The best example I can put out there is everyone has known a person who has passed away. Could be any number of relatives, friends, or acquaintances. This is a person you have known personally for quite some time and they passed due to any number of complications. You remember them talking to you and sometimes you would converse with this person on a daily basis, and maybe even for hours. Think of it as a time you had no way of recording them with a video or voice recorder, but you do have pictures of them. Then time passes and soon enough years pass.
Eight years pass and you run into particular situation where you are once again talking about the person that you lost. Then the question comes up, "What did this he/she sound like?"...And then it happens. You cannot remember the sound of their voice. It bugs you because you know how they sounded, but yet you still can't remember.
Don't worry, I have that same problem.
Now we come upon the reasoning for the above mentioned passage about memory loss and shortage, or even compensation.
May 3 1996, I was attending junior high school in Montezuma Creek, UT, a small desolate town located within the small Utah portion of the Navajo-Indian Reservation. I distinctly remember a feeling of uneasiness on that particular day, I cannot describe as to why I was feeling like so but the feeling was just there.
Little did I know that several miles away to the west of my little town in place called Rocky Ridge, AZ, two deities from Navajo tradition reportedly visited two Navajo women. The adult daughter had been living and caring for her elderly mother since her mother is blind and hard of hearing. In the early morning hours her mother told her about some people that were coming to visit them. Her daughter kept asking her mother who she was expecting.
Then they heard a sound come from outside their Hogan (Navajo Traditional Home) followed by a gust of wind that entered the home even while the door remained closed. Then the daughter walked outside and came upon two figures. They both had white hair, almost silver like, and one had white skin while they other had blue skin. One stood on the ground while the other hovered about. They talked to her and warned about the diminishing traditional ways of the Navajo and told her that if the Navajo people do not return to the old ways something terrible was to follow. Then they told her to spread the word of their visitation and their warnings to the people.
Word spread like wild fire about this incident.
Many ceremonial figures within the community reached out to the ladies and soon Navajo people were making pilgrimages to the sacred site. Not just by the handfuls, but by the hundreds. Navajo's who had relocated to places as far away as Alaska and Canada came back home to pray and leave offerings at the sacred site.
Word was also spread advising the Navajo people not to leak any information to the media, but soon enough local newspapers ran the story and then it spread again. This time into the nation. Deseret News and the Salt Lake Tribune ran articles, so as did the Denver Post and The Oregon times and so forth.
Then people started getting upset and frustrated with the coverage. The neighboring Hopi tribe began lashing out and condemning the account stating that it was a simple ruse by the few remaining Navajo residents on Hopi land. It just got worse. Even the Navajo's themselves began questioning the visitation as well.
Soon it was forgotten yet again. For them precious two months the Navajo people believed once again in themselves. That maybe the stories that some of us grew up listening to had some truth to it after all. Maybe there was something special about our beliefs as well. Maybe.
But maybe is not a certainty. We forgot.
It is true that the majority of Navajo people do not even know a quarter of their tradition and mythologies. And there are so many other stories of visitations that have came and went over the past decades but none was ever so popular as the Visitation in Rocky Ridge, AZ. Then Navajo Nation President Albert Hale even visited the site on horse back and declared May 17-24 to be spiritual unity week on the Navajo Nation. Hale himself was later accused of embezzling, fraud, and adultery.
There are other significant visitations that we should also know about.
In 1936, a young Navajo woman from Huerfano Mesa was visited by White Shell Woman. According to her White Shell Woman revealed and showed her a special way of conducting the Blessing Way ceremonies.
Also.
In late 1936 or early 1937, another Navajo woman reportedly also had a visitation with a Navajo deity, this time it was from Hadahoniye' ' Ashkii (Mirage Stone Boy) in Farmington, NM. She reported the deity as a small man about three feet tall and was extremely old. All of his clothing was of a rich, wine color. She also described seeing his skin as being different colors like that of the rocks near her home.
There seems to be a trend here, especially around the year 1936. But the most significant trend is that we have a tendency to forget such huge significant events in our culture, which is still a living culture. There is no one to blame here but our minds. Because it's our minds who erase and replace our memories with other things WE hold dear and significant.
Although, I think we have to blame ourselves, even if its just a little bit. We kept it a secret and warned not to spread the word and keep these momentous events among ourselves. Even though some say the messages were for all of mankind, so how could we try to keep it to ourselves. Furthermore, I would say that I would put a little more of the blame on the people who heard the stories first hand and seen the initial evidence of the visitations. People who know about something that could help and keep the people informed, but refuse to act.
Maybe I am just like them dogs that keep the all reservation stores occupied, hanging around hoping to be fed or taking home. But no one takes notices nor cares. So we just end up chasing our own tails.
Although, I think we have to blame ourselves, even if its just a little bit. We kept it a secret and warned not to spread the word and keep these momentous events among ourselves. Even though some say the messages were for all of mankind, so how could we try to keep it to ourselves. Furthermore, I would say that I would put a little more of the blame on the people who heard the stories first hand and seen the initial evidence of the visitations. People who know about something that could help and keep the people informed, but refuse to act.
Maybe I am just like them dogs that keep the all reservation stores occupied, hanging around hoping to be fed or taking home. But no one takes notices nor cares. So we just end up chasing our own tails.
The information regarding the last two visitations in 1936-37 came from the book:
Navajo lifeways: contemporary issues, ancient knowledge
By Maureen Trudelle Schwarz
Wow! I totally freaked out at the beging of your blog. About the old woman and her daughter and the two visiters. lol. An old woman who had adopted my mother (unsure how long she stayed with this woman)as a child was on her death bed and told her daughter that two women were coming to visit her. It was me and my mother. This was the first and last time I had met this grandmother. I remember her smile and warm hugs. Then I remember her eyes slowly closing, then we left. She had given my mother some things in her will, but my mother smiled and said that the old woman had given her enough and so she handed the beautiful jewlery back to her children and said you may do what you like with it. It's ok, if you pawn it for money, if it's money you need for your family.
ReplyDeletebeautiful story. after reading this I want to learn more about my culture. I never lived on the navajo reservation. I grew up all over the country and rarely visited the navajo rez. I remember my brief visits with my grandmother telling me to basically embrace our navajo culture because that's who I am. I never listened and asked myself "for what?" Now that I'm a little older I feel the need to learn more navajo culture so I can pass it onto my children one day. Whenever I visit my "family's" house around steamboat area I am always treated as an outcast because of the way I talk and not knowing anything about navajo ways. I hope I can change it.
ReplyDeleteCulture is important and its what helps reinforce values in our daily lives. I was once a mentor for troubled Native Amrican high school students in the city and the problem most faced was their identity. They felt as though they weren't accepted by their Native American side, especially if they were half breed. But its important to rememeber that there is always time to learn what you want about your culture and there are resources gallore to obtain it. It's hard to say but even some of those who pride themselves as Native American who were raised on reservations, still don't know much about their culture. Therefore, don't be too hard on yourself cause there are people already doing that for you.
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