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“Spider Grandmother did give two rules. To all men, not just Hopis. If you look at them, they cover everything. She said ‘Don’t go around hurting each other.’ And she said, ‘Try to understand things.'"             

- Kendrick Fritz

Day 172  - Monday, December 11 - After entering Hopi land via Keams Canyon, about 300 yards along as they walked, the pilgrims were mysteriously gifted with a female deer.

The walkers did not see the deer come to the road and attempt to cross. But they did see the truck that hit her, they did hear the thumping sound of the collision, and they did feel the shock of violent death. The walkers found the deer lying by the side of the road, breathing her last breath after having been hit. There were no tracks to show which direction she had come from, or where she was headed. The truck went on. The dying deer and the walkers remained.

The walkers consoled her with prayer and tobacco offerings, and they honored her with song. Later, when the dying was over, the walkers carried the deer carcass to their camp where she was skinned, and then cut into meat to feed the people. The food was received as a gift from Creator. Offerings were given, and the walkers shared the food with visiting Navajo and Hopi elders to bring back to their families.

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The walkers are happy and hopeful, having finally arrived in the most mystical destination of North America, Hopi. The Hopi people have had continuous occupancy of the region since 500 C.E., anthropolgists say.

Owing to their spiritual practices, their general peacefulness, and their elaborate prophecies, the Hopi have attracted strong interest from spiritual seekers over the last four decades. Our long walk under the Seven Fires teachings of the Algonquin peoples was spurred and supported by the fulfillment of one particular Hopi teaching concerning the House of Mica (United Nations Headquarters in New York City).

As our walk travels through Hopi territory, we will be welcomed, supported, and blessed by traditional Hopi elders. They will look not at our skin color, but instead at our eyes, at the energy that lives and weaves around us, and the way we conduct ourselves.

They understand the importance of our mission to reach Humquaq, the Western Gate at Point Conception, north of Santa Barbara, California. At the start of our walk, they told Grandfather Commanda and Tom that they would help us, that they would pray for us.

In the distance - As they approach step by step, the Sunbow 5 walkers can see in the distance the fabled Hopi mesas. The Hopi villages are located on the top or at the foot of three mesas - First, Second and Third Mesa, which project out in three fingers from the enormous Black Mesa to the north.

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Copyright 2006 by Steven McFadden

Read Day 173 -- Odyssey of the 8th Fire