See below for transcripts of the video at the following link where you can view a 2 hour video edited from 20 hours of video of the Santa Barbara week of events initiating the Rainbow Uprising Campaign, in January 1990, including the message of The Great Law of Peace and the Tree of Peace, and the official Hopi Prophecy message as of that time preparing to "open the door to the House of Mica", and including actor Jon Voight's personal experiences discussion of that Hopi Prophecy and about his experience with the Six Nations and Chumash peoples and their spiritual teachings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVJKdjgHx3g&spfreload=10
The name Rainbow Uprising was originally inspired by the Santa Barbara Chapter of the Fellowship of Reconciliation organization sponsored visit to Santa Barbara by the head of the Palestinian Center for Nonviolence in Jerusalem, who explained before 1990 that the Arabic word "intifada" properly translated into English has the spiritual meaning of "the self-purification process of uprising consciousness to a higher level from which the solutions to problems can be seen". He further said that this true meaning has been ignored by those resorting to violence under the color of the so-called Palestinian Uprising or Islamic Intifada, as contrasted with the concept of holy war or Jihad in Arabic.
Hence the Rainbow Uprising Campaign was inspired to mean the self-purification process for uprising human consciousness to understand and embrace our mutual relationship as one human family of life on Earth, Our Family of Life.
If you want to help spread the Rainbow Uprising message embodied in the Rainbow Peace Braids, to make them and wear them and share them freely for the direct cause of "Global Peace Now!", please read the message and instructions about how to make them here
Please also study the one-page classic Hopi Declaration of Peace.
And here you will find the "official" Hopi Prophecy Documents:
http://www.global-emergency-alert-response.net/OfficialHopiProphecy.html
1990 New World Times Magazine transcription of Rainbow Uprising initiation articles written from video recording follows:
See scans of the 7 pages from the original magazine at these links: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, Page 7.
First, here is an Introduction, written in 2005
January 9, 2005, marked the 20th anniversary of the death
of the most venerable Nichidatsu Fujii whose 5th demise
anniversary in January 1990 was observed in Santa Barbara with the installation of the Hiroshima Peace Flame on UCSB's eternal flame monument concluding a week
of events under auspices of the Rainbow Uprising Campaign, including participation of local Chumash spiritual leaders Choy Slo and Pilulah Khus, Mohawk Chief Jake Swamp of the Six Nations Iroquois Haudenosaunee Confederacy, traditional Hopi interpreter Thomas Banyacya, actor Jon Voigt, local scientist Bruce DePalma, local community leaders Marc McGinnes and Gene Knudsen-Hoffman and Hymon Johnson president of the local Sathya Sai Baba fellowship, Buddhist Monks of the Nipponzan Myohoji order founded by Nichidatsu Fujii, Soto Zen Buddhist Monk Yusen Yamato, et al.
The video recordings of these events were reviewed and
transcribed into the following articles published in San Francisco,
hence the odd punctuation in parts as the typist tried to maintain
the oral character of their talks at some expense to punctuation.
My additions/corrections to text, due to misunderstood words from the video, are [bracketed]
The 20th anniversary of the Tree of Peace planting at UCSB
was May 16, 2005.
1990 also marked the 67th birthday of India's contemporary
spiritual teacher, Sri Sathya Sai Baba, one of whose teacher
trainers, Dr. Hymon Johnson, carried the Hiroshima Peace Flame in the below described Global Peace Walk procession from UCSB's Tree of Peace when it was installed as the Eternal Flame at UCSB by a Hiroshima A-bomb survivor.
http://www.sathyasai.org - http://www.saibabamiracles.com - http://saibabaofindia.com
---David Crockett Williams, rainbow uprising campaign initiator/coordinator/organizer
[Begin article excerpts by way of introduction:]
The teaching of the most venerable Nichidatsu Fujii, founder of the
Nipponzan Myohoji, is that the American Indian people must take
the lead in the world peace movement because of their karmic
relationship to the United States government, which is a major
problem in the world because of its initiation of the nuclear threat.
Basically, the Japanese monks understand that everything is based
on recognition of the natural law, and that law is behind the traditions
of the American Indian spiritual people. As the people of the world
recognize sovereignty, the jurisdiction of the natural law, then they
will also recognize the sovereignty and culture of the Native American
people as well.
The Venerable Nichidatsu Fujii was born in Kumamato prefecture
Japan in 1885. He was ordained at Usuki, sister city of Kandy,
the ancient capital of Sri Lanka. He studied the teachings of
Maha Bodhisatva Nichiren, who he considered to be the most
unique religious and spiritual leader in Japanese history.
