Hi Pat,

I don't know how it got turned off, but I sure do appreciated you letting me know. I have 3 forums that I would never let go and be turned off.

The Ant People of the Hopi Native Americans

Posted: 20 Jun 2014 05:23 PM PDT

ancient-origins.net

The Hopi Indians have lived on the high desert of northern Arizona for thousands of years. This barren but beautiful landscape was the place where Hopi gods directed them to build a number villages made up of pueblos—what we today would call stone apartment complexes. Here the Hopi managed to flourish by simply growing corn, beans, and squash with very little rainfall and almost no irrigation. One of the most intriguing Hopi legends involves the Ant People, who were crucial to the survival of the Hopi—not just once but twice. The so-called “First World” (or world-age) was apparently destroyed by fire—possibly some sort of volcanism, asteroid strike, or coronal mass ejection from the sun. The Second World was destroyed by ice—Ice Age glaciers or a pole shift. During these two global cataclysms, the virtuous members of the Hopi tribe were guided by an odd-shaped cloud during the day and a moving star at night that led them to the sky god named Sotuknang, who finally took them to the Ant People—in Hopi, Anu Sinom. The Ant People then escorted the Hopi into subterranean caves where they found refuge and sustenance. In this legend the Ant People are portrayed as generous and industrious, giving the Hopi food when supplies ran short and teaching them the merits of food storage. In fact, another legend says that the reason why the ants have such thin waists today is because they once deprived themselves of provisions in order to feed the Hopi. Round kiva in New Mexico, built by descendants of the ancient Hopi The constellation Orion also has a thin waist. When Orion dominates the winter skies, the ants are deep in their small underground hills. These structures are similar in form to the Hopi kivas, which are subterranean communal prayer chambers. Coincidentally the Sanskrit word ki means “ant hill” and va means “dwelling.” Each February inside their kivas the Hopi perform the Bean Sprouting Ceremony, or Bean Dance, called Powamu. During this time the fires are continuously kept ablaze, turning these structures into superb hot houses. The ritual commemorates a time when the Anu Sinom taught the Hopi how to sprout beans inside caverns in order to survive. It is interesting to note that the Babylonian sky god was named Anu. The Hopi word for “ant” is also anu, and the Hopi root word naki means “friends.” Thus, the Hopi Anu-naki, or “ant friends,” may have been the same as the Sumerian Annunaki—the beings who once came to Earth from the heavens. The Ant People of the Hopi Hopi rock carvings of the Ant People, northern Arizona The Ant People may have also lived in ancient Egypt. Akhenaten, the 18th Dynasty pharaoh who ruled from 1351–1334 BC, is shown in some depictions with an elongated skull like the shape of an ant’s head. His almond-shaped eyes and neck are like the ant’s, and either the serpent or the vulture on his uraeus resembles the ant’s mandibles. He also has spindly arms and legs like those of the ant, and his upper body resembles the ant’s thorax while his lower body mirrors the ant’s abdomen. Akhenaten’s body type can be specifically compared to the Pharaoh Ant (Momomorium pharaonis), which originated in West Africa. It also has an elongated head, a yellow to reddish brown body, and a darker abdomen with a stinger. Perhaps it is more than a coincidence that the Egyptian word sahu means “stars of Orion,” whereas the Hopi word sohu means “star,” the most important of which are those in the constellation Orion. To read more on the Ant People and the Hopi connection to ancient Egypt, see my most recent book Star Shrines and Earthworks of the Desert Southwest.

The Hopi Indians have lived on the high desert of northern Arizona for thousands of years. This barren but beautiful landscape was the place where Hopi gods directed them to build a number villages made up of pueblos—what we today would call stone apartment complexes. Here the Hopi managed to flourish by simply growing corn, beans, and squash with very little rainfall and almost no irrigation.
One of the most intriguing Hopi legends involves the Ant People, who were crucial to the survival of the Hopi—not just once but twice. The so-called “First World” (or world-age) was apparently destroyed by fire—possibly some sort of volcanism, asteroid strike, or coronal mass ejection from the sun. The Second World was destroyed by ice—Ice Age glaciers or a pole shift. During these two global cataclysms, the virtuous members of the Hopi tribe were guided by an odd-shaped cloud during the day and a moving star at night that led them to the sky god named Sotuknang, who finally took them to the Ant People—in Hopi, Anu Sinom. The Ant People then escorted the Hopi into subterranean caves where they found refuge and sustenance.
In this legend the Ant People are portrayed as generous and industrious, giving the Hopi food when supplies ran short and teaching them the merits of food storage. In fact, another legend says that the reason why the ants have such thin waists today is because they once deprived themselves of provisions in order to feed the Hopi.

