My mom lived in Polacca for a while. There was a time when there was supposed to be a "war" between the Navajos and the Hopis. Everyone was worried because of the hype in the news. Mom said the war consisted of nothing but people sitting down or standing around. I don't remember if she said they talked to each other, but there was not even a fistfight, let alone weapons.
(My mom's boyfriend was Tewa. She and he drove through where I lived (St. George) and stopped to say hi. I took a picture of them. Some years later, I showed someone the picture. They wanted to know if that was my dad. I don't look Native American, btw.)
My mom also told me a joke that the Hopis tell (she told me another but it's a bit racy, so I'll forbear). The story of how the Hopi and the Navajo got their names, Hopi version. Some white guy came upon two Indians (we called them that in the older days). One was working in a garden and the other one was just standing there. The guy asked the one working who he was. He thought he was being asked what he was doing. He said, "I hoe pea." "What about that man?" "Oh, he neve' hoe."
The church building was, I think, built when the church had the idea of "build it and they will come." There was a very small handful that went to church. I stayed there for a month. My mom and I were moving to southeastern AZ, and the month was our transition. It felt so strange to be in a building built for hundreds, but only twenty (if that many) were there.
We climbed up to Second Mesa, and Mom introduced me to a medicine woman there. Everything was magical about that area. I felt like I was living in a postcard. Mom's Hopi friends told her she was a reverse apple (an apple is a person who is red on the outside and white on the inside). They'd often lapse into Hopi while she was with them, say something to her, and when Mom didn't understand, they'd remember that she didn't speak Hopi.
I gotta tell this story (my brother told it at my mom's funeral, about 19 years ago). Someone thought my mom and her Tewa boyfriend were being immoral and tattled, so the bishop called Mom in. When she found out what she was being called in for, "she was immensely flattered" (to quote my brother).
My mom loved Indians/Native Americans and made friends with them anytime there were some to make friends with.
Gatorbait wrote: ↑Mon May 01, 2017 3:12 pm
Well, I must say, I struggle to see how this could have much truth to it. Does not make sense.
For one who has lived on the Hopi reservation and done work for and with the Hopis and the Tewas in Arizona for years this story sounds strange indeed. They are and have been a peace loving people for over a thousand years, building their homes on the tops of Mesas so that the marauding Navajos and Utes would not be able to attack them and steal their women and children. They still dislike Navajos and Utes. When I visited a few months ago, I did not see many changes from when I lived there many years ago. They love peace not battle.
The Hopis were not fighters. They didn't embrace the Mormon faith, although they are a very spiritual people, gracious, kind and intelligent. There is one small LDS branch in Polaca, Arizona and the inactivity rate is high. They don't even have missionaries there to teach, just service missionaries.
Laying down weapons of war? What war? Tell me one Hopi war. One.
Nope, I don't believe this ever happened. Goes nicely with a lot of the stories in the Church. They might be interesting....but it does not mean that they are true.