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Closure to the Hiroshima Peace Flame Walk 2002: Traditional Dineh and Hopis Come Together for Peace On Earth
By Bahe Y. Katenay, Big Mountain Dineh Activist (July 2002)
[Author's Note: The names
of individual participants were withheld in order to protect identity for fear
of possible harassment and intimidations. Please, Post or Forward this info
to friends and group/organizations
interested. Thanks, BYK]
Background
Upper Big Mountain/Owl
Springs, AZ On Memorial Day of 2002 at a lone traditional Dineh resistor's land,
nearly a hundred people gathered to welcome the Hiroshima Peace Flame for its
closing ceremonies on Dineh and Pueblo lands. This special Flame has made its
way around Europe and Mexico in previous Peace Walks. This year a Peace Walk
began bearing this Flame of Peace in January from Seattle near the site of Chief
Seattle's grave and monument. The Peace Walk ended on the east coast in front
of the United
Nations Headquarters in New York City in mid-May.
The last stage and its
conclusion was based on an American indigenous idea of returning a portion of
the Hiroshima Flame back to "where it came from" which was the Four
Corners region of the southwest US, land of the Dineh and Pueblos. It is believed
that at least one third of the plutonium produced to make the atomic bombs used
on Japan came from the uranium ore of Dineh country. The Flame, instead, came
to the coal mining areas of Black Mesa. Black Mesa coal exploration has been
active since the 1960s and has become
controversial because the local tribal governments and the coal companies' leasing
negotiations were tied to the Indian Removal Act of 1974.
Endeavors to make Peace and bring Justice between America's energy needs versus
traditional indigenous culture and religion is very much needed, and there is
no other alternatives to create peace or justice. That was why, again, traditional
Dineh and Hopis were called upon to join Xicano, White, Asian and African peace
activists at the frontlines of the Peabody Western Coal Company's strip-mining
expansions.
The US government's Bureau
of Indian Affairs (BIA) supported tribal agency like the BIA-Hopi Law Enforcement
police have been strongly restricting any form of activities like protests or
religious gatherings in an area outlined by the Federal Mediator in 1977, as
result of the 1974 Navajo-Hopi Removal Act. This area was recognized, during
the 1960s, by the US government as the Joint-Use Area (JUA) for both Dineh and
Hopis until powerful utility companies lobbied Congress to partition the area.
To this day, the
questions as to why multinational corporation got involved in a Indian Land
Rights issues is "far beyond" the coal company and the BIA's explanations.
However, the partitioning and Indian relocation policies were passed with the
vigorous efforts from coal company attorneys and corporate lobbyist who all
claimed of a "(Navajo) and Hopi range-war with some casualties involved.
What Congress didn't care to hear was the traditional Dineh and Hopi claims
that the "range war" scenario was fabricated in order to remove indigenous
population so that coal mining leases can be expanded and to tap into a massive
pristine aquifer. "Gold was Struck" in the form of electrical energy
which, exponentially, would fuel the American economic growth for the southwestern
states, and again, despite major government and corporate denial, indigenous
culture and religion will have to be sacrifice in the name of American capitalism.
Circle of Peace Activists in a Sagebrush Meadow next to the Coal Mine Lease Boundary
Memorial Day, a "holiday,"
was not only a time for 'heavy alcohol drinking binges,' (a tradition among
mainstream America) in honor of remembering past love ones, but it also became
a convenient time for the Flame Ceremony to be conducted without interruptions
from the BIA's corporate harassment and
intimidation agency. If this ceremony would have been announced in a normal
call of agenda, the corporate BIA-Hopi Police would have begun monitoring the
designated area. The designated area was on the land of an elder resistor to
the Federal Relocation Program and this elder resistor lived adjacent to the
coal mine lease boundary. This area is prohibited from any form of "unauthorized
gathering for religious or other political protest purposes" as outlined
by the BIA-Hopi Tribal Ordinances. "Violators" will be arrested and
prosecuted and will be jailed, fined and depending of residential status, be
excluded from the area. So, Thanks to Creator's Blessing!, this Memorial Day
over 50 beautiful colored human beings from
different ethnic backgrounds "without authorization trespassed" and
gathered to pray for peace along with local traditional Hopi and Dineh elders
and their families.
Many Peace Flame Walkers
who could not make it to this event held their own prayer vigil at home or in
groups. In Japan, there were several places that held pre-sunrise gatherings
to coincide with the Flame Ceremony on Black Mesa, and other former walkers
throughout Turtle Island (US) send words of
solidarity and that, they would do prayers on the moment the ceremony would
begin. It was a clear warm day on May 27th and at 1100 AM the Hiroshima Peace
Flame arrived with a seven car caravan from Flagstaff where Walkers from New
York, Washington D.C., New Mexico, and Oregon had spend the
night, and a few others came in the evening before directly to the Elder's home
from Colorado.
