HOPI LEGEND. DK
Appendix A
This is an excerpt from an ancient Hopi legend, as quoted in a talk given by Lee Brown in 1986 by the Continental Indigenous Council at the Tanana Valley Fairgrounds, Fairbanks, Alaska.
"There was the cycle of the mineral, the rock. There was the cycle of the plant. And now we're in the cycle of the animal* coming to the end of that and beginning the cycle of the human being. When we get into the cycle of the human being, the highest and greatest powers that we have will be released to us. They will be released from that light or soul that we carry to the mind.
But right now we're coming to the end of the animal cycle and we have investigated ourselves and learned what it is to be like an animal on this earth.
At the beginning of this cycle of time, long ago, the Great Spirit came down and He made an appearance and He gathered the peoples of this earth together they say on an island which is now beneath the water and He said to the human beings, "I'm going to send you to four directions and over time I'm going to change you to four colors, but I'm going to give you some teachings and you will call these the Original Teachings and when you come back together with each other you will share these so that you can live and have peace on earth, and a great civilization will come about." And he said "During the cycle of time I'm going to give each of you two stone tablets. When I give you those stone tablets, don't cast those upon the ground. If any of the brothers and sisters of the four directions and the four colors cast their tablets on the ground, not only, will human beings have a hard time, but almost the earth itself will die."
And so he gave each of us a responsibility and we call that the Guardianship.
To the Indian people, the red people, he gave the Guardianship of the earth. We were to learn during this cycle of time the teachings of the earth, the plants that grow from the earth, the foods that you can eat, and the herbs that are healing so that when we came back together with the other brothers and sisters we could share this knowledge with them. Something good was to happen on the earth.
To the South, he gave the yellow race of people the Guardianship of the wind. They were to learn about the sky and breathing and how to take that within ourselves for spiritual advancement. They were to share that with us at this time.
To the East He gave the black race of people the Guardianship of the water. They were to learn the teachings of the water which is the chief of the elements, being the most humble and the most powerful. When I went to the University of Washington and I learned that it was a black man that discovered blood plasma, it didn't surprise me because blood is water and the elders already told me the black people would bring the teachings of the water.
To the North He gave the white race of people the Guardianship of the fire. If you look at the center of many of the things they do you will find the fire. They say a light bulb is the white man's fire. If you look at the center of a car you will find a spark. If you look at the center of the airplane and the train you will find the fire. The fire consumes, and also moves. This is why it was the white brothers and sisters who began to move upon the face of the earth and reunite us as a human family.
And so a long time passed, and the Great Spirit gave each of the four races two stone tablets. Ours are kept at the Hopi Reservation in Arizona at Four Corners Area. I talked to people from the black race and their stone tablets are at the foot of Mount Kenya. They are kept by the Kukuyu Tribe. I once had the honor of presenting a sacred pipe at the Kukuyu Tribe carved from the red pipe stone of Mount Kenya. I was at an Indian spiritual years ago. A medicine man from South Dakota put a beaded medicine wheel in the middle of the gathering. It had the four colors from the four directions; He asked the people, "Where is this from?" They said, "Probably Montana, or South Dakota, maybe Saskatchewan." He said, "This is from Kenya." It was beaded just like ours, with the same color.
The stone tablets of the yellow race of people are kept by the Tibetans, in. If you went straight through the Hopi Reservation to the other side of the world, you would come out in Tibet. The Tibetan word for "sun" is the Hopi word for "moon" and the Hopi word for "sun" is the Tibetan word for "moon".
The guardians of the traditions of the people of Europe are the Swiss. In Switzerland, they still have a day when each family brings out its mask. They still know the colors of the families, they still know the symbols, some of them. I went to school with some people from Switzerland at the University of Washington and they shared this with me. Each of these four peoples happen to be people that live in the mountains."
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[Greywolf] I have learned, however that in addition to all of this, the Fifth Element (Spirit) has been given equally among us all, and no single race has exclusive understanding or mastery of it. Each of us tends to approach mastery of Spirit in a manner reflects the Guardianship given the people from whom we descend, and each is equally important to the application of Spirit... The White Man tends to be Firey, Energetic, and Quick to act in use of the Spirit; the Red Man is very Earthy, Steadfast and solid; the Black Man is Watery, Constant, Resourceful, and Flexible (though there are many Blacks in America who assume a more Firey aspect), and the Yellow Man is Airy, very Cerebral and focused upon using the power of Spirit through Inner Discipline. None of these approaches is superior to the others, nor can they be, if the Balance intended by the Great Spirit is to be achieved. ~Greywolf |