The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #120086   Message #2608766
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
10-Apr-09 - 01:36 PM
Thread Name: BS: The Hopi Belief
Subject: RE: BS: The Hopi Belief
Floyd Red Crow Westerman was a Dakota-Sioux musician, poet and actor (Dances with Wolves), also at one time an activist.

His message of unity in the spirit of all peoples is a good one, but it has little to do with Hopi beliefs. It represents a melding of some American Indian beliefs with a heavy larding of Indo-European religious beliefs.

Hopi traditional religion has many gods and some 300 kachinas, or super-heroes. Hopi ceremonies assure equilibrium and conciliation with the gods and invoke the good auspices of the kachinas.
Missionaries have been active since the Spanish days but have made little headway (unlike the Rio Grande pueblos, where 30% or more of the puebloans have accepted Christianity, in part or in whole).

Hopi ceremonies are organized separately in each village; they are not uniform. To participate in the whole cycle, villages must be visited on each mesa.