Hopi predictions describe Earth shaking and life becoming ruptured as non-Indigenous nations arrive. Record-breaking heat, reduced snowpack, and low moisture in the West are presented as signs of long-standing warnings. Pisisvayu, the Colorado River, is described as blocked by Glen Canyon Dam, stagnating in Lake Powell, baking, smothering sacred sites, and leaking into development projects in St. George. Three Arizona dams are said to hold water on the land via Pisisvayu. Hopi water stewardship is framed as a covenant with the Creator. Hopi practices include hauling water to mesas, dry farming that depends on rain cycles and snowpack, and ranching methods that reduce land damage, including rounding up cattle on horseback or on foot when injuries prevent riding.
"Hopi has many predictions in our culture - one of them being that the coming of non-Indigenous nations would make the Earth shake and life become ruptured. Many settlers are familiar with this concept from the 1982 film Koyaanisqatsi (the Hopi word for "life out of balance"), which contrasts increasing industrialization with the sandstone of our lands. The record-breaking heat dome and lack of snowpack and moisture in the West this spring are signs of what our elders and ancestors have been warning us about for generations."
"Pisisvayu, otherwise known as the Colorado River, sits blocked by pah'uutsi (Glen Canyon Dam) like stagnant blood, baking into Lake Powell, smothering our sacred sites and leaking into development projects in St. George, terminating long before her historical journey to paatuwaqatsi, or the Sea of Cortez. This is but one of three dams in Arizona that were built to hold water on the land via Pisisvayu. But we remember a different time, when water was treated like family. The Hopi people have a covenant with the Creator to steward water as well as the land."
"The Hopi hauled water to our mesas and made long journeys up steep hills, carrying this lifeforce with us for our ceremonies and into our homes for generations prior to colonization. We are dry farmers; for the past 60 years, I have grown food to feed my family in the small reservation square in northern Arizona that the federal government carved out of Hopitutskwa, our traditional lands. In addition to dry farming, in which we rely exclusively on rain cycles and snowpack for our crops, I have been ranching for decades, and I use wood to heat my home, so I am no stranger to the challenges of living off the land."
"Rounding up cattle on horseback rather than using an all-terrain vehicle mitigates severe damage to the land and to the vegetation. Sometimes I cannot get on a horse due to injuries I sustained while serving our country in the military, so I round up cattle on foot. This is par"
#hopi-teachings #water-stewardship #colorado-river-dams #climate-disruption #dry-farming-and-ranching
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