Nichiren Bodhisatva never went to China to study, nor did he have
a particular teacher to learn from. Ven. Fujii first constructed
Nipponzan Myohoji at various places in China and Manchuria,
from 1917 onwards. The first Nippponzan Myohoji in Japan
was established in Tagonoura, in 1924. In 1931, at the age of
forty six, he entered India in order to embark upon his long
cherished mission, to return Buddhism to the land of its origin.
In 1933, Venerable Nichidatsu Fujii met Mahatma Gandhi
at Warda, Gandhi's first ashram in India. He participated
with Gandhi in the Great Salt March to protest the iniquitous
taxes of the British Raj, on that most fundamental commodity,
salt. When Mahatma Gandhi was arrested and placed in jail,
Nichidatsu Fujii took up the Odaimoku, beating his drum
outside the walls of the jail. Gandhi incorporated this famous
chant into the daily routine at the ashram, where it is maintained
to this day along with prayers from all the major religions of India,
Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity, and many others. Venerable
Fujii entered Sri Lanka, without any possessions but his drum.
He made a pilgrimage throughout the country, and was sustained
by the offerings people make to the ordained. At the foot of
Sri Pada mountain he was given relics of the Buddha by the
congregation. After World War II, Nichidatsu Fujii vowed to
erect Peace Pagodas in many countries of the world. The relics
that were given in Sri Lanka were enshrined in the first Peace Pagoda
constructed at Hanaokayama, Kumamoto prefecture, in 1954.
Venerable Fujii after this constructed stupas worldwide. Of four Stupas in
India, the first was in Rajghir, New Delhi and others in Bombay, Orissa, and
Calcutta. Pandit Nehru also donated relics to Fujii in 1957, at the
dedication ceremony in Rajghir, where the relics are enshrined today. In
1978, Venerable Fujii was awarded the Nehru Award for International
Understanding. Venerable Fujii has constructed Pagodas in America, United
Kingdom, Japan, India, Sri Lanka, and under construction are pagodas in
South Africa, and Ladakh. The most Venerable Fujii's Stupa is a place which
symbolizes the prayers for peace:
"You must eliminate the frame of mind considering that the peace pagoda
belongs to a different faith when paying veneration to it. Instead,
see it as the God of your own faith. This is the reason for erecting
a peace paogda, the reason for the apparition of the Stupa."
Venerable Fujii died on January 9, 1985, at the age of ninety nine
at Atami temple in Japan.
"To trust, this is a religious civilization, to trust heaven, to trust the
earth, to trust God. These things will not reply, but we trust without
doubting. To save others and to save the world, these are the
tasks of the spiritual civilization. The spiritual civilization will
eternally shed light that will never terminate. The sufferings of
the Indian peoples during the past one hundred and eighty years,
and their sufferings today, are a lesson from which we all must
learn, so that humankind may live peacefully in the future.
However, by bearing this, the bright future life of humanity
will be constructed." --- the Most Venerable Nichidatsu Fujii
See scans of the 7 pages from the original magazine at these links: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, Page 7.
Begin New World Times articles transcription:
p.8
The Essence of Hopi Prophecy
[Above is title of below 6pp article, caption of graphic of
Kokopelli the Hopi flute player copied from video of sculpture
outside the Kiva in Santa Barbara mentioned by
traditional Hopi interpreter Thomas Banyacya in one
of his talks transcribed from those videos and printed
in New World Times, Spring 1990 issue, in San Francisco]
p.9
Photo of Thomas Banyacya at right of this excerpt of his talk:
The purifier said, "In the very beginning, when our ancestors, a handful
of people, escaped total destruction by flood, and the last world came to
this one; they were given a special mission to go to the four directions
around the world. And they would make sacred stone tablets into which
the Great Spirit would just breathe into it all this knowledge, proverbs,
and warnings." Their symbol, the petroglyph, we still have two of those in
the Hopi area. And two of these stone tablets were given to the white
brother that has a lighter complexion but they had the same mother.