According to the Elder
resistor's direction, the short walk began in an easterly direction from her
resident toward a sagebrush meadow that was about a one mile walk. All the walkers
with their previous experience
didn't need to be told to prepare. As the Buddhist prayer drums started to beat,
everyone was ready with their hats, sunscreen and water bottles and everyone
followed the Flame Carrier down a wide sheep trail that crossed a large arroyo.
The dry and dusty trail led the pilgrimage up a small rise and through a small
juniper-pinon pine wooded area and finally, out into a series of wide sagebrush
meadows. The walk turned off from the trail into the sage bushes until the line
of walkers began circling until a full circle was made, and the walking stopped
when the Flame Carrier and the Buddhist Nun stood on the eastside of the circle.
The drumming and the chanting of Nym Myo Ho Ren Gey Kyo continued until the
Nun signaled with a beat and
drumming stopped. Then, with palms together Walkers made three chants and bows
to each other and ending with a Domoaigotto Gozhimasda (Thank You Very Much).
An Indigenous Way of Religious Approach in Conducting Ceremonies
For the purpose of traditional
Dineh religion, the reasons for and the way to conduct the ceremony were discussed
days before. The Elder resistor host seek advice from a medicine woman, another
fellow resistor, about the issue of "extinguishing the Flame." Also,
the Dineh activist/coordinator consulted with a knowledgeable local Elder man
about ways ceremonies are conducted where extinguishing a fire or flames are
involved. First to both Elders, it was explained by the Dineh coordinator and
Sun Dancer as to how it might be done: in the process of extinguishing the flame
that no Human Breath should be used since modern day breath lack innocents.
Perhaps, water can be used but it will have to water that is from a natural
spring and must not have been drawn up by steel pipes, and also, that the traditional
cup be used as
opposed to a manufactured cup.
The Elder man referred
to one particular ceremony among the Dineh which is a healing sweat that is
done in a regular hogan. Here, the flames and coals used from the miniature
bonfire is extinguished with special mixture of herbs and water with a bundle
of feathers from an eagle's wings. An idea and method from this Way can be used,
perhaps. The Elder resistor host said the medicine woman advised not to extinguish
the Flame because the resistance at Big Mountain is considered as the Continuous
Flame of Hope. In the late
1970s when the resistance began, the resistors at the time said, "We have
lid a new fire, and it is this Fire which will give us hope to remain on our
ancestral lands." So, no water will be poured on the hot embers to
extinguished it but let nature takes its natural process. The hot embers from
the Hiroshima Flame will cooled into fine ashes and the Earth will cool-off
the fireplace gradually. However, as in all indigenous ceremonies
of the western hemisphere, water and eagle feathers will be used in this ceremony
to blessed the Walkers, other participants, the Flame, and the Land.
The Peace Flame "Returns to the Land Where It was Born"
At the circle, a Japanese
Walker delegate spoke about the legacy of the Peace Flame, and about the wishes
of the Walkers and Survivors of the Atomic Bombs. The Walker delegate reiterated
that we all share a common goal which is that the only solution to the environmental,
cultural and war devastations is Global Peace, and that humanity must not return
to events like Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Buddhist Nun moved into the middle
of the circle to conduct a special prayer for peace in the Buddhist tradition
and when she was completing the chants, the Peace Flame was transferred from
the lantern with a sagebrush twig to the woods already stacked for the ceremonial
fire. The fire wood was gathered without the use of any kind of
metal tools and it consisted of woods from the greasewood bush, sagebrush bush,
pinon-pine tree and the juniper tree. This was to represent the Four Corners
of the Universe as well as the Four Colors of Humanity. The ceremonial fire
ignited immediately and the Peace Flame lantern was turned off and put aside,
and now, it was the Dineh peoples' moment to conclude the Peace Flame Walk Ceremony.
"Yaa'at'eeh! Konnichiwa!
We all rely on the Sacred Fire for many purposes like It prepares our food,
It illuminates when it gets dark, It keeps us warm when it gets cold, and It
also gives us the ceremonial ways to heal ourselves or to pray and give Thanks.
Today, our relatives from across the great western ocean has come to ask for
our help on returning this special Flame to these lands of the Dineh and Pueblos.
