“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.
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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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