So these two received the sacred stone tablets. The younger brother
who was this brown color, was to stay here, and the white brother
was to take the medicine of the two tablets. He was to go to each
direction where the sunrises go, to another land someplace. Our
white brother was given a special mission, able to record things,
to invent things, and to hold on to the spiritual foundation of religious
instruction. These were spiritual instructions also. So we still have
them, the Hopi are still waiting today. Who is our real true white
brother that went around the other side of the world? It's knowledge
that some day he's going to come back, bringing the sacred stone
tablets here to this land. There's a special site, that was built there,
so if our white brother ever came back with this other set of stone
tablets, and laid them by this shrine, there will be an interpreting
of that message. Hopi will know this by heart, just like a song,
he can sing it for a long time, and tell us what it contains. And
the white brother has the means of recording it, he will read this
statement. He will prove to the world, that the true white brother
is coming to meet his brother here. In front of the whole world,
it will be explained that the descendant of the white brother
finally came back, together with the sacred stone tablet.
That's why not only Hopi, but all Native people are going
to become important. That's where we are headed for right now. --- Thomas Banyacya, Hopi Elder
[graphic/drawing of Hopi prayer rattle with symbols, instead of a photo for Jon Voigt]
"Each of the great cultures have had prophecies and prophets.
Thomas Banyacya, in 1948, was called from his people to gather
because of a momentous event, which was that the prophecy
that they had been carrying for thousands of years, had come
to a certain point. They had been told in their prophecies, that
there would be a time, when there would be two major world events,
two disastrous world events. The second more destructive than
the first, and the second having been attended by the symbols
that had been on their rattles for thousands of years. The
symbols on the Hopi rattle are the sun, the symbol of the life force,
and the symbol of the sea going to the four directions, another
life signal, and that is the swastika. With these two destructive
world events, there was a time when a gourd of ashes from the sky,
created a fire so hot that fish in the sea would die. And diseases
would be created that man's medicine couldn't cure. At the moment
of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Hopi people gathered.
Holy leaders, who had kept all their lives certain information given
to them by their grandfathers and grandmothers, were told
when those events happened they must convene, so they came from the
different mesas. At that time, they were to send four messengers into the
world from a certain clan. The clan was the Coyote clan. Coyote is the
animal that will give warning. Thomas Banyacya of the Hopi was chosen,
and together with other messengers, they were to go out into the world.
The very holy ones stay on the land, they are not allowed to leave. But
these messages were to be sent into the world, and warn people like the
coyotes do." --- Jon Voight, Actor
[photo of Jake Swamp at right of this excerpt of his talk:]
The Peace Maker said, "Now, we uproot this great tree. Now a cavity
in the earth has formed. Now all you men, who used to fight one another
in warfare, will cast down your weapons of war, and they will be taken
by the swift waters underneath the ground, into the unknown regions.
Never more will you, grandchildren of the Five Nations, see warfare
between yourselves. You will live in peace, under the branches of the
Great Tree of Peace. There will be four white roots that will go into
the four directions and their nature is peace. If any man or any nation
shall ever recognize its purpose, they would only need to trace it to
its source, and they will be welcome to sit in the shelter of its branches.
We now place an eagle at the top of this tree. It will signify that the
eagle sees the farthest as he flies the highest. That each person
is instructed to see afar into the future so that if they see any danger
approaching, they would immediately warn the rest." And so today,
the alarm has been sounded. As he stood there at that time, he broke
an arrow in front of them. He said, "If you are alone, you are easily
broken," and then he took one arrow from each nation, and bound
them together. And no one, not even the strongest men amongst them,
could break it. And he said, "In unity there is strength." And then he
said, "One day in the future this tree will start to fall, because
a people will come here, and they will hack at its roots, and it will
start to die. It will start to fall. It will take a long time. You
leaders, we have instilled in you to be ever strong. You will be
burdened with its heaviness as it lands upon your arms. Keep
your hands tightly closed with one another. Even if the tree falls
it will never be permitted to touch the ground, and when that
happens the grandchildren will be born and they will help you
to raise that tree again." --- Chief Jake Swamp of the Mohawk Nation
p.10
Rainbow Uprising Campaign [large title at top of page]
[on each side of page is the famous Hopi "War Leader Kachina"
symbol, a quadrisected circle with a circle in each quadrant]
From January 7, to January 13th, the Rainbow Uprising Campaign
was convened in Santa Barbara, California. The inspiration for
the campaign comes from the observations of mutual fulfillment
of Native American, Tibetan and Japanese Buddhist prophecies.
