Southwest Cross-Cultural Wisdom Circle

Cross-Cultural Sharing: Hopis Coming to Verde Valley, Arizona for Archaeological Center Programs

2012-02-12T16:33:00.000-07:00

by Sandra Cosentino

Tuzigoot on the Verde River is largest of area ruins

In the Verde Valley there are over 5,000 Ancestral Puebloan sites from at least 13,000 years of occupation of this region. Hopi ancestors abandoned this region by about 1425, but still maintain active shrine sites throughout the valley. I will never forget in 1994 the words of the Hopi Tribal Chairman who was here to dedicate a prehistoric ruins site, Sugarloaf, which had been saved from the bulldozer by private donations who bought it and placed it in trust with the Archaeological Conservancy: "this is your heritage too." In that moment, he made me feel at home in a deeper way.

Learn more about early inhabitants of Verde Valley here.
See short video by The Verde Valley Archaeology Center about the pre-history of the Verde Valley.

The Crossing Worlds Foundation has a goal to provide support to bring traditional Hopi people to these programs to:

--Share cultural information, arts, social dances with the interested public to provide a living connection to the descendants of the people who inhabited this valley for so many millenia. This will add cultural richness to archaeological focus. For the Hopis ancestral times and wisdom weave seamlessly with their world of today.
--Provide Hopis a chance to learn more about their ancestral sites, have a family outing in a positive learning environment where they are respected for their knowledge, give Hopi artists a chance to sell their art and traditional foods to support their life on the remote reservation. This would be an enjoyable cultural experience for reservation families to participate in.

We are seeking cash donations to provide support for Hopi families for gas, food and hotels. We invite you to come participate, help us with our table, share with Hopis, provide transportation.

March 24 - 25, 2012

The Verde Valley Archaeology Fair is a new event with its inauguration during Arizona Archaeology Awareness Month in March 2012. The Fair features exhibits, demonstrations, a "archaeology for kids" area, and an International Archaeology Film Festival featuring archaeology documentaries from Germany, France, Brazil, Latvia, Australia and the United States. The Fair will include an American Indian Art Show. And we hope -- Hopi dances.

Sept. 29 - 30, 2012
Festival of American Indian Art

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center recognizes the American Indian heritage of the Verde Valley with an annual Festival of American Indian Art for artists from throughout Arizona and the Southwest. The event promotes greater public appreciation and understanding of Southwest American Indian artistry, encourages artistic achievement in a variety of media and establishes a stronger market for American Indian art.

The film component of the Festival provides a venue for feature films, shorts, videos and documentaries of USA American Indian and Canada First Nation communities.

All events are held in historic Camp Verde, Arizona.

For more info on Verde Valley Archaeological Center programs

Crossing Worlds Foundation:
Sharing in respect and friendship, valuing diversity,
we all learn from each other in this great circle of life.

Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian

2011-12-10T09:33:00.017-07:00

Cultural Fascination and Shifting Projection of Values
Commentary and Review by Sandra Cosentino

Hollywood has made over 4000 films about Native people in the past 100 years which have come to define how Indians are seen by the world.

Oh, how our culture has created an ever-changing series of stereotyped, one-dimensional images. Reel Injun (2009 Canadian documentary) is an insightful look at the Hollywood Indian, exploring the portrayal of North American Natives through the history of cinema.

The film points out that Native people growing up with these movies in the past 100+ years often self-identified with the stereotypes. You see bewilderment on modern young Native school kids’ faces when they watch cowboy and Indian movies for the first time. You see them trying to understand what they are seeing which is so different from their own life experience.

Laguna Indian dancers were the subject of the first moving picture display by Edison in the late 1800's. During the silent film era Indians were shown as noble and free as filmmakers tried to capture a vanishing race.

During the 1930’s advent of talking films, the American western with the image of the brutal savage emerged. John Ford's 1939 "Stagecoach" is the epitomy of this genre. For a walk into history, see the original black and white trailer here. John Wayne, often with violent behavior, was the unstoppable true American. The Indians always lose. Reel Injun writers see this as a damaging image of “vicious, backward people” that prevailed for decades.

