This article was written in the Eighties for the Maine chapter of Clergy and laity Concerned newsletter.
REFLECTIONS ON THE STRUGGLES OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN BIG MOUNTAIN
by Roberto Mendoza
The struggle of Indigenous people at Big Mountain in Arizona to resist forced relocation from their land has deeper significance than even repeal of Public Law 95-351. There are profound issues underlying their struggle to remain on their land and to maintain their traditional way of life–issues that are relevant to all people.
Native people have a name for this continent: we call it “Turtle Island”. The bones of our ancestors lie buried here for countless generations. Our legends and oral histories go back to time immemorial. We have our sacred places on this land, and the spiritual center of this continent is where the Hopi and Dineh (Navajo) people live.
The traditional Hopi people, following their ancient Prophesy, have been waiting patiently for Bahana, the True White Brother/Sister, who would join them in taking care of this, our Mother Earth, and in living in harmony and respect for her. This path of peace, (Hopi means ‘Peaceful People’), of acknowledging the sacredness of Land and Life, is the only way that non-Indians will stop being rootless, alienated occupiers who have wandered far from the graves of their ancestors. To become truly indigenous to this land, non-Indians will have to develop a loving and sacred relationship to this earth, hidden under their cities and concrete highways.
Native people have accepted their responsibility to be stewards of this land long ago. The traditional people in the Dineh and Hopi nations are trying to tell all North American people, through their words and actions–the way to a future of harmony and peace among the world’s peoples and the Natural World.
The traditional Dineh and Hopi are struggling to keep their way of life. A Way of Life is more than just a livelihood: it is a holistic, sustainable way of living that is economically, politically and culturally self-reliant. It depends on staying in harmony and balance with their environment and their natural resources. The traditional Dineh way of life is based on herding sheep for wool and meat; trading with the Hopi for corn and squash; listening to their elders; and daily earth-centered prayers to the Great Spirit. Most non-Indians have a livelihood, which usually consists of working at an alienating job, collecting a paycheck that is used to buy processed food, casting a vote every four years for smooth-talking politicians that they only see on TV, and sometimes sitting in a church on Sunday.
The way of life of the Dineh/Hopi people does not depend on ripping up the earth (they want to leave the coal and uranium in the ground), dosing their land and animals with harmful chemicals, or colonizing and oppressing other people for their resources or cheap labor. Their low-energy, ecologically sound and sustainable way of life does not produce a National Security State, with an imperialist foreign policy, avaricious global corporations, and a far-flung military machine armed with weapons of mass destruction.
The Hopi prophecy speaks of a Gourd of Ashes, which if we allow it to fall, will “scorch the earth and cause the seas to boil”. This is a warning of the nuclear holocaust that may befall us if we do not turn away from what the great English social historian, E.P. Thompson, called: the “path of Exterminism”. Externimism is rooted in the dynamics of greed, cancerous industrialism and the domination and exploitation of peoples and nature.
The Dineh/Hopi people are showing us a path based on simple living, sustainable bioregional economics, decentralized politics and a spiritual culture that sees Land and Life as sacred. The values that underlie this way of life are generosity, cooperation, a balance between male and female roles, and respect and harmony with nature. The values that grow out of this way of relating to the earth and all living things, may be what we need to halt what Einstein called our “drift towards unparalleled catastrophe”.
The love of the sacred Mother Earth is not like the abstract Patriotism of military parades and flag waving politicians talking about the good old USA (which is no more real than lines on a map). Theirs is an earth-centered, deep-rooted ‘Matriotism’, which comes from a daily connection to the cycles of planting, harvesting and birthing, blessed by sun and rain.
Native people are asking for a more holistic awareness of what it means to struggle for peace and non-violence. We must understand that without justice among peoples and respect for the Earth, peace cannot sustain itself.