The Rainbow Uprising Campaign is a scientific and spiritual
revolution of consciousness to change the course of human history
off of the path toward total destruction and onto the path
toward true peace and harmony among all life, by bringing out
the fundamental teachings of nonviolence. Participants in a
series of events included: Chief Jake Swamp of the Mohawk
Nation, Hopi Interpreter Thomas Banyacya, Zen Monk Usen Yamato,
Monks of the Nipponzan Myohoji, Actor Jon Voight, Venerable
Khenpo Karthar Rimpoche, Scientist Bruce DePalma, Hiroshima
survivor Kaz Suyieshi and many others. The focus of the campaign
was the rededication on January 9th of the Tree of Peace planted
five years previously and the installation of the Hiroshima Peace
Flame. Both these events took place on the University of California
Santa Barbara Campus and were followed by a Spiritual Unity
Summit on Nonviolence as part of the annual activities honoring
Dr. Martin Luther King. The Rainbow Uprising Campaign was
initiated with a traditional welcome by Chumash elders representing
the Chumash Indians, the indigenous native peoples of the Santa
Barbara area.
"We have to speak strongly in front of those that are not yet educated
about what it is to learn to be a conscious being, and to become more
and more conscious every day. If you know about humility, you realize
the truth of how many mistakes are made in one day. Good luck in
your efforts to find world peace. We're striving from this side, from
the Western Gate."
--- Choyi S'Lo; Traditional Elder
Chumash Ontah Priesthood
"It is always good when people come together, and stand
in a circle, and pray for peace and unity. Both Jake Swamp
and Thomas Banyacya have visited this area many, many
times and the land and the people and the spirits always
welcome them."
--- Grandmother Pelula; Traditional Elder
Chumash Woman
"To me, it is very important to be coming to the western part
of our land again. Chumash people are very important to the
Hopi, in fact they are part of the Hopi. A long time ago they
came over this way from Hopi country because we were still
migrating across this land. This symbol I wear represents
the center, and it is from there we went over to the edges
of the land. This symbol also represents one side of the world.
There is another side too, someone else is taking care of it
on the other side, so the world is held by spiritual people. And
you see the four areas on this side and the four areas on the
other side. These things were not to be done away with. People
came this way, much land was given to the western area in Santa
Barbara, mountain ranges, valleys, and river boundaries. There
were shrines in these places. You might find rocks, you might
find hand prints, footprints. You find some of these symbols.
I found this symbol up here in the mountains, that proves our
people came here. A lot of Hopi ancestors tell me we used to
speak this language from San Diego, clear up to Northern
California, even to Oregon. Thousands of our people were living
here at that time. When the Spanish came, they really destroyed
them. They put them to work as slaves, and just put a lot of people
on ships and dumped them off in the ocean, and gathered them
up in the hills and burnt them alive. They told of terrible things there.
Some of the people ran up on Pala mountain and left shrines in
every area of the coast, and the four directions, they put shrines.
So there is a very important area around here some place, the
center for this area. There is something left there and we are
looking for that. We are constructing a Kiva here in Santa Barbara
and we are praying to the four directions."
--- Thomas Banyacya, Hopi Elder
On January 9th, Thomas Banyacya and Chief Jake Swamp of
the Mohawk Nation, spoke to the Santa Barbara Middle School.
They are introduced by the Headmaster Ken Ferguson:
"I have been teaching about twenty years and many years ago
I discovered the infinite legends and myths of the Hopi people of
Arizona. Although this started for me as a teaching device, I have
become very enamored with it myself. Now thirteen years as head
of the Santa Barbara Middle School, I have made it a point to take
every single youngster that has ever gone through this school, out to
the land of the Hopi, out to the land of the Anasazi, to visit ancient
shrines. I would call them shrines, a very unusual thing for most of
us from my racial and cultural background, to even think in those
terms, but we have come to think in those terms. I've found that
youngsters are introduced to a sense of the environment, a sense
of humanity indeed, even to the whole concept of the word Hopi,
which means peace in their language, as far as I know. The
common thread that seems to toucan the young people I've come
in contact with now for two decades, is a certain sense of a
spiritual reality. I use that word cautiously, I know it's a loaded
word in our time and our culture. Students sense some truth,
some power, some wisdom, if you will, a certain holistic unified
concept, that has just been a great value to us. All the students
here at the school have studied the Hopi creation myths, they
have all learned about the different worlds. They have all learned
about some of the symbolism of the Kiva, of the Sipapu. Most
of them have read "Book of the Hopi." They have been taught and
tutored about our ancient cultures, the Native American people
from this country. It's all very special, it's like a magical thing that's
happened here over thirteen years at our school and I am indebted
to the people of the Hopi land for that. I think that they have given
the children of this country a gift, and I'm grateful for it."
