Maybe it’s my imagination, Maybe I had just been staring into the direction of the sun too long driving west. But I think it was more than that. It’s hard to explain. I felt a spiritual sense about it. A shadowing, if you will, as I drove through the desert Indian territories in New Mexico and Arizona.
Perhaps the spiritual perception I felt stemmed from the American Indian blood in me. It’s from my mother’s side. More about that another time.
American Indians are mythical … and mysterious. They are distinctively different, with over five-hundred tribes in North America. Organized as nations, pueblos, villages, bands and tribes. About half of the American Indian groups are in Alaska. The rest in 33 of the other states.
After leaving the Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico, I drove on to Arizona, through part of the Navajo reservation and across the Hopi tribal lands. Driving for hours over each of the reservations gave me a sense of the vastness of the Indian land in this part of America. Approximately two-percent of the United States, more than 50 million acres, is reservation land, according to the National Congress of American Indians.
The largest amount of land is held by the Navajo Nation; well over seventeen million acres. I was told by several Hopi that most ofthat was originally owned by the Hopi tribe. They are said to have arrived in North America much earlier than the Navajo. Hopi’s retain roughly two-and-a-half million acres today.
The Navajo’s are said to have a more aggressive warring history. Thus an explanation of why they occupy more land. The Hopi’s, according to what I was told by members of both tribes, are more peaceful. They have a live and let live attitude. Respect all things.
This attitude of peace is what I saw when I was around the Hopi. A spiritual approach to all things in life, with a deep respect for all forms on the earth, from the rocks to the animals. “We are all one, the earth, the animals, the rocks, the people,” I was told. We are to respect all.”
The Indian school system is quite good. English is well spoken.
Hopi Indian’s native tongue is of the Uto-Aztecan languages found in Mexico and parts of the United States. The language and traditions are still maintained by the core of the groups.
It is a struggle to hand on to those traditions. The modern world has taken many of all the tribes away from the base. Air conditioning in the desert is hard to not take advantage of, I was told by one tribe member.
But even in air conditioned houses with TV, most carry with them the traditions of their ancestors. A few maintain the primitive ways on the original lands. It is there I went to visit, to see these villages first hand. The attached video is a small part of the conversation I had with two proud Hopi members living in the oldest village.