leaders have warned leaders in the White House and the leaders in the Glass
House but they do not listen. So as our prophecy says then it must be up
to the people with good pure hearts that will not be afraid to help us to
fulfill our destiny in peace for this world. We now stand at a cross road
whether to lead ourselves in everlasting life or total destruction. We
believe that human beings spiritual power through prayer is so strong it decides
life on earth.
So many people have come to Hopiland to meet with us. Some of you we
have met on your lands. Many times people have asked how they can help us.
Now I hope and pray that your help will come. If you have a way to spread
the truth, through the newspapers, radio, books, thought meeting with powerful
people, tell the truth! Tell them what you know to be true. Tell them what
you have seen here; what you have heard us say; what you have seen with your own
eyes. In this way, if we do fall, let it be said that we tried, right up
to the end, to hold fast to the path of peace as we were originally instructed
to do by the Great Spirit. Should you really succeed, we will all realize
our mistakes of the past and return to the true path - - living in harmony as
brothers and sisters, sharing our mother, the earth with all other living
creatures. In this way we could bring about a new world. A world
which would be led by the great Spirit and our mother will provide plenty and
happiness for all.
God bless you, each one of you and know our prayers for peace meet yours as
the sun rises and sets.
May the Great Spirit guide you safely into the path of love, peace, freedom
and God on this Earth Mother.
May the holy ancestors of love and light keep you safe in your land and
homes.
Pray for God to give you something important to do in this great work which
lies ahead of us all to bring peace on earth. We the Hopi still hold the sacred
stone tablets and now await the coming of our True White Brother and others
seriously ready to work for the Creator’s peace on earth.
Be well, my children, and think good thoughts of peace and
togetherness. Peace for all life on earth and peace with one another in
our homes, families and countries. We are not so different in the
Creator’s eyes. The same great Father Sun shines his love on each of us
daily just as Mother Earth prepares the sustenance for our table, do they
not? We are one after all.
Chief Dan Evehema, (105) Spiritual leader, Eldest Elder Greeswood /
Roadrunner Clan Society Father / Snake Priest / Kachina Father.
From Hotevilla, Arizona, Hopi Sovereign Nation.
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