HOW CAN WE HELP THE HOPI PEOPLE? - by Thomas O. Mills

How Can We Help The Hopi People?  

I am sometimes asked, “How can we help the Hopi People?”  Having lived with the Hopi for a number of years, I can assure you that they do not need our help.  They have been trying to help us, all four races of man, black, yellow, red, and white, from the beginning of time.

The Hopi society is not based on money, owning property or collecting things.   Green fields, rain, traditional ceremonies and laughter are all that they really need.  Whenever electricity, running water, heaters, televisions, automobiles, freezers, or jobs enter the villages, only problems arise.  How do I pay the bills for these things?  I have ceremonial obligations and crops to plant, how can I work five days a week?  How can they expect me to devote all my time for money?   I never needed money before, why do I need it now?    These are just some of the things I have heard on the reservation.  An old Hopi joke is:  Before the white man came here all I did was farm, hunt, and take part in my ceremonies. Now I have to work, to make money so I can farm, hunt, and take part in my ceremonies. 

I have always been amazed at how eager a true Hopi is willing to fast, pray, and devote his time for the well being of all four races of man, no matter how terrible these races have treated the Hopi.  It is still remembered how Kit Carson road up to an old unarmed Hopi man planting his crop and shot him in the head for no reason.  We name cities, streets and mountains after Carson, and the Hopi lost one of their ceremonial leaders and had to eliminate the ceremony he was responsible for. 

I am sure that if the Hopi land was fertile, with running water, oil, or minerals, they would have been wiped off the face of the earth many years ago.  The Guardian that told them to settle in this location knew what he was doing.  The struggle to live in this high desert area runs hard and deep in every Hopi, but still they go forward and bless us all.

If I had one wish, it would be that things could go back to the way they were before the Hopi children were taken from their parents and forced to go to public schools.  I know this is very unrealistic and many of the progressive, new age Hopi lawyers, teachers, government workers would argue this point.  But I feel the old Hopi way was the perfect educational system.  No child was ever left behind.  Besides the child’s real parents they had clan relatives, aunts and uncles, Kachina guardians, and the village to fall back on.  Each child was taught that it was his or her’s responsibility to take care of the elderly, the young, the village and the fields.   There were many avenues of love, training, and understanding for each child.  All doors were open.  It was the perfect system in my eyes.  Art, history, astronomy, music, religion, farming, and respect for Mother Earth, a masters class for each child, a complete way of life.  

There is one item that the Hopi seek.   The missing corner of the Fire Clan Tablet.   The Guardian that I mentioned early, gave the Hopi a small stone tablet. that not only gave the Hopi permission to occupy this land, but proved that he existed.  Before he gave the stone to the Hopi he broke off one corner and told them that someday in the future their true brother would return with the corner and prove their creation story.  They have been waiting ever since and this is the reason they welcomed the Spaniards back in the 1600’s.  Many people have seen the stone and the Hopi even took it to Washington for a meeting at the United Nations, it does exist.

As global events have gone from bad to worse and mirrored the prophecies the elders had been taught one of the elders was so worried about our future that he made a replicate of what he thought the tablet would look like if the missing corner was attached.

When you compare the tablets you’ll notice that Water’s left off the pyramid on the bottom right hand corner when he describe the tablet in his book.  I believe he did this because he knew the controversy that might have taken place back in 1963 if it was included in his book.   What could the Hopi’s have know about the Pyramids?  

If the missing corner of the tablet was found here in the America’s it really wouldn’t prove very much - but If the guardian took the missing corner back to his point of origin, or across the sea, than it would prove the Hopi Creation Story when it is found.  How else could it have gotten across the ocean?  Like I said that guardian was pretty smart.

The only location where I know that a stone table has been protected  for thousands of years by a guardian, is in a small town in Ethiopia, Africa, south of the pyramids, called Axum.  It is housed in a small chapel called the Ark of the Covenant Church.  

And what ever is inside the church is guarded around the clock by a guardian 24 hours a day.  No one is allowed to see the stone.  Once a year, on January 18th and 19th, it is paraded around the city in what is called the Timkat Procession and this is the most important ceremony of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. 

My question would be, if they had the Ark of the Covenant or a piece of the Ten Commandments why keep it a secret?   Wouldn’t you want to show everyone and prove your creation story?   But if you only had a small piece of the Hopi Fire Clan Tablet and instructions to wait for your long lost brother, you might keep it a secret.

My friends have always told me that the Pahana (their long lost brother from across the ocean) would come from the east and have a red hat or red cloak.   Could this red box contain the missing corner of the Fire Clan Tablet?   I think so.  This photo also reminds me of the stone statues on Easter Island.  

 I wrote the Hopi Tribal Council six months ago and ask if I could speak to them the next time they had a meeting.  No response as of yet but you have to remember,  all participants of the council have been trained in public schools and don’t really want to prove the Hopi Creation Story.   

In my mind the only way to help the Hopi is to go to Axum, convince the Guardian protecting the stone tablet to come to America, show the Hopi the stone (this has to be done on a certain day, at a certain time, at a certain place) and then take the Guardian back to his home after the meeting.  


This would prove the Hopi Creation Story; give meaning to the murals and pyramids around the world,  explain how global warming and our melting polar ice caps are our biggest problem, let us know where we came from and where we are going, and tell the world that all the Hopi struggles and hard work were not in vein.  

In 1936, Edmund Nequatewa wrote Truth of a Hopi.  His wife Jean and her son Ed gave me a copy of it back in 1971.  On page 50, he talked about the return of their long lost brother:  Most everybody was anxious to see the Bahana come, for they were so afraid that he might not come during their lifetime and they would not be able to enjoy all the benefits that he was to bring back with him - - for the Bahana was supposed to bring great knowledge with him.  These people were telling their children that the Bahana was wise and with his inventions had reached the rising sun and was coming back to them again, for they had seen the big eastern star and that was a sign and they were waiting for him.  Every grandfather and grandmother was telling their children that they were growing so old that they would not see the Bahana.  They would tell their grandchildren to go out in the mornings before sunrise with sacred corn-meal to ask the sun to hurry the Bahana along so that he would come soon.  

They are still waiting.  

Thomas O. Mills
Author:  The Book of Truth  &  Stonehenge,  If This Was East





This illustration is from the Book of the Hopi by Frank Waters Page 30.



This illustration is from my book, The Book of Truth.

 



Ark Of The Covenant Church



Guardian with Red Box containing a stone tablet during the Timkat Procession