05/31/2025
A message from our Founder- Vernon Masayesva
"Sípàapu in the Grand Canyon"
Thank you for the opportunity to share with you my knowledge about the significance of the Grand Canyon and Sípáapu. I appeal to you to join a coalition I am forming to help Hopis protect and save Sípáapu. I am sharing with you a passage from a book: “Blackfoot Physics” by F. David Peat.
“As you sit with Native People, walk in nature, and spend time at sacred sites, an actual consciousness transformation occurs. For a time at least, you can begin to hear, see, feel, touch, and taste the world in a profoundly different way; you can think and perceive with a different mind so that your ego can, temporarily at least, blend into that of other people. If you happen to hold that human consciousness is no more than the epiphenomenon, or secretion, of our individual brains, then you are more or less trapped in your own skull. But if consciousness is open, it can partake in a global form of being; then, indeed, it may be possible to drop, for a time, the constraints of one’s personal worldview and see reality through the eyes of others.
Thus, it may be that, for a few moments, or hours, or even days, we can enter into the heart, head, and body of another culture. We will always return to our own world, for that is where our roots lie. Nevertheless, on our reentry, we may be changed in some subtle yet important way. And, sometimes, when we spend time living within that other culture, we are able to look back upon our own world and see it through alien eyes, appreciate its limitations as well as its beauty and attraction.”
Sípáapu is the heart of our Earth Mother. It is fed by the Little Colorado River (LCR) and hundreds of springs that seep out of the most extensive canyon walls. The largest of these is Sakwava, meaning Blue Springs, and its source is the groundwater under Black Mesa, where the most extensive coal strip mining has diminished the water.
A Hopi elder who visited Sípáapu said the water inside is beginning to dry up. Water no longer rises in and out. The heart and breath of our Mother is weakening, he said. He was concerned about the impact on our religious tradition and Hopi civilization if Sípáapu dies.
One reason Sípáapu is dying is that over 300 private land owners, utility companies, county governments, and the State of Arizona are trapping ground and surface waters that feed into Sípáapu.
Recently, the Arizona Court denied Hopi water rights to LCR for beneficial uses on the Hopi Reservation. One of the reasons is when the Hopi Tribal Council accepted $5 million forced on them by the U.S. Government. By accepting the Hopi Land Claims settlement in 1976, the Council extinguished Hopi's aboriginal title to LCR. There is solid proof that the federal government committed fraud and denied Hopi due process rights, Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (1978) and other federal laws that protect our right to carry on our religion. Arizona court decisions and Land Claims Settlement violated our right to practice our religion. These are acts of cultural genocide.
The majority of Hopi traditional and religious practitioners from twelve (12) independent villages are on record opposing the $5 million Settlement. Undoing the settlement without Congressional action will be impossible, but other avenues are open.
One way is to pressure the federal government to designate Sípáapu as a protected, traditional cultural place and set up an LCR management and monitoring program just as the federal government did with Glen Canyon Dam.
Masayesva said, “Sípàapu, the holiest of Hopi religious shrines, must be protected in these water rights decisions. Sípàapu, the Hopi people call the place of Emergence, from the Third to the present, Fourth world, is an integral part of the Little Colorado River system. It is central to Hopi religion. It is our Mecca, a repository of our history and memories. It is our Jerusalem. It is our Vatican. It is as important as Mecca is to people of the Islamic and Jewish faith. Just as important as the Vatican is to people of the Catholic faith. When the great Cathedral at Notre Dame burned, millions of dollars poured in overnight to rebuild the Cathedral. Our religious elders have made pilgrimages to the sacred site for thousands of years. If Sípáapu perishes, no amount of money will bring it back. It is very sad and disturbing that the Arizona Court system, perhaps unintentionally, violated our constitutional right to practice our religion and protect our sacred and cultural heritage and rights."
Please consider donating to help our cause to preserve our cultural birthright and protect our holy place of Sipaapu.
For more information, visit: http://www.sipaapu.org
https://sipaapu.org/public_html/?page_id=46
https://www.earthlawportal.org/indigenous-circle-items/declaration-black-mesa-trust-proclamation-to-protect-and-preserve-sipaapu
https://ecojurisprudence.org/initiatives/proclamation-to-preserve-and-protect-sipaapu/
Mail your tax-deductible donation to:
Black Mesa Trust
P.O. Box 33
Kykotsmovi, Arizona 86039
Please make a donation in any amount today!
Kwak kwa - Thank you,
Vernon Masayesva
Executive Director and Founder of Black Mesa Trust