Hollywood’s famous white stars portrayed Indian lead characters. All Indians looked like Plains Indians with the war bonnets, wore headbands and were great riders. Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond, the narrator and one of the writers of Reel Injun, shares some self-deprecating humor as he rides a horse for the first time, wanting to feel like he was a real Indian.

“When you’re kids and you’re trying to play Cowboys and Indians, and if you’re an Indian kid – well, doesn’t that mean you’re going to lose all the time?”

Jesse Wente, president of Native Earth Performing Arts, Canada’s oldest Aboriginal theatre company.

The Indian princess image portrayed in many films such as

Disney’s Pocohantas is seen by Reel Injun as a caricature, the “embodiment of American desire.”

American Indian Movement activist John Trudell points out: “Indians call themselves human beings.” The “predatory mentality” of movies erases that memory.

Trudell (Santee Sioux) was a spokesperson for the Indian occupation of Alcatraz Island from 1969-1971. He then worked with the American Indian Movement (AIM), was Chairman from 1973 to 1979. Trudell has released 12 albums featuring a unique mix of poetry, Native music, blues and rock and acted in feature films including Thunderheart (trailer).

The 1970’s was a turning point: Native people became filmmakers. And Hollywood made films like Little Big Man and Josie Wales where Indians were multi-dimension characters with humor, authenticity. In 1973 Marlon Brando had a Native American woman take his place at the Oscars to refuse his award based on injustice to Indian people by the film industry and the Federal government siege at Wounded Knee.

Only since the 1980's have Native filmmakers emerged with a whole new genre from their own viewpoint.

By the 1990’s in Dances With Wolves, native characters became fleshed out, not just shown as warriors but as sensitive people. But, Reel Injun points out, this was still shown from the white person viewpoint.

The 2001 Arctic film, The Fast Runner by Inuit Director Zacharias Kunut was truly an “inside job” that revolutionized the Native image (see trailer).

Now aboriginal filmmakers are springing up all over the world who are “not asking to be good and noble, but
vital humans with something to say.”

The projection of Western culture idealized values of Native peoples still goes on today. Does this speak to a longing in us for freedom, spirituality, nobility, community and to be at one with nature that are idealized in another culture? How do we embody these ideals within our own daily world?

“We’ll never be able to change the fantasy of who and what Indians are. That fantasy will always be there, we will always be on the cover of novels

saying ‘Cheyenne Warrior’!"

Actor Adam Beach, of Saulteaux First Nations, Manitoba

I highly recommend watching Reel Injun.

You can see a trailer here.

Pilgrimage to Zuni Salt Lake

2011-07-21T19:54:00.004-07:00

by Sandra Cosentino based on research from multiple sources and knowledge shared by Puebloans

Zuni Salt Lake, home of Salt Woman

"Zuni people will not sacrifice our Salt Woman for cheap coal to serve Arizona or California because our Salt Woman is irreplaceable." (Arden Kucate, Zuni Councilman, 2001)

I love the Arizona territorial style of architecture of the Painted Desert Inn which overlooks colorful other wordly strata found in about a 100 mile swath along the basin of the Little Colorado River in northern Arizona. In 1948, this charming building was Petrified Forest National Park's northern headquarters, featuring a shop and restaurant operated by the Fred Harvey Company.

Painted Desert from the Inn by Sandra Cosentino

Mary Jane Colter, the company's architect and interior designer, was tasked with remodeling the Inn. She hired Fred Kabotie, a Hopi Indian artist, to paint murals in the lunch room and dining room. Kabotie also had painted spectacular murals for Colter in the Desert Watchtower at the Grand Canyon in 1930. Colter had a keen understanding of the Puebloan history and buildings and brought that into her architectural design in Arizona.

historic Painted Desert Inn, today a visitor center

The Salt Lake pilgrimage mural tells the story of two young Hopi men as they walk 230 miles round trip from their home to the Zuni mesas, passing through what is now Petrified Forest National Park, on a salt collecting journey. It was not only a physical journey; it was also a sacred journey. The salt is an important food preservative, flavoring and used for ceremonial purposes. In addition to ceremonial pilgrimages, Hopis from all of the Hopi villages also made other journeys to Zuni Salt Lake to make ritual offerings if there was a drought and to collect salt for domestic purposes. On these trips to Zuni Salt Lake, Hopis often traveled via Zuni Pueblo, where they would stop to visit with friends and trade Hopi pottery, baskets, and textiles. Certain Hopi men through the centuries have also made pilgrimage to the Salt Mine near the Grand Canyon and their place of emergence into this the 4th world.