--- Ken Ferguson, Headmaster
Santa Barbara Middle School
p.11
Chief Jake Swamp, Mohawk Nation
Speaking at Santa Barbara Middle School
We have been working very hard for many years to explain the importance
of understanding Native philosophy. I believe, and other leaders of Native
cultures believe, that we have come out to share our philosophy in order to
enter into the new future that we are trying to build. This involves many
different types of people, many different types of cultures. We have to
finally accept one another as people, as human beings. We should have
a common knowledge of what our responsibility is and to have reverence
for everything we see around us. What happens in our nation is that
whenever we have a gathering, we give thanks first before we go into
any kind of a discussion. That thanksgiving involves reminding ourselves
how much the Earth Mother provides for us. Also, we thank all the grass
that grows around us, because every blade of grass has a purpose in life
and we are part of that life cycle. So we are tied to everything, all the
trees, the water, everything that we see around us, the birds. They say
that the birds were created to come and fly around our heads and sing
beautiful songs so that when sometimes we are lonesome, they come
and sing their songs and that makes us feel better. Our people have
gone through a lot in their history, especially at the time of the dark
period. In those days our people forgot how to give thanks and pretty
soon they were at war with one another. Then what happened was,
a Peacemaker was born amongst the Huron people. That was on
the northern shores of what is known as Lake Ontario today. When
that child grew up to a young man, he announced that he had a
mission to fulfill and that he must travel across the water of the
lake and go in the direction of the east. He said there were a
people living over there that continued to destroy one another
and a lot of blood was flowing. They said in those times even the
streams of water had blood mixed with the water. Everything was
so negative at that time. The time came when the Peacemaker
walked amongst the people that lived in that area. There was a
time they erected a Tree of Peace. The Peacemaker said,
"We now uproot this tree, and now there is a cavity formed in the
earth. Today we instruct you to take your weapons from yourselves,
your feelings of hatred, greed and jealousy and you will cast them
into this hole in the ground. Underneath this ground, this hole in
the earth, is a strong current of water that goes to the unknown
regions. And they will take away the weapons from sight forever.
From now on you will live under the principles of the Great Law of Peace.
This is how we are supposed to look in the future, far into the future.
For in our actions today we must be careful, we might be doing
something that will affect the generations to come. In the meantime
we just have to share with one another our thoughts, our feelings,
and we can try to spread the love around the world so that finally
everyone, no matter what color they are can hold hands with one
another and have a true and lasting peace. It's true I was very
young when the Hopi elders, along with my elders came together
and decided that it was time now to reawaken our brothers and
sisters of the many different nations on our North American
continent. These were very important times for everyone
because at the same time other people were trying to prove
that they had a freedom that should be exercised. Now we are
wondering, where are we going from here? It's true that we can look back at
our past, the different wrongs that have been committed, we can think about
those things, yet at the same time we can look at the future with some
kind of vision that comes from the heart and the mind. I believe that in
the beginning of time human beings evolved from a certain place and then
they populated the world from that point. So I suppose that we all had
original instruction that meant that same thing because when I travel to
different areas, to other Indian nations or other indigenous peoples, I
realize that we have something in common: our prophecies, our clan systems,
our ceremonies, they all mean the same thing. They might be expressed in
different ways, but the logic behind it is the same. That gives me a
strength of some kind that we need in the future. We need to hold on to one
another as a human family, maybe finally, we will reach that time when there
will be peace in the world. Maybe, even if we in this room will not see
that time, but we know that we are a part of the beginning of something very
great, we must find the strength to carry on that work. There are not too
many people doing it because when you do this kind of work there is much
suffering. It takes you away from your family. It's very hard when you
are across the country thinking about your family: Are they safe, are they
fed, are they secure? It's a problem, but yet when I am across the country
and I meet my own clan, I know that our elders always told us, "Whenever
you go to other nations you'll find your own clan, that's your family, and
they'll take care of you." Later on this month we are going to be starting
our midwinter ceremonies that prepare us for the coming cycle.
We again see the Maple trees give their sap so we can make the
sugar, the first sign of food coming back. When we perform the
gathering ceremonies, we are made very happy. That is how it's
supposed to be on this earth, enjoying life because that's the way
the creator, the Great Spirit wants us to be happy on this land.
He wants laughter, you know, all the time. We're not supposed to be
sad, we're supposed to be happy. So you'll notice in very hard times,
and we've gone through many hard times when we were close to being
destroyed, even in those troubled times we managed to laugh.
