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| Reservation Highway - Indian Route 16 |
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| Old Oraibi, Arizona - Third Mesa |
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| Prophesy Rock of Old Oraibi |
"Long before Pahana, the white man,
ever set foot in the Americas,
long before the hegemony of the red race
had been challenged by light-skinned people
as the prophecies told us it would,
a spot in the immensity of the desert,
a center of Spiritual power,
was Hopi.
The land of the peaceful ones."from Meditations with the Hopi, by Robert Boissiere I recently visited Old Oraibi, Arizona, a settlement continuously inhabited since 1100 A.D. and in one of the most inhospitable places in America. It is the center of traditional Hopi culture, a culture of simplicity, balance, gratitude and hope. The Hopi are also very private people who value humility and ways in which one can survive in harmony with nature. Through the centuries they have followed their prophecies and survived.
Their communities are small and compact located on flat topped mountains and surrounded by the Navajo nation. The day I drove through, the sky was a brilliant blue until storm clouds moved through the area and then the Black Mesa transformed into a churning mass of slate clouds and vast, changing horizons.
Over my lifetime the Arizona skies and horizons have influenced me. Any space, uncluttered, filled with light and texture is comfortable and familiar. Any space which gives me perspective, that shows enduring beauty, exposes the patterns of time, and showcases the tenacity of human beings is a truthful place. I feel that truth on the Mesa.
May all beings know love and peace.