Fred Kabotie mural of Zuni Salt Lake Hopi pilgrimage

The murals tie the ancestral Puebloan people of the region to the Hopi people of the 1940s and today. While Painted Desert Inn gained status as a National Historic Landmark primarily due to its architecture, the murals of Fred Kabotie made a significant impact on the nomination.

Zuni Salt Lake (in western New Mexico about 60 miles south of Zuni Pueblo) is still a sacred site today. For centuries, the Pueblo people of the Southwest, including the Zuni, Acomo, Laguna, Hopi and Taos pueblos, have made annual pilgrimages to Zuñi Salt Lake to harvest salt, for both culinary and ceremonial purposes.
The Lake and surrounding area (known as the Sanctuary Zone) are considered sacred ground by six Native American tribes--especially to the Zuni Tribe, who believe that it gives life to Ma'l Oyattsik'I, Salt Woman, one of the tribe's central deities.

Mineral springs from an extinct volcano bubble to the surface here laden with pure sodium chloride. Natural evaporation causes the salt to crystalize into a glittering crust on the lake's bed, where it is scooped up by the handful (gathered for consumption and ceremonial use) in exchange for a small cornmeal offering. A network of foot trails running east, north and west connects "Salt Woman" with every major pueblo and tribal village in the area. Zuni Tribal Council member David Wyaco, Sr. compares the trails to umbilical cords linking the villages to their source of life.

The Zuni Salt Lake was not part of the Zuñi reservation originally recognized by the U.S. government. In 1978, An Act of Congress provided for the return of the Zuni Salt Lake to the Zuni Tribe and allowed the Zunis to sue the government for lands taken without payment. The U.S. returned the lake itself, and 5,000 acres surrounding it (Sanctuary Zone), to Zuni control in 1985. In recognition of the sites' significance, the National Park Service listed Zuni Salt Like on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.

Zuni Salt Lake from National Trust for Historic Preservation

In 2003, the site was threatened by a proposed coal mine (to make electricity for Phoenix) that would have drawn water from the aquifer underlying the lake and placed construction on federal lands between the lake and Zuni Pueblo. Zuni Salt Lake received a reprieve when the mine company withdrew its application and relinquished its interests in the area after several lawsuits.

That same year, another threat arose when the Bureau of Land Management issued oil and gas leases across thousands of acres in the Sanctuary Zone. The National Trust for Historic Preservation challenged the leases and, in 2006, the Interior Board of Land Appeals overturned the leasing decision.

More recently, the National Trust recommended that BLM designate the entire Sanctuary Zone as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC), a designation that would have prohibited oil and gas leasing and restricted groundwater pumping in the area. BLM ultimately decided to designate one-fourth of the Sanctuary Zone as an ACEC and agreed to develop a Memorandum of Understanding with Zuni and other tribes to establish a process for how BLM will consult with the tribes on actions proposed within the ACEC.

Mother Earth to be granted human rights under Bolivian law

2011-04-18T10:09:00.000-07:00

Bolivia is bringing indigenous philosophy of the living earth into human legal system.

Article posted On Tuesday, April 12, 2011 by Ahmedabad Mirror.com

Lapaz: Bolivia, a country long suffering from rising temperatures, melting glaciers, extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and mudslides, is set to pass the world’s first laws granting nature equal rights to humans.

The Law of Mother Earth, when passed, is expected to usher in a radical new conservation policy against pollution and exploitation.

Agreed upon by politicians and social groups, it redefines the country’s rich mineral deposits as “blessings”, according to The Guardian.

Perhaps most beautifully, the law will enshrine nature’s right “to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities”.

The proposed law underlines 11 new rights for nature. These include: the right to life and to exist; the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration; the right to pure water and clean air; the right to balance; the right not to be polluted; and the right to not have cellular structures modified or genetically altered.