It's so simple, what we were instructed to do. Just to say thank you for
everything that we see around us. That's how simple our way of life is,
to enjoy. They said the Great Spirit has no face to our eyes, it was
hidden from us. There's a point in time when we will recognize
that, but for now, there were words that were left here to show our
people's feeling towards what is around us. That's what makes our
family strong to carry on, to show our gratitude for the different gifts
we have been receiving from the beginning of time. As long as that
continues, the circle of life will continiue.
It's true that we are in troubled times. We must find a way to develop
the healing that needs to take place. There are many grieving people
in the world today. They are suffering inside. We must console the
people, to put the new sun in the sky, to brighten the day again. When
Hiawatha received his vision in those troubled times before the
Great Law of Peace came about, there was much suffering caused
by warfare; there was much destruction all over the land. At that time,
Hiawatha's wife and his children were destroyed and so Hiawatha
became grief stricken and he finally decided that he should not be
seen by other people in his condition, that he would rather suffer
by himself. So he imposed upon himself that he would leave his area,
he would leave his nation, never to come back, because he felt so
badly inside. His heart was broken through the grief that was caused
by the loss of his loved ones and so he went in the direction of the
forest.
He said to himself, "I will walk with no more direction until the forest
claims my life and nobody will find a trace of where I am" He was
wandering aimlessly about. At the same time as he was traveling
in that way, the Peacemaker, who had been born prior to that time,
was traveling in the direction of the Nogayaga people, our people
the Mohawks, trying to bring peace as he walked. Hiawatha was
different, he received the special message. Then he came
upon this little water pond and he noticed something happening
which took him briefly away from his grief and brought him back
to reality. As he watched the water, ducks were flying in from all
directions. Soon they had covered the water. He crouched down
and he continued to watch, and then they were suddenly startled
and they all flew away at once, taking with them the water that was
in the pond. As he looked, he saw exposed shiny things. He
walked over and as he started to pick them up and inspect them,
and he started to think about his grief and now he was brought
to reality, he wondered what he would do. He said to himself,
"When first in grief the tears start to come, they cover and blur
the vision for that person. They no longer can see the future
clearly because of the tears that are coming." So he said,
"This is what I would do for that person, I would reach heavenward
and I would bring forth the softest skin of the fawn and I would
use this to wipe the tears away from this person and I would
make a special request from the great powers, that this person
again see clearly in the next new sunlight, when the new sun
comes up." And then he mentioned what happens to a person
in grief when they lose a loved one. He said, "The dust of death
will settle in the ears, preventing that person from hearing their
family talking to them." And so again he used the symbol of
reaching to the sky and bringing forth the softest feather that
he could find and he said, "I would use this on that person and
I would clear out the ears so that the hearing would come back
to that person in the next new sunlight." He went through the
whole body and he worked on the person; he even described
what happened to the throat, how it gets clogged up, that
choking feeling. The yellow spots that makes the stomach turn,
caused by the grief. Then he explained about the surroundings
of the person in grief. It is as if the sunlight went out and the
whole world became dark. As if the fire that used to keep
them warm, the logs are all scattered in different directions,
there is no more fire. At the end he gathered all the wood and
rekindled a new fire, this is what we need to do for the world.
Gather our strength together, gather the wood and put it in a
pile and rekindle a new fire for the future so that smoke would
rise into the heavens and the Great Spirit will again listen to us
and look at us in favor of what we are doing. First we must
look around and identify the wrongs that we have committed
and admit these to ourselves. We must change our lifestyle
and try to live more simply and discard the things that we
have accumulated that are useless. They might comfort us
for a few minutes but we really don't need those things.
We must weigh, think and weigh those things out. The
scientific community is saying that we have around thirty
years to really make some drastic changes. And if we don't,
then the changes will come about naturally and the trees will
die at that time, at a very fast rate. I'm not trying to scare
anybody but this is what I have been told. The elders are
saying that the prophecies have been saying this, we are
just bringing it out so that people will be aware. When we
talked about it before, we ran into opposition. They said,
"Join us with the progress, leave those things behind.
Leave your language behind, you don't need that.
Get an education, that's the only way you can survive."
But now I realize how important it is that our people were
so strong. They went underground for one hundred and
fifty years and kept the ways intact. Underground, because
in the east when they used to practice in the open, they would
take them and put them in a prison. We've lost a lot of our
medicines, yet we still have people that practice medicine.