Round kiva in New Mexico, built by descendants of the ancient Hopi

The constellation Orion also has a thin waist. When Orion dominates the winter skies, the ants are deep in their small underground hills. These structures are similar in form to the Hopi kivas, which are subterranean communal prayer chambers. Coincidentally the Sanskrit word ki means “ant hill” and va means “dwelling.” Each February inside their kivas the Hopi perform the Bean Sprouting Ceremony, or Bean Dance, called Powamu. During this time the fires are continuously kept ablaze, turning these structures into superb hot houses. The ritual commemorates a time when the Anu Sinom taught the Hopi how to sprout beans inside caverns in order to survive.
It is interesting to note that the Babylonian sky god was named Anu. The Hopi word for “ant” is also anu, and the Hopi root word naki means “friends.” Thus, the Hopi Anu-naki, or “ant friends,” may have been the same as the Sumerian Annunaki—the beings who once came to Earth from the heavens.

Hopi rock carvings of the Ant People, northern Arizona

The Ant People may have also lived in ancient Egypt. Akhenaten, the 18th Dynasty pharaoh who ruled from 1351–1334 BC, is shown in some depictions with an elongated skull like the shape of an ant’s head. His almond-shaped eyes and neck are like the ant’s, and either the serpent or the vulture on his uraeus resembles the ant’s mandibles. He also has spindly arms and legs like those of the ant, and his upper body resembles the ant’s thorax while his lower body mirrors the ant’s abdomen. Akhenaten’s body type can be specifically compared to the Pharaoh Ant (Momomorium pharaonis), which originated in West Africa. It also has an elongated head, a yellow to reddish brown body, and a darker abdomen with a stinger.
Perhaps it is more than a coincidence that the Egyptian word sahu means “stars of Orion,” whereas the Hopi word sohu means “star,” the most important of which are those in the constellation Orion. To read more on the Ant People and the Hopi connection to ancient Egypt, see my most recent book Star Shrines and Earthworks of the Desert Southwest.
By Gary A. David
- See more at: http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-americas-opinion-guest-authors/ant-people-hopi-00927#sthash.nnV5RDNs.dpuf

Hi MYRNA and friends.

A friend sent me an email just now with this lovely Native American thought about LIFE and how to live.

I hope you like it.

Pat

Hi Pat,

So glad you come in and post from time to time. Thank you for the lovely post.

Why the Campaign Against Keystone XL Still Matters

A few years ago, it would have seemed implausible that a group of Midwestern ranchers and Native Americans would gather on the National Mall in opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, as they did on Tuesday. Not because the union is so unlikely, but because the pipeline’s approval seemed all but certain.

“We bring you pickles from the heartland,” said a farmer in a red baseball cap, extending a jar to a Native American elder. At his feet lay other gifts—jewelry, blankets and more homemade preserves—exchanged between members of the Cowboy and Indian Alliance, a coalition of ranchers, farmers and Native American tribes leading a weeklong protest against the Keystone pipeline.

“All farmers and ranchers and Native Americans are environmentalists, because without the water and the land we have nothing. It’s our livelihood,” said Mike Blocher, who raises Quarter horses in Antelope County, Nebraska, on land TransCanada has claimed for the pipeline route. “If that oil runs out on my land, my grass is gone. My water’s gone. My farm ground is gone. My livelihood is gone. And what will they do? Say, ‘Here’s a few bucks.’”

Later, riders on horseback made their way down the National Mall towards a cluster of teepees, which will be the hub for other action throughout the week: traditional water ceremonies to highlight the threat the pipeline poses to water resources like the Ogallala aquifer; an undisclosed “bold and creative action” at the White House on Thursday; and a rally on Saturday that organizers expect to draw several thousand people.