“It makes world history. Earth is the mother of all,” said Bolivia’s Vice President, Alvaro García Linera. “It establishes a new relationship between man and nature.”

The law forms has been influenced by an indigenous Andean spiritual world view which places the environment and the earth deity, known as Pachamama, at the centre of all life. Humans are considered equal to all other entities, The Guardian report said. According to the philosophy, the Pachamama is a living being. The draft of the new law states: “She is sacred, fertile and the source of life that feeds and cares for all living beings in her womb. She is in permanent balance, harmony and communication with the cosmos.”

While it is unclear what protection the new law will give in court to the ecosystems, the report said the government is expected to establish a ministry of mother earth and will grant communities new legal powers to monitor and control polluting industries. With President Evo Morales’s party enjoying a comfortable majority in parliament, the law is not expected to meet with any opposition, the report added.

Hopi Reaching Out to Japanese People

2011-04-10T09:11:00.008-07:00

On my April 7, 2011 trip to Hopi, I asked a friend of mine from Second Mesa if he would be willing to say a prayer for the people of Japan. Deep feelings were evident on his face as he went into a space of communion with Creator and spoke in Hopi for several minutes. I thought I was making a movie, but only still images came out. His wife translated into English his message below.

Hopi man from Second Mesa deep in prayer for the Japanese.

"Thank you to all the Japanese people that live way out on the waters. We ask Great Creator to help clear the waters and the food and the air. And we ask Great Creator in all his help to keep their homes together. And also their hearts and all of their families. All of us at Hopi have been and are praying for all of you--for Creator to hold all the Universe together."

Right after the tsunami, Hopi people from all across the Reservation gathered at their Civic Center and held a candlelight prayer vigil for Japanese people. And even though material resources are slim in Hopiland, they are collecting supplies to send to people in Japan.

A universal time....
The words above, "praying for all of you, for Creator to hold all the Universe together," hold a profound truth of this time of growing interconnectedness of us all. On this day, for example, I brought a family from India to Hopi. Coming from India with thousands of years of their own deep religious tradition, they easily related to the reverence, prayers and family orientation of Hopi peoples. Driving back to Sedona across the Colorado Plateau in a raging wind and sandstorm, they embraced the elements with calmness.

On that same day, I am praying for a aware young man from Netherlands who had been doing earth-spirit experiences in Sedona with me during the week and was now facing these same elements with great determination on his windy mountaintop solo overnight time of vision. His words remained with me relating a powerful "chance" encounter with a Japanese woman during the week who was also out on the land in deep meditation. Though from two from different parts of the world, they understood without words the soul's calling each felt to be out listening to the voice of spirit spoken in sandstone cliffs, junipers, and ancestor wisdom embedded in the landscape. Just as indigenous peoples for thousands of years up to today's time have come to this region offering prayers and seeking inspiration.

"It is very important that we understand that our consciousness is part of the whole mind of humanity. We are quite literally a part of the birthing of a new way of being through what we entertain in heart and mind." (Rev. Bruce Kellogg, Unity Center of Verde Valley.)

-------------------------

Article presented by Sandra Cosentino with permission from the Hopi couple who are friends of mine. They are speaking from their hearts. This is not an "official" statement--just a human one from individual Hopis. However, I know from many decades of sharing with Hopi peoples, that as a culture, they sincerely send out their blessings to all of Mother Earth and her peoples.

Sing Down the Rain

2011-04-06T15:45:00.005-07:00

Article by Sandra Cosentino inspired by book: Sing Down the Rain

Judi Moreillon captures the synergy of the ancient Tohono O'odham people of the southern Arizona desert people with their arid landscape in this lovely poem lushly illustrated by tribal member Michael Chiago.
Saguaro cactus, the magnificent sentinel of the Sonoran Desert, are considered people in cosmology of these desert dwellers with roots in this land going back thousands of years. Each summer when the fruits come ripe, the saguaro fruit wine making ceremony occurs. This is a community celebration of life and of rain.

Judi says, "Before 1970 the Tohono O'odham did not have a written language. Their cultural and spiritual beliefs and history were preserved and passed down through stories, songs and orations. In the spirit of this rich tradition, Sing Down the Rain was written to be performed orally, with different voices taking the parts of the poem."

