I was really glad that things fell in place and that we were able to visit with Leigh on Hopi. We got to the Hopi Cultural Center and were all completely exhausted. I felt bad at first for Leigh, because as he spoke I think every single person’s eyes dropped a few times. But Leigh began talking about the problems facing the Hopi , namely the struggle with the Peabody Coal Company.  Peabody, over the years, has taken a butte on the south end of the reservation and and basically devoured it. This was drastic for Leigh to learn about, especially over a phone call with no previous warning. The butte that was being destroyed was a sacred area for the Hopi. It contained several shrines and other important figures to the Hopi people. Leigh told us how he rushed down to the site and begged and begged them to stop before he could talk about what was happening.

Leigh said he tried everything to stop that mining. He talked about how he and several other tribal members went to court and fought, only to lose $10,000 that the tribe would never see again. It was very hard to understand what Leigh felt that day when he saw what the bulldozers were doing  “We got there and watched one of the shrines destroyed, right there in front of our eyes.” Despite shutting down an airport in Minneapolis, I think right then and there, with those words, our group could have gotten up and completely destroyed the Peabody Company, I know I was inspired enough to do so.

The session with Leigh changed pace as he took us out to old Orabi village. To me, the Hopi mesas were by far the most untouched throughout time. It was an incredible feeling to have the opportunity to be standing on the oldest continuous living community in the world, something most people don’t get the chance to do, I think we all felt very fortunate. On the way out we also had the opportunity to eat the traditional piki bread made fresh by an elderly woman.

I was very glad that we got the chance to meet with Leigh. The entire time with him talking about Peabody, I was connecting a lot to the same situations I had learned about with the coal mining in West Virginia and Kentucky. There’s such a fight over how these companies go in, and don’t care what is there, they’ll destroy a mountain to get even the tiniest bit of coal extracted out of it. Despite that aspect of the session with Leigh, our stay on Hopi was a good ending to the trip. Hopi, by far, seemed the most quiet and untouched, and very very peaceful. The image I get from Hopi was as we were standing on the edge of the Third Mesa, looking south into the horizon. Silence, complete silence, as I stared out into the landscape, a golden eagle or hawk dancing through the air. The village we were on, part of the mesa, part of the ground, everything seemed in balanced and connected, I’ll never forget it.

For more information on Hopi visit their official web site at http://www.hopi.nsn.us/

David Hart