Perspective
Thomas o. Mills
There is a story concerning an unknown Native American man, who is said to have accepted a ride from a white man and told him all the Hopi tribe’s secret prophecies during the ride home. Neither the Native American man nor the driver of the car have ever been identified to my knowledge; but, many Hopi and other commentators on the prophecies justify their interpretations and arguments on the basis of this story.
The story claims the Native American man spoke of nine Hopi prophecies that included spider webs in the sky, the ocean turning black, and steel ribbons that crossed the land, among others. He also talked about hippies with long hair, longhorn cows, and wagon wheels.
Experts and commentators usually associate these prophecies with Thomas Banyacya, Sr. (1909-1999, Coyote Clan), who grew up in Moenkopi, was forced as a youth to go to school in Riverside, California, and who spent many years in prison when he refused to go to war with other humans.
Thomas Banyacya was selected in 1948 by the tribal elders as one of four Hopi spokespersons who were to reveal the Hopi message and teachings to the outside world (David Monongya, Dan Evehema, and Dan Qochhongva were the other three). Speaking at the United Nations in 1992, an event which was recorded, Banyacya said:
Nature, the First People and the spirit of our
ancestors are giving you loud warnings. Today, December 10, 1992, you see increasing floods,
more damaging hurricanes, hailstorms, climate changes and earthquakes as our prophecies said would come. Even animals and birds are warning us with strange change in their behavior such as the beaching of whales. Why do animals act like they know about the earth’s problems and most humans act like they know nothing? If we humans do not wake up to the warnings, the great purification will come to destroy this world just as the previous worlds were destroyed.
I never spoke with Thomas; but we did wave to each other at the Hopi Cultural Center in the early 1970s. I was busy cooking, and he was busy with five or six people listening to his every word.
I’m sure Thomas would be interested in what is happing today:
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northward in large groups;
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water and moving to the polar regions;
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44-hour freeze moved across the state in
February of this year;
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registered in the American West, causing
not only the Colorado River but lakes and
acquifers to dry up putting millions of
people at the risk of losing their water;
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temperatures over 110 degrees;
•
and water from the polar region to the sea
affecting Earth’s delicate balance.
ThE Hopi Elders Were Correct
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