BS: The Hopi Belief

Subject: BS: The Hopi Belief
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 10 Apr 09 - 05:45 AM

Part 1:
"You should treat all things as Spirit, realise that we are all one family"

Subject: RE: BS: The Hopi Belief
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Apr 09 - 01:36 PM

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.

Subject: RE: BS: The Hopi Belief
From: Riginslinger
Date: 10 Apr 09 - 04:30 PM

If they're spread out enough, maybe even the Catholics won't be able to contain them.

Subject: RE: BS: The Hopi Belief
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Apr 09 - 05:41 PM

walk in beauty

Subject: RE: BS: The Hopi Belief
From: Azizi
Date: 10 Apr 09 - 06:06 PM

Thanks for starting this thread, Lizzie. That video was very interesting. The viewer comments were also interesting reading.

**

Here's the wikipedia link to information on Hopi kachinas:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kachina

Here's an excerpt from that page:

In Hopi, the word qatsina means literally "life bringer", and can be anything that exists in the natural world or cosmos. A kachina can be anything from an element, to a quality, to a natural phenomenon, to a concept.

There are more than 400 different kachinas in Hopi and Pueblo culture...

The most important Hopi kachinas are called wuya.

Among the Hopi, kachina dolls are traditionally carved by the uncles and given to uninitiated girls at the Bean Dance (Spring Bean Planting Ceremony) and Home Dance Ceremony in the summer. The function of the dolls is to acquaint children with some of the many kachinas.

In Hopi the word is often used to represent the spiritual beings themselves, the dolls, and the people who dress as kachinas for ceremonial dances, which are understood to all embody aspects of the same belief system. Among other uses, the kachinas represent historical events and things in nature, and are used to educate children in the ways of life."

-snip-

It's interesting to me how similar worldwide traditional religious beliefs are, including African traditional belief systems and European traditional belief systems.

Subject: RE: BS: The Hopi Belief
From: Azizi
Date: 10 Apr 09 - 06:11 PM

The speaker in that video talked about America being in its last days. I'm not sure that I believe that. But, for what it's worth, here's a repost from a thread in which I shared a real life happening that relates to that belief:


Tunica= Tun it c a?
From: Azizi - PM
Date: 09 Feb 05 - 09:52 PM

Speaking of a strange happening:

In the early 1970s I'm on this crowded bus on my way to work in downtown Pittsburgh and I'm happy to get a seat.

But this woman is standing in front of me and she's obviously seen her better day.

She is dressed like a street person and she doesn't have the cleanest smell in the world-if you get my drift.

But what is even more disturbing is that this woman keeps singing this song:

Ah Mer Ree KA
is the last stop
of the last trip
of Christ's 2,000 year old
journey through SPACE!

She stands there in front of me staring at no one, connecting with no one but singing this verse over and over again while people on the bus try to act like nothing unusual is occurring.

So I sit there pretending to read a book about something or the other but I can't help hear her words

Ah Mer Ree KA
is the last stop
of the last trip
of Christ's 2,000 year old
journey through SPACE!

Then all of a sudden she stops singing and looks me dead in the eye and says in a regular speaking voice- "You remember this now". And do something with your HAIR!!
{I wore a large Afro then which was new style in that city}.

I said "Yes Mam." politely, since she was older than me and I was taught to respect my elders. She nodded her head at me. And then- like she had never said a word to me- starts right back into her song.

Ah Mer Ree KA
is the last stop
of the last trip
of Christ's 2,000 year old
journey through SPACE!

And more than 30 years later I remember that experience and remember thinking "Maybe she's right. Maybe this is the last stop of the last trip of Christ 2,000 year old journey through space. And what will happen when Christ's space ship lands?"

I wonder.

thread.cfm?threadid=78249

Subject: RE: BS: The Hopi Belief
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Apr 09 - 08:10 PM

Q, thanks for your posting. I was privileged to meet Floyd Red Crow Westerman and have always held him in high esteem.

Azizi...that must have been a bit chilling and interesting at the same time!

Mitakuye Oyasin - We are all related

Subject: RE: BS: The Hopi Belief
From: Sorcha
Date: 10 Apr 09 - 09:47 PM

And Don, I think 'walk in beauty' is Navajo/Dineh, not Hopi?

Subject: RE: BS: The Hopi Belief
From: pdq
Date: 10 Apr 09 - 10:00 PM

The following will help explain...

                                  "walk in beauty"

Subject: RE: BS: The Hopi Belief
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Apr 09 - 11:32 AM

pdq, that link expresses Navajo Hóhó very well.

As I posted before, the need for unity in the spirit of all peoples, expressed by Floyd Westerman, is one we hope for; I have no quarrel with his message. It does have a relationship with the Navajo belief in balance and harmony being central to life.

The religious views he expresses are not Hopi, but a recent development, seen mainly among Plains Indians and the new 'Indian Church', and not part of the varied beliefs found among Hopis, Dineh or Navajo, and rarely among the peoples of the Rio Grande pueblos.

It should be noted that the kachinas of the Hopi are not part of their pantheon of gods, but function as helpers, or intermediaries.
There are many, but some have gone out of favor. If a kachina is invoked, and he fails to perform, he will be replaced by another whom the supplicant hopes will do a better job. The koshares, have been adopted from pueblo practice.

The modern Hopi keeps to the ceremonies, they are part of his life, but in day to day living, he may think little about the deities and kachinas, much like ......

Subject: RE: BS: The Hopi Belief
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 11 Apr 09 - 08:21 PM

Gregg Braden...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltpBKXf-EAI&feature=rec-HM-fresh+div
BR

Subject: RE: BS: The Hopi Belief
From: Bobert
Date: 11 Apr 09 - 08:44 PM

Ummmm, ain't the Hopi into payote??? Seems that they can use it legally... Nasty tasting but...

...certainly will bring a certain perspective to the user....

B~

Subject: RE: BS: The Hopi Belief
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Apr 09 - 09:30 PM

Peyote is used by Plains Indian members of the Native American Church. For them, it is semi-legal. Like marijuana, however its use has spread.
The only pueblo society that uses it in ritual is Taos; they got it from Oklahoma Indians about 1907, a late variation to some of their ceremonials.
Some Navajo use it, but usually only those who have taken up the Native American Church. It has not become a part of their ceremonies.

Some Hopi individuals use peyote, mostly those who have left the home reservations, but it is frowned upon by most tribal members.

Studies seem to indicate that it has no permanent effects on the user. A court in New Mexico threw out a case against a non-Indian who was supplying peyote to members of a Native American Church, they accepted that he was supplying it for religious purposes. I know of no further attempts to block its use there.