"For us, the Desert People, the most important ceremonies are those that bring rain. Late June, when the summer rains are due, marks the beginning of our year. A essential part of the rain-making ceremony is the making and drinking of saguaro fruit wine. Many Desert People live and work in Tucson and on the nearby Tohono O'odham reservations. Each August, a few villages still practice this special ceremony."

"It was I’itoi, Creator of the Tohono O’odham, tradition says, who taught the Desert People their sacred wine ceremony so they could summon the rain (ju:k ̆i) they needed to survive. He taught them to make saguaro wine (nawait),to gather together to drink the wine and sing important songs, to “sing down the rain".

Chiago rain ceremony painting on display at Arizona Museum

The saguaro grows very slowly, taking more than 150 years to reach its full height and size, which can exceed forty feet. At age 100, the cactus may begin to grow its characteristic arms. During the summer and winter rainy seasons, the accordion-like structure of the cactus allows it to expand and retain water that can be later used during the dry months.
The cactus blooms late in the spring and is pollinated by bats.

For generations, the Tohono O’odham people have harvested saguaro fruits with long poles made of saguaro ribs. They eat the juicy fruit raw or cook it down into sweet, nutritious syrup. The dried seeds, rich in proteins and fats, can be ground into flour. The saguaro provides an abundant and important source of nutrients at a time otherwise scarce in desert food resources.

The vibrant images of the desert and of the simpler ancestor times portrayed by Mr. Chiago, evoke the spirit of place for me. As a child of the Sonoran desert I took for granted the sun blasted light, felt the saguaros as living friends but no one told me the older stories of place. The heritage that is inherent in the land and voiced by those with long lineage in a place, I now treasure. In this way we today become part of the on-going weaving of the life of a Place. Judi Moreillon feels this story in her bones and, together with Michael Chiago, take us into the Spirit of the Sonoran Desert.

Please see one of the illustrated pages here on Tohono Chul Park website.

More info:
The main reservation's land area is 11,534.012 square kilometres (4,453.307 sq mi), the third-largest Indian reservation area in the United States (after the Navajo and the Uintah and Ouray). Sells, AZ is the headquarters. Divided into 11 districts within southern Arizona, all of the reservation is not continguous.

The Tohono O'odham enrollment office tallies a population of 25,000, with 20,000 living on its Arizona reservation lands as of year 2,000. The Tohono O'odham share linguistic and cultural roots with the closely-related Akimel O'odham (People of the River), whose lands lie just south of Phoenix, along the lower Gila River.

Most of the 25,000 Tohono O'odham today live in southern Arizona, but there is also a population of several thousand in northern Sonora, Mexico. Unlike aboriginal groups along the U.S.-Canada border, the Tohono O'odham were not given dual citizenship when a border was drawn across their lands in 1853 by the Gadsden Purchase. Even so, members of the nation moved freely across the current international boundary for decades – with the blessing of the U.S. government – to work, participate in religious ceremonies, keep medical appointments in Sells, and visit relatives.

The Tohono O'odham Nation is also the location of the Quinlan/Baboquivari Mountains, which include Kitt Peak and the Kitt Peak National Observatory, and Telescopes and Baboquivari Peak. The observatory sites are under lease from the Tohono O'odham Nation at the amount of a quarter dollar per acre yearly, which was overwhelmingly approved by the Council in the 1950s. In 2005, the Tohono O'odham Nation brought suit against the National Science Foundation to stop further construction of gamma ray detectors in the Gardens of the Sacred Tohono O'odham Spirit I'itoi, which are just below the summit.

David Sine Painting of Holy Ones at Ancestral Verde Valley Site

2011-02-18T11:54:00.001-07:00

article by Sandra Cosentino

Painting by David Sine
Yavapai-Apache elder, historian and storyteller

I am fascinated by this painting I bought from Mr. Sine many years ago. He told me it portrays an ancestral time in the Verde Valley, Arizona when the Holy Ones were here on earth--they were supernaturals who could float in the air.

Mr. Sine says they taught his ancestors about religion and healing and after that left this earth by walking over a rainbow bridge into another world. The way the spiritual ones are dressed in this painting is similar to today's Apache crown dancers. According to archaeologists the Yavapai and Apache people who live here today are not the same people who created the Puebloan culture. The Puebloans were primarily farmers while the Yavapai and Apache were primarily hunter and gatherers. But this is a good example of how over the centuries, much cultural sharing has occurred.

