Indian
Country Today
by:
Brenda Norrell
March 29, 2005
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096410637
HOTEVILLA, Ariz. - From Hopiland, a spiritual
vortex for Native people, spiritual leaders Dan
Evehema and Thomas Banyacya became the voice of
the voiceless: the birds and animals. Warning of
the impending apocalypse, they urged all people
of good hearts to join them.
Even in their last years, Evehema and Banyacya
warned that material greed and ignoring spiritual
truth results in climate change, and, ultimately,
the destruction of the world.
Hopi Snake Priest Evehema said the disease in the
world today is greed, and the final insult for
this country's aboriginal people is the loss of
ceremonial land.
''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. Why is this
happening? It is happening because many have
given up or manipulated their original spiritual
teachings.
''The way of life that the Great Spirit has given
to all 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,'' Evehema
said, at the age of 105, in a statement to all
humanity.
''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.''
Evehema said Hopi long ago were told that
someone would go to the moon and bring something
back. Because of this, 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
frequently and causing widespread suffering.
''Now we must look upon each other as brothers
and sisters. There is no more time for divisions
among people.''
Evehema said there is no freedom of the
press for traditional Hopi speaking the truth because
newspapers only publish what the government wants
printed. He said the leaders in the White
House and the Glass House (United Nations) have
been warned of what is to come, but have not
listened.
''So, as our prophecy says, 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.''
Banyacya was among the Motee Sinom (Hopi
for first people) who urged the United Nations in
1992 to listen. Banyacya said traditional Hopi
follow the spiritual path given by Massau'u (the
Great Spirit).
''We made a sacred covenant to follow his
life plan at all times, which includes the
responsibility of taking care of this land and
life for his divine purpose. We have never made
treaties with any foreign nation, including the
United States, but for many centuries we have
honored this sacred agreement. Our goals are not
to gain political control, monetary wealth nor
military power, but rather to pray and to promote
the welfare of all living beings and to preserve
the world in a natural way.''
In 1948, traditional Hopi spiritual
leaders chose Banyacya and others to carry the
message forward. Repeating the wisdom, Banyacya
said the Creator made the first world in
perfect balance, but humans turned away from
moral and spiritual principles and only a handful
survived the earthquakes.
The mistakes were repeated in the second
world, and freezing in the great ice age
destroyed the people. The third world lasted a
long time and, as in the previous worlds, the
people spoke one language. They invented
technologies still unknown to modern man, but
eventually turned away from natural laws and
pursued material things.
''They gradually turned away from
natural laws, pursued only material things, and
finally only gambled while they ridiculed
spiritual principles. No one stopped them from
this course, and the world was destroyed by the
great flood that many nations still recall in
their ancient history and religious teachings.
''The elders said again only small
groups escaped and came to this fourth world
where we now live. Our world is in terrible shape
again even though the Great Spirit gave us
different languages and sent us to four corners
of the world and told us to take care the Earth
and all that is in it.''
Banyacya said mankind is in the final
days of the prophecy.
''What have you, as individuals, as nations
and as the world body, been doing to take care of
this Earth?'' Banyacya asked the United
Nations.
''In the Earth today, humans poison their
own food, water and air with pollution. Many of
us, including children, are left to starve. Many
wars are still being fought. Greed and concern
for material things is a common disease.''
Banyacya said Hopi foretold of the
''gourd of ashes'' (atomic bomb) that destroyed
thousands in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hopi believe
that the Persian Gulf would have been the third
great war if use of the worst weapons had not
been stopped.
''We do have a choice. If you, the nations
of this Earth, create another great war, the Hopi
believe we humans will burn ourselves to death
with ashes.
''Nature itself does not speak with a voice that
we can easily understand. Neither can the animals
and birds we are threatening with extinction talk
to us. Who in this world can speak for nature and
the spiritual energy that creates and flows
through all life?''
Banyacya said it is necessary for human
beings that have not separated themselves from
the land and nature to speak out.
Finally, he said, the first people and the spirit
of the ancestors are giving loud warnings. He
pointed out that there are increasing floods,
hurricanes; hail storms, climate changes and
earthquakes.
''Even animals and birds are warning us
with strange changes 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.''
Evehema and Banyacya died within three
weeks of one another in early 1999. Evehema died
at the age of 108 on Jan. 15, 1999. Banyacya,
born in 1910, died on Feb. 6, 1999.
Their voices live on. |
|