Those things have happened for a reason, but today we
can pick ourselves up and go into the future. And we have
to be brave because we're going to have much opposition.
We need to gather strength as much as we can. Today
people are becoming aware and that's where the power
is. The power is with the people. You can't depend on the
government to change things, change comes from the people.
Look at the law, how could it come down? It didn't come from
the government, it came from the people. They finally recognized
that they have a power and it came out. There was unity and
it was beautiful. And so my only fear is, that as people rebuild,
what are they going to rebuild on? That's what we have to work on.
What are we going to build on, what kind of values are we going
to rebuild on? It's going to be a rough road, I think, but I have hope,
a lot of hope.
--- Chief Jake Swamp, Mohawk Nation
Thomas Banyacya, Hopi Elder
Speaking at Santa Barbara Middle School:
The Hopi Prophecy says that we are going to be facing many
problems in this land one day. The fulfillment of that prophecy
is contained in the traditions of original Native people living on
this Western Hemisphere. They have their own ceremonies,
they have their own languages, they have their rituals and dances.
Wherever they go they have these traditions to sustain them and
to keep this land alive in balance. The pull that comes from
Mother Earth, we call this earth, this land, Mother Earth because
everything comes from her. We came from that and when we
pass on, the body goes back into our Mother Earth. There are
a lot of things connected with forces under ground. So that's
why when we sing and dance, when we form a circle like this,
we're representing the world of people. When we form a circle
we pray, we meditate and sing, we're thinking about all the
people around the world. And the Hopi say we are children
of this Mother Earth...
p.12
...and we need to take care of this land and life according to
the law of Great Spirit and the law of nature. Great Spirit taught
us how to take care of it, and so we kept this Western Hemisphere,
I don't know how many thousands of years, we were living here
since the appearance of man. We kept it clean and beautiful,
everything was in order; clear rivers, clear springs, clear rain.
There were a lot of animals and birds and plant life and food
all across the land, a lot of flowers everywhere. Everybody
looked at what you call Indians today as savages, heathens or
cannibals. I guess if we were cannibals at that time I don't think
any white people would be here today. We would have eaten
every one of them when they came here. But we were not
that kind of people. We knew they were coming. We knew they
were our brothers and sisters, and welcomed them. Prophecies
foretold that the white brothers will invent so many things and they
could be used in a destructive way, destroying one another,
animals, birds, trees, and plant life. We are going to create
natural disasters by doing this, more earthquakes, more flooding,
and severe droughts. Then, we create things that pollute the air,
the smog up there. Chemical releases keep escaping out,
acid rain is coming down today. So much has genuinely disturbed
this land. The Hopi knew it's up to the younger generation. You
younger people who are now growing up, what kind of life are
you going to face ten or fifteen years from now if we continue
to manufacture these destructive terrible things in the world,
just for money and profit, just to hold on to the power the leaders
have today? In another world they said this would happen.
Leaders and political figures, they've got all the money and power
in their hands, and they don't want to let go of it. Everybody knows
they're doing some wrong, they're not telling the truth, but they
won't admit they're wrong until our last days. It's up to the people
now, to really clean up the mess, and maybe change some of the
leaders who are not doing the things that are right for this country.
I say, if you are a citizen of this country, and you are able to vote
for leaders in Congress, and you pay taxes to them, they are
supposed to be your servants. They're supposed to do what you
want them to do. If they continue to manufacture destruction,
such as nuclear power and military might, and send it around the
world, sooner or later, it is going to come back here. One old man
said, "When you throw a rock way up as hard as you can, that rock
will come down much faster and harder and hit the ground."
So if you throw the atomic bomb, nuclear power, terrible things
around the world, people are going to suffer around the world,
they are going to destroy one another. Their buildings will be
destroyed, their nations are going to be disrupted. What you throw
up comes back down here. What you throw around the world is
going to come back here. This is what struck me when I listened
to my elders in 1948. I spent four days talking about this, they
needed someone to help carry this message, who had a little
education and could speak English, because all those elders
were eighty, ninety or a hundred years old men, so I had to be
appointed to translate their message, and carry this message
wherever I might be able to get to, hoping that nations everywhere
will recognize the wrongness of these things and the dangers,
then put this aside. We don't have to fight any more.
We don't have to use war. We can use the spirit within us.
If you talk to the leaders from the heart eventually they're going
to put this aside. This is the way we are supposed to clean this
mess up, to change things. Otherwise if we use the power today,
nothing is going to be left on this earth. As the scientists at Oxford
University said last April, "The Russians have built many powerful
things way up and the United States is doing the same thing. If we
ever start World War III, there will not be anything left on this earth.
