2008-04-28 Hopi Nation 02

Hopi Nation, Arizona- We made plans to visit with some friends on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona. We traveled though the Navaho reservation and finally arrived at the smaller Hopi reservation within. After traveling through first and second mesa, we finally made it to third mesa, where Chris and Jessica live and work as school teachers. We hiked up to a nearby mesa and village, Old Oraivi (Old Orayvi). Oraivi is the location of an older Hopi village, one that split several years ago. There's an old Christian church that had been hit by lightening twice and many of the natives felt that was the sign of bad spirits. They split off, moving to a location off the mesa, where the village of Kykotsmovi is. Because the natives feel that a photograph will steal their spirit, I respected the culture and didn't take any photos, even though it was killing me not to shoot something so beautiful. On our way out to hike, we ran into a couple of local kids and they guided us up to the church and then showed us a different trail, along a ledge of the mesa, that was lined with pottery shards and ancient petroglyphs. The pottery shards had the most amazing patterns and had been there hundreds of years, scattered all along the trail. The kids told us that the Hopi are not allowed to touch them, it shows that they have been there. They have ALWAYS been there. We asked the kids about some of the petroglyphs and they responded with, "Oh, those are just some kachinas", very non-chalantly.