By 1450 A.D. they were gone from this Verde Valley (where Sedona is located)--the prehistoric cliff dwellings and village sites of the Colorado Plateau were abandoned by 1300 A.D.
Today's Hopi people (12 villages in Arizona) and New Mexico pueblo people (18 pueblos) are the descendants of these ancestral pueblo people (formerly called by archaeologists as the "Anasazi" now known as Puebloan Ancestors).

Hopi Home Fire Damage

2011-02-06T15:32:00.010-07:00

Special Winter Project--completion early April, 2011:

Roof Fire at Home of Hopi Traditional Family
Building Materials Funds and Construction Help Welcomed

We are inviting your participation to help this family get their 3 generations all living back in the home so they can prepare for the upcoming baby naming, wedding and ceremonial cycle activities of the year. The father of the family, who is a self-employed Hopi silver jewelry maker, and has the skills and help from village people, but in this slow economy is unable to come up with the needed $5,000 for repair materials. They will also need to raise money for new furniture, paint, triple wall stove pipe, sheet rock, etc.
See: YouTube video of fire damage:

We are collecting donations on their behalf (which are tax-deductible) to buy building materials. Those who are local here in Arizona, are also invited to be part of the roof and second floor repair construction project. They want to accomplish this within the first two weeks of April, 2011.
We invite you to assist this project.

Home is Center for Traditional Life

Corn for wedding stored in damaged home

The mother of the house shared with me recently the importance of the family home in the village for their way of life. She says, “in our tradition, we keep the girls with us. The boys marry and move to their in-law’s place.”

Her oldest daughter’s family, who is expecting a baby the end of May, want to move back home. They temporarily had to go to Phoenix and stay with in-laws due to the fire. They are crowded there and not able to participate in Hopi ceremonial life. The mother of this family needs to be back in their home so they start preparing for the baby naming in May which must be done from the family home where the umbilical cords are. For 21 days the young mother and new baby are in purification in the home before the baby is brought out into the light and receives its name.

The youngest daughter will be having her Hopi wedding ceremony in October and they need to be preparing for that soon as well. Corn grinding is one of the important aspects which also must take place in the family home. Even though this younger daughter lives in her own home, the wedding preparations, leaving and coming home all happen in the home of her mother.

There is a depth of symbolic meaning in all of these activities centered around the home. Much food traditional foods preparation occurs and gathering of all the relatives occurs. For example, grinding of the heirloom corn dry farmed in the the high desert is an important aspect of the wedding for the bride. Image below shows corn from their field temporarily being stored in damaged home--a small part of the corn they will be grinding for the ceremony.

The Crossing Worlds Foundation Inspiration

2011-01-27T14:36:00.003-07:00

Crossing Worlds Foundation is a bridge for all peoples to learn from and be inspired by the living earth, universal wisdom keepers and earth-based cultures. We offer experiential-based seminars; conduct projects on Hopi, Navajo and other native lands in support of cultural continuance, self-reliance, self-esteem, and maintaining life in remote lands far from the economic resources of the modern world; and other projects that shall be approved by the directors.

Sharing in respect and friendship, valuing diversity,

we all learn from each other in this great circle of life.

Honoring the Passage of Death: A Native American Perspective on Crossing Over

2010-02-14T16:45:00.008-07:00

An interview with Uqualla
who is a member of the Havasupai tribe that lives within the Grand Canyon
By Sandra Cosentino

Uqualla is known as a ceremonial orator, teacher, universal wisdom keeper who walks within his own traditional world and as well as sharing with peoples in many parts of the world.

I was greatly comforted by his words and passage songs on April 3 as he and other friends gathered in a campfire circle here in Sedona at sunset to honor the passage of my Mother who crossed over on Good Friday, April 2. He and Hopi friends who I spent Easter with on April 3, helped me experience her crossing as a natural process. In the sharing of their kind embrace and wisdom, I came to realize deep down in my core, that my Mother, who is from an Arizona pioneer family, is happy and free and moving on and only wishes the best for me, my brother and sister who remain behind. And that, in fact, as we, the survivors, live our life in a fuller and richer way, we pay the greatest tribute to the life she gave us. My sister, Marsha Cosentino, said in her eloquent memorial to our Mother that she was “a spirited long-lived woman of strong values who always remained open to new things”...and that we “who love her and will miss her, join in the hope that she is dancing in the great beyond.”

