>From an obituary in the NY Times, February 15, 1999 Thomas Banyacya, 89, Who Told of Hopi Prophecy By ROBERT McG. THOMAS Jr. Thomas Banyacya, who spent half a century on a tireless and often thankless Hopi spiritual mission to save the planet from the ravages of modern materialism and greed, died on Feb. 6 at a hospital in Keane Canyon, Ariz., about 40 miles from his home in Kykotsmovi on the Hopi reservation. He was 89 and the last of four messengers named by Hopi elders in 1948 to warn the world of impending doom. The 15,000 or so Hopis are a small nation, but their sense of burden is great. According to a 900-year-old religious tradition, the Great Spirit Maasau'u, Guardian of the Earth, assigned them the duty of preserving the natural balance of the world and entrusted them with a series of ominous prophecies warning of specific threats and providing guidance on how to avoid them. The prophecies remained a secret oral tradition until 1948, when Hopi religious leaders, alarmed by reports of the atomic bomb's mushroom cloud, which they saw as the destructive "gourd of ashes" foretold in the prophecies, appointed Banyacya and three others as messengers to reveal and interpret the prophecies to the outside world. Banyacya seems to have been an obvious choice. At a time when many Hopis were beginning to embrace modern ways, even accepting the governmental jurisdiction of the United States, he had remained so steadfast in his devotion to the sacred traditions and cherished sovereignty of the Hopi that he had spent seven years in prison rather than register for the draft in World War II. As he tirelessly explained, the Hopi, whose very name means "peaceful," reject fighting in wars, especially for another nation... A fierce opponent of uranium mining and a variety of other industrial assaults on the environment, Banyacya warned that an endless quest for material wealth would destroy the balance of the world; yet he did not reject all modern conveniences. His U.N. address and several other messages can be found on the Internet at http://www.alphacdc.com/banyacya/banyacya.html, a site maintained by the Alpha Institute. Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
