• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
- 1 of 9 -
BOOK REVIEW: “The Hopi Survival Kit”
 A Cultural/Religious Microcosm of the Macrocosm
By Leonard BurgA Centre for the World Religions
“The Hopi Survival Kit”,
By Thomas E. Mails,© 1997, Published by Welcome Rain,Distributed by Stewart, Tabori & Chan,A division of U.S. Media Holdings, Inc.,575 Broadway,New York, NY 10012.
Our survival as a planet depends on acknowledging the universal common roots that humankind shares, in spite of differences in culture and religion. The Hopi Indians knew this,and initiated a dialogue and collaboration which we can build on today, in the form of the book.
“The Hopi Survival Kit”. Its universal message graphically depicts the sacrifices made by the
 Hopi to deliver a message to the world, at the risk of their very survival as a people. We can all profit from their Live-and-let-live philosophy and the gift they have shared with us. We can useit to both reconcile and honor the sovereignty of diverse religions/cultures, while in the processdiscovering the universal roots that bind us together as humanity.
PART I
The Hopi are
an Indian nation located in the Northeast corner of Arizona who ―are
broadly known today as the peaceful people
‖. And, ―
outsiders living in a world beset withturmoil have often wondered how they achieved it. [Page 1
]‖
 The Hopi are renowned for having prophesized many of the catastrophic events takingplace in the world in the past 100 years. They see prophecy as part of a divine mission of ahumble peopl
e ―
who live by the Plan laid out by the spirit, Maasaw [a Hopi Redeemer], and
today hold the land in trust for him.‖
[154].The author sees this as a reason the Hopi have survived years of domination and control
stemming from having been ―discovered‖ by
the invaders and conquistadors who settled in what
is now called the United States. He says that because of their humility and ―
their abhorrence of 
 
- 2 of 9 -
materialistic living, we can begin to envision them as servants to whom the Creator will entrustHis sacre
d mission.‖
[48]Thomas E. Mails is one of the rare outsiders to have been entrusted with some of the sacred knowledge of the Hopi to share it with the world. Much of what he wrote came fromhis relationship with Dan Evehema, one of the great Hopi Elders who for half a century resistedthe efforts of the American government to assimilate the Hopi.Evehema shared with Mails details of a secret newsletter published by the Elders.
―Over 
an eleven year period, five of the elder Traditionalists wrote a newsletter to warn other Hopis
about the consequences of abandoning the secret.‖
[7] It was called,
―
Techqua Ikachi!
[Which]
Is the creed of the Hopi Traditionalists. In its English translation what it means is ‗blending with
the land and celebrating life
.‘‖
 Says Mails,
―Never get the idea that what I wrote is precisely what they said or what they
thought of it. It is
approximately
what they said and thought , supplemented with my ownthoughts and explanations and when I read it back to them , I modified it until they approved of 
it.‖
[341]
Mails is referring to Elders known as ―Traditionalists‖
--- the ones who fought to
 preserve the culture and resisted efforts by the ―Progressives‖ or ―Two
-
Hearted‖ to succumb to
assimilation into to American culture. The author thus dedicated the book,
―to all of the
Traditionalists who for nearly a thousand years preserved the message from the Creator that will
enable the planet and us to survive.‖
 Because of the wide influence and power of some of the most popular religions of theworld
 – 
i.e., Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism - the role of Traditionalindigenous cultures and religions in interfaith dialogue is often overlooked. Often they are seenas backward, primitive, outdated, etc. However, a closer look at their way of life and religionmay reveal a closer relationship to universal spiritual principles than believed by our moremodern conventional religions.A search for this common ground is at the core of a movement today of globally mindedInterfaith-conscious people; they desire to reconcile their differences with other religions andcultures without sacrificing their own integrity. Why? In order to address the threat to worldpeace posed by religious and ethnic wars and conflicts around the globe.
The Hopi Survival Kit book reveals
the Hopi as model “Live
-and-Let-
Live”
collaborators with a unique gift to share in this interfaith dialogue.
Said the Traditional
Hopi Elders, ―
there is only one Great Spirit, our maker, and
….
we, as His children, should beone happy family. But instead of equality, we practice caste systems and class struggles, glaringat each other in greed. Most religious groups boost their particular method of attainingperfection, while down grading and undermining others in order to govern territories and people
who wish to live in peace through their own inherent beliefs.‖
[321]
 
- 3 of 9 -
In spite of this philosophy, it is difficult for many to believe what they perceive as adying, decimated culture having anything useful to offer to those who are struggling to survivethe 21
st
Century. Did the army of hunters, traders, trappers, soldiers, government officials, White
anthropologists, etc. who ―invaded‖ HopiLand believe, ―that no people who lived as simply and
poorly as the Hopi could possibly offer anything worthwhile to the burgeoning outside world, let
alone a message of greatest magnitude?‖
[5]Because many of the Hopi themselves surrendered to the forces of colonialization andassimilation, the author raises the rhetorical question:
―Who wanted to pursue a religion that wasnot strong enough to overcome White people…could it be that the Hopi religion was a false onethat was a product of archaic superstition and legends?.‖
 In spite of the eventual control exerted by the United States government over the Hopi,
largely through the Bureau of Indian Affairs and it‘s handpicked ―Council‖, and the attempted
emasculation of their religion and culture, The Hopi Traditionalists have prevailed, though muchless in number. They have sacrificed themselves in order to share a universal message that weall can rally around and delve more into as focal point of interfaith dialogue. At every turn theysaw themselves thwarted by the White invaders and their hand picked Hopi allies. The authorconveys the feeling that
―the basic motive of the Two
-Hearteds and the forces of evil has been tokeep you and me from obtaining and implementing the great message needed to save ourselves
and the planet.‖
[129]The question is, what was their message and what universal principles inherent in it areuseful to interfaith dialogue and collaboration? The book outlines:An original covenant given to the Hopi by their Redeemer, Maasaw;
His laying out of a ―Pattern of Life‖ to follow to live in
peace and harmony withthe divine;Prophecy of events that would threaten that way of life; andInstructions and warnings on how to avoid the impending catastrophe.The Hopi Survival Kit shares the details of this roadmap and how, along the way, theHopi Traditionalists had to battle and overcome evil forces in order to bring this universalmessage to the world.
Maasaw
 – 
Hopi Redeemer
―Maasaw is the Savior of the Hopi, just as Jesus Christ is the Savior of the ChristianWorld.‖
[138] (His name is alternately spelled
MAASAW, MASAW, MASSAU, MAASAU‘U
).
Maasaw told the Hopi that, ―He would take over the control of the world at the end of theFourth cycle.‖
(
The Hopi identified four main cycles of existence, ―They normally illustrate this
as a circle th
at is divided like a pie chart into four equal parts.‖
) [25]
―As a Helper Spirit serving the Creator, his assigned task is to be the Guardian of theearth.― He will take ―full control as the fifth Cycle of the world begins.‖
[After the climax of prophesized calamities befalling the planet] [137]
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...