Over early morning coffee yesterday, Uqualla shared his thoughts on his indigenous perspective of the passage that occurs with death which I now offer to you.

The passing or journey returning home at death, is viewed as a powerful transitioning of all that is associated—the relatives, the environment. In the pre-Western tribal world each person had an economic and spiritual role that were part of survival of the tribe as a whole. So in the ceremonial honoring of the journeyer (one who has departed), the fabric of society is rewoven and hearts begin to heal.

“The person that is passing is at the level of spirit and has the ability to communicate with spirit. They understand that now permission is given for them to return home to spirit and go further in their journey. They are given the gift of illumination and clarity.”

For the survivors, grief is understandable. Uqualla believes extended mourning is not the wish of the journeyer, but they will remain with us for as long as we need them. However, “their wish on passing is for us to have the best of blessings as our life goes on. At the moment of passing, take this gift and use it. For many it is difficult to accept they are blessing us from spirit.”

“We tend to feel devastated. In the passing we are overwhelmed with the totality of our human responsibility. Beyond our sense of loss there is deep despair how one is to survive. Allow for fulfillment, empowerment, strength and beauty of heart to be a prominent part of day to day existence in this physical reality. It is not for us to know what happens in passage, but just to realize the one who has crossed over is in intimacy with spirit.” He advises, “Allow a time of quiet, but know that you still have the ability to be of this consciousness.”

Uqualla emphasizes, “Medicine beings have always known that passage allowed for the ultimate gift to survivors by taking their place. We in today's world are very behind in this understanding and we simply promote finality. This is not the way of one moving on who is beginning a whole new life. Spirit chose the one who is passing through. This is a symbol of sacrifice. This person has done all they they could in sharing, teaching in times of people’s evolution.”

“In the indigenous way, we accept nurturing, embrace, protection, songs and gestures as we cannot in physical quite comprehend the ethereal. In these ways we acknowledge presence of Spirit and allow for expression of the love we feel for the departed one.”

In his Havasupai tradition, Uqualla says, “we begin at sunset which is the transition time into night. We awaken the love, the strengths, the beauties of all as through the night we sing songs and ceremonial orators speak. We become translators of spirit through our ceremony allowing for our respect and love thoughout. Survivors are held in gentle embrace. At dawn the last of the songs are sung completely allowing for the journeyer to leave. In our hearts we have said to our departed one: we will be alright.” In past times this went many days, not just one night. “But still to this day the gesture of our ceremonial responsibilities helps with healings and strengthens all.”

“Crying, releasing, letting go, death, rebirth, death is a core part of existence of all. Just as with the simple act of breathing in and out, you bring in the new and let go of the old. We need to bring these things into our consciousness and say thank you, I love you, I miss you. Time is a great healer. Quiet helps promote healing as we connect with the essence of vibrations around us knowing we are connected to all of life. Spirit is present in all life forms and a constant watcher of all. Honoring this allows us to better understand.”

The biggest challenge for society is to understand why a very young person is taken or to come to terms with loss of loved ones taken by violence or natural disaster. Uqualla expresses with deep empathy the voice of Spirit saying, “I love you too much and call you home.” A sudden unexpected loss such as this, he says, “reminds us that we each need to express all we can in our life not knowing when our time is there.”

“Our role is to free ourselves. To give permission to ourselves to better heal and grow. As we bring our self into a better place, we also honor our departed and help fulfill their blessing to us to be the better reflections of spirit. Our lives are meant to be a teaching tool, an illuminator. We have to grow from loss in a positive way. We are always going to be in search of answers. But if we take a situation and have a positive focus, we are doing the work of spirit.”

