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PAGE 1 OF THE MAY 1995 ISSUE OF PASS PATROL CAMPFIRE TALES
Keep in mind, the stories here were written in 1995.  A lot has changed.

This issue includes

Arch Canyon

 

ARCH CANYON - ANOTHER OF THE MANY ADVENTURES OF PASS PATROL

“In the beginning there was nothing.  Everything that was … was dark without space or time.  But then, there was Tawa with the power of the sun … Tawa the creator.  Tawa made everything that is.  The stars, the sky, the earth.  Then Tawa created people to live below the surface of the Earth.  Some people were bad and preyed on those who were good.  Tawa sent Spider Grandmother to lead the good people through the sipapu hole and onto the surface of the Earth and into the light of Tawa’s sun.  Tawa sent Mockingbird to change them into all the different people who now live on the Earth, and send them off in different directions to live in Tawa’s valleys and forests and mountains.”

This is a shortened version of the Creation Legend as passed down to the Hopi from the Ancient Ones … as passed down from the Anasazi Indians.  For the complete story and very good general history lesson on the Ancient Ones, we recommend a book titled “Prehistoric Indians by Barnes and Pendleton.”

Very little is known about the Ancient Ones.  Everything written about them is little more than and educated guess.  With each additional excavation come more guesses, continued debate, and more new questions than answers.  Most believe the Ancient Ones came from Asia, perhaps more than 12,000 years ago, during the time the ice age was receding.  They would have crossed from Russia to Alaska on a bridge formed by ice. 

  In the beginning, they were nomadic in nature, roaming from place to place and living off the daily hunt.  For some reason, when they reached the four corners area of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico, they became farmers and stopped roaming.  They built homes of stone that still stand after being abandoned for as long as eight hundred years.  But why were those homes abandoned?  Where did the Ancient Ones go?

The creation Legend tells us nothing to back scientific theories of where the Ancient Ones came from, or where they went.  It tells us they were religious and believed they were created by Tawa.  The legend tells us they came from below the surface of the Earth through the sipapu hole.  There is no doubt they believed the legend.  Every city had an abundance of sipapu holes.  Did they believe there were more people to come from below or did they believe they would some day return?  Since no one knows what happened to the Ancient Ones when they left therir homes, perhaps they did go back to Tawa, through the sipapu hole.

The Ancient Ones of Comb Ridge were not living in major cities like the ones seen in national parks.  They live away from the main population, much like farmers and ranchers in today’s society.  Their homes are small and not as easily spotted.

 
 
   

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