Earth Day may be a shadow of its initial self, but there is still something vital in the anti-Keystone campaign, the most significant environmental movement in the United States today. No other campaign has drawn as much attention to the issue of climate change. Few environmental causes include such diverse stakeholders, from major green groups to ranchers concerned about property rights, to indigenous leaders to urban residents worried about pollution from refineries at the pipeline’s end point. Still, there is a growing tendency to trivialize the decision about the pipeline, as The New York Times did in an article on Tuesday that pointed out that the greenhouse gas emissions from KXL would amount to “an infinitesimal slice of the global total.”

The campaign against Keystone isn’t ultimately about the impact of a single infrastructure project. The link between the pipeline and the future climate is indirect—the real point is the campaign itself. While the outcome of the Environmental Protection Agency’s rule-making process for carbon emissions from power plants may make a bigger contribution to the climate fight in absolute terms, there is no single law or decision that can “solve” the present crisis. Besides, it’s hard to imagine people chaining themselves to the White House fence while advocating for stricter bureaucratic standards.

The first Earth Day illustrated how popular movement precedes political action. The 1970 demonstrations brought out some 20 million Americans, seemingly spontaneously. Within four year the agencies and legislation that undergird all of the environmental protections that matter today became law: the EPA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act, to name a few.

Now, one of the most needed regulations is a tax on carbon—a way of making fossil fuel companies pay for damage caused by their product. Such a tax could provide funds for badly needed investment in renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure while creating some incentive to keep fossil fuels in the ground. We know 80 percent of discovered reserves need to stay there if we want a chance to keep warming below the two degree Celsius threshold scientists say is critical. As Chris Hayes writes, this is essentially asking energy companies to give up at least $10 trillion in wealth.

Currently the path to regulation of this sort is politically impassable. But the anti-KXL campaign, with its ability to stoke energy and build diverse coalitions, right now looks like one of our our best chances to provoke the political shift necessary for more radical change.

The decision about the pipeline does itself matter, however. Given the overwhelming sense of paralysis, it’s easy to forget that inaction is a choice. We are electing a future of massive suffering. What Keystone illustrates so well is that we—the public and policymakers—make decisions about our climate future in any number of ways, both large and small, every day. Whether we drive or bike; whether we seek out modest ways to live or consume as much as we can afford; whether we drill deeper in search of profits or walk away from them. Many of these actions don’t feel like choices, and all of them are trivial in isolation. Together, however, they are the sum of our fate.

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The scale of climate change is such that all “solutions” will be inadequate and imperfect. Rejecting Keystone isn’t a solution, but it would be a signal that the easy cycle of business as usual can be disrupted. That radical choices can be made, the kind that have nothing to do with buying a Prius instead of an SUV. That even as the avenues to democratic participation are closed off, there is still power in popular protest.

It was the idea that Keystone XL was inevitable that seemed most to bother Mike Blocher, the Quarter horse rancher. “They are just saying ‘this is the way it’s gonna be,” he said. “People say, ‘Why don’t you just take the money and run?’ Well, Nebraskans don’t take the money and run. We stay put.”

Read more of The Nation’s special #MyClimateToo coverage:
Mark Hertsgaard: Why TheNation.com Today Is All About Climate
Naomi Klein: The Change Within: The Obstacles We Face Are Not Just External
George Zornick: We’re the Fossil Fuel Industry’s Cheap Date
Dani McClain: The ‘Environmentalists’ Who Scapegoat Immigrants and Women on Climate Change
Jeremy Brecher: ‘Jobs vs. the Environment’: How to Counter the Divisive Big Lie
Jon Wiener: Elizabeth Kolbert on Species Extinction and Climate Change
Dave Zirin: Brazil’s World Cup Will Kick the Environment in the Teeth
Steven Hsieh: People of Color Are Already Getting Hit the Hardest by Climate Change
Michelle Chen: Where Have All the Green Jobs Gone?
Peter Rothberg: Why I’m Not Totally Bummed Out This Earth Day
Leslie Savan: This Is My Brain on Paper Towels
Katrina vanden Heuvel: Earth Day’s Founding Father
Wen Stephenson: Let This Earth Day Be The Last
Katha Pollitt: Climate Change is the Tragedy of the Global Commons
Michelle Goldberg: Fighting Despair to Fight Climate Change