All photos above were taken by Sandra Cosentino at a dawn ceremony at the Grand Canyon led by Uqualla along with members of his tribe in January, 2010 to honor the Arizona gathering of the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers.

posted April 14, 2010 �

Hopi Poetry, First Mesa Essay, and Images

2006-02-22T17:03:00.007-07:00

clifftop Walpi, built around 1300

Poems of Faron Sulu
Faron Sulu, Namingha is his Hopi name (which means Little Corn), is of Tewa descent living at First Mesa on Hopi lands. He enjoys sharing his reflections on Hopi and life.

Listen

There is the distant drum
Echoing along the mesa edge.
The dancer will be coming.
The life of the Hopi;
with their prayer and their songs.

Along comes "Namingha."
A part of way that Hopi is.
In the kiva the dancers line,
their heart beat-beating
in time with the drums.

"Namingha" comes with songs.
No question - no answers.
Only my rhythm that plays
along with the darkness and the "stars" in the night.
Tomorrow still holds another day
that only time and God can unfold.

Cliffs

Across I stand and see
Faces of mesa cliffs
Each face has their own song
They sing in turn
Loloma* they sing
Qua-qua* they sing
All is one.

*loloma means good
*qua-qua is male way of saying thank you


buffalo dancer pencil drawing

Horizon

Run my daughter
Run my son
Go and run across the vastness of Mother Earth
run beneath the vastness of Mother Earth
Go and bless Her and Him

For another new day
Be one with you
Be one with Yours

Old One

At dawn he makes way down mesa cliffs
At dusk he makes way up mesa step
Morning take him to his destination
We children frolic along mesa tops
Evening brings him up mesa steps
Loloma he sings
Qua-Qua he sings
It's good to be alive

pencil drawing of Hummingbird Katsina
on top of a kiva

Not flesh of my flesh
Nor bone of my bone
But still miracuously my own
Never forget for a single minute
You didn't grow under my heart
But in it.

Essay:

Fall View from First Mesa

By Sandra Cosentino

A sun shimmering day stretches before me in the vastness of high desert that is Hopi land. More than 80 miles away, yet clearly dominating the horizon at almost 13,000 feet in height, are the San Franciso Peaks which the Hopi call Nukatakaovi. This is the sacred homeland of their helper spirits, the Katsinas. The deep blue basalt flow of Mt. Eldon, a companion peak reaching 10,000 feet, represents an ear of corn laying down next to the high Holy Peaks. Floating mirage-like, distant, they compell the eyes to notice.

San Francisco Peaks 80 miles distant from Hopi.

Dust devil, swirling track of wind, ripples the calm surface of this sandy xeriscape with its tan color dotted with scattered green splotches of the small, scraggly shrubs and widely spaced junipers. A harsh landscape--most people would observe--with no flowing water, yet a promised land to the devout Hopis still growing corn here in the sand after more than 1,000 years.

Cloud shadows sporadically dot the land--cumulus stair steps of precious moisture hang scattered over the Hopi buttes and mesas. Birthed from the distant sacred peaks now covered with a moist umbrella breathing out white clouds that seem to wing out from the center.

A flat-topped line of mesas rise above the desert plain etched with sheer cliff edges. Wind, cooled now by fall, presses against my skin, carrying bits of sand, cools the hot glare of sun on rocky cliff. Soaring ravens are a constant companion of these mesa tops; they startle you as pop up over the edge seemingly out of nowhere. Wind-riding masters and master tricksters, ravens love letting us humans know they are observing us (or is it mocking us?).

I look out toward old Walpi sitting on a sheer edged peninsula of white sandstone across its narrow neck of a land bridge and feel a quiet so deep. Mud plastered buildings rise up and seem to be formed from the cliff itself. They speak of a long ago time. I too feel an inner quiet that seems to connect me to a sense of a life way that allows its inhabitants time to be in the flow of each moment. So unlike our disjointed modern world life way with our body in one place, our mind cranking forward, nerves on alert waiting to breath. No time.

But today for me is timeless, yet another gift of being here in this land of the Hopi.

Hopi heirloom corn, dry-farmed. Photo by Sandra Cosentino.

Written Feb. 22, 2006 based on notes from previous fall I made while quietly sitting alone deeply observing and just being. As I sat there, Faron came by and gifted me with his poems to share with you. Asquali (female way to say thank you.)