As you know, we have seen or heard that our Indian peoples have suffered and
are still suffering from
the uranium, some that was used to fuel the atomic bombs that were dropped on
these Japanese peoples' relatives. Here, throughout Big Mountain we are suffering
today because of what the government and its corporation want from the Earth,
which is coal. Because of the coal mining, they are taking the
most precious thing that moistens Mother Earth, the deep aquifer, and we all
know that is why the Rain Gods do not return to our lands anymore. So, let us
today, pray for a time --an ancient time long passed when our Peoples went to
the Holy places to make offerings to the Sacred Springs, maybe so that, the
ground under our feet may cool down. And with this Flame, we have built a fire
and we shall now pray to it as it is our ceremonial fire. We will use the cedar
to carry our prayers skyward. With the Feathers, we will use it to bless the
natural spring water. Finally, we all, as Peoples of Many Colors, will partake
of this Holy Water to remember the days of August 1945 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
and to further remember that we shall
succeed, here at Big Mountain, with our efforts for peace and balance on Mother
Earth. I ask you, my traditional Dineh --you who still have the great knowledge
of understanding the ancient ways of giving blessings, to help myself and the
rest of our relations here, today. Furthermore, I asked a relative, that is
with us, to direct this blessing ceremony whereas, I lack the procedural knowledge
of conducting it. Thank You, for listening and being here. From the bottom of
my heart, I wish to express my happiness
and appreciation to see many of you here."The
traditional Dineh (Roadman) for the Peyote Way of Worship, asked to make a separate
pile of hot embers so that, he can begin the ceremony and administer cedar smoke
to bless the natural spring water. He prayed to the Creator that blessings be
given to all and for forgiveness because many of our Dineh relations have relocated
which has resulted in abandoning the sacred springs where the Deities still
await offerings. Prayers were made for all that have walked across this continent
in the past winter and spring, and Thanksgiving for the blessings and protection
that Great Spirits provided for the Peace Flame Walk. The traditional (Roadman)
prayed on behalf of all that are gathered here and for those who would not be
here that, the Holy Beings in all the directions receive the prayers from this
conclusion ceremony for the Peace Flame and that, it shall be provided that
the blessings of peace and healing be "upon us as everyone will partake
of the Sacred Spring Water." With graceful but simple jester and movements
of
one single, eagle tail feather, the Roadman blessed the pails of water. After
dipping the feather into the Holy Water and then, using a gentle tap-like motion,
he blessed the four directions, the Earth and the Sky.
With a separate dip of the feather into the water and using a circular motion
of subtle taps, blessings were send out in the direction of the gathered circle
of peoples. The Japanese spokespeople were, then, blessed with the water, and
another blessing for the Elder resistor who provided her land for this
conclusion ceremony.
He then instructed that
after the main delegates have partaken of the Holy Water, in the same order
the Walkers came starting with the Flame Carrier, the line shall proceed so
that each will partake and use this Water as they also pay homage to the Ceremonial
Fire. The coal mine was at a stand still due the holiday and there was no dust,
noise or exhaust rising from the mining areas. There was a little breeze as
small puffs of clouds casted brief shadows over the ceremony as the participants
very quietly and in meditation partook of this Sacred Water of Black Mesa. When
the Water Blessing ceremony was completed, the traditional Roadman requested
that the remaining and accumulated hot embers be shaped into an alter so, the
embers
were shaped into the symbol of Great Spirits' messenger, the Eagle. From thereon,
Earth shall cool off the embers in about another day or so. As the circle dispersed,
some returned to the hot ember Altar to sprinkled cedar on it and blessed themselves
more. Other Peace Walkers filled their canteens with the remaining Holy Water,
while some took one last look at what was part of the Hiroshima Peace Flame
of 2002.
Everyone took the mile
and half length walk back to the residence, and there, the cooks composed of
local folks and other supporters had prepared a great feast. There, much was
further exchanged like songs, laughter, hugs, joy, old stories, activism of
hope, and most of all, re-encouragements that all must continue to Save Black
Mesa/Big Mountain and the rest of the natural world. A traditional Hopi elder
spoke about prophecy and a need to understand all human prophecy so that our
directions can be well defined
though, at the moment, our efforts of resistance are at a stand still. The Hopi
Elder also shared his prayers for peace at the fire Altar. He stood before the
ember Altar as he sprinkle-poured a half handful of white
cornmeal powder near his lips as he prayed. (Hopi's main Offering Way of Praying
is much similar to the Dineh's Morning Dawn Prayer Way in which both use the
white cornmeal powder.) Dineh Elder resistors expressed their happiness that
they can still gather without interruptions and that, they are strengthen by
the show of support and the Peace Walkers. The celebration and the sharing of
hope went into the evening as some supporters and walkers camped out for the
night at the Elder resistor's home.
Nym-Myo Ho Ren Gey Kyo., To All Our Relations.
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