There will be enough power to blow the world up forty or fifty times
over." They know the need for global survival is that which brought
about what they are doing now; they are searching for ways to survive.
They're asking everyone what do you have to offer? What religious
instructions do you have from way back? Bring them out so we can
use that to save this world from total destruction. This is what is
going on today and this is what the Hopi Prophecy says. I am willing
to help them out. I know it will be difficult but I have a commitment to
them, because I know what they are saying is true, and needs to be
brought to the attention of this world. So I am willing to travel as far
as I can. And now it's been almost forty years. I'm bringing this to
the younger generation wherever I go and I am glad that you are here,
young people. I see you are healthy and strong and you have the
ability to learn and I think you have a good teacher here. I am glad
you came out to Hopi land to see the area and ancient dwellings
of our ancestors, who a long time ago built clay dwellings, they have
markings on them, pictographs and petroglyphs and hand prints.
If you have seen these you realize that they have a meaning. I hope
that you learn more about these things in a spiritual way, because
the word Hopi means peace, peaceful people, humble people
and truthful people who are willing to work together with each other,
with family and community. If there are really peaceful people,
they can be called Hopi. Any people who act like this, they are
referred to as Hopi people. I hope you can start from here, this
community, this school and you can bring this up more, travel
across the country with the peaceful symbol. With this peaceful
message and peaceful understanding about the ways of some
of these problems, I think that we can do that. The Hopis say
there is no doubt it is going to happen this way. I was very poor
in school and I was ashamed to speak before the group. I don't
know if some of you have ever had the experience, that when
you get in front of a large group, your knees tend to give out and
you're ready to fall over. That's the way I was when I was in
day school. The teacher of course, tried to make us learn English
and spell English words. Of course, we called her a mean teacher
because she was pressuring us to learn. I don't know how many
rulers were broken on my leg because I was misspelling words.
So then it followed me, so I couldn't speak in class the way some
people do. And then, I found out, I was not the only on that
misspelled words, English words. George Washington misspelled
words too, this is the story. When the white people came, they
always looked for gold,. They built a railroad, they got wagons and
horses and came to find gold, they did that in South America too.
They were always looking for gold. So I'm sure that they were
going to put that word on their dollar bill, or silver dollar, "In God
We Trust," but they misspelled God. They were supposed to put
Gold on there, but they misspelled it and left the "L" out. So I feel
better now. Hey, it's an educated man who makes mistakes too.
--- Thomas Banyacya, Hopi Elder
On January 10th, there was a ceremonial gathering at the
University of California, Santa Barbara. This began with a
five year rededication of the Tree of Peace Ceremony,
at the university campus, featuring the message by Chief
Jake Swamp about the Iroquois Peace Maker and his
teachings of the Great Law of Peace by which all nations
are to be united. Immediately following this, monks of the
Nipponzan Myohoji sect of Zen Buddhism [escorted,
drumming and chanting] the Hiroshima Peace Flame
in procession for installation at the Peace monument
by Kaz Suyieshi, a survivor of the Hiroshima atom bomb.
The Tree of Nations
Chief Jake Swamp, Mohawk Nation
Speaking at the University of California, Santa Barbara
We planted this tree five years ago in an effort to ask for peace
in the world. And as you know, many different things have
happened since that time which gives us hope. We have noticed
that many walls are coming down. This is coming from the people,
the power of hearts and minds coming together. Each culture
has been given many symbols to share with one another in the
human family. Today I would like to talk about a certain culture
that has given strength to our people in the Iroquois Confederacy.
I would like to share with you how that confederacy came together,
how they emerged from period of warfare and destruction.
It happened a long time ago, perhaps a thousand years ago.
There was a great Peacemaker that was born amongst the
Huron people. Prior to that, there had been warfare going on
for centuries. That is when a child was sent to the Huron nation,
which is known as Canada today, near the lake Ontario.
The family had moved to a little hut near the shoreline.
There, this young girl, who had not gone through any ceremony
to introduce her into womanhood, became pregnant from some
strange reason. And the grandmother of this child was very
disturbed because of what had happened. The child was born,
and it was a male child. One day, the grandmother decided that
she must destroy this child because he represented shame.
The first time she tried to destroy him, she took him to the water.
It was in the winter, and she put a hole in the ice and she
placed his little body in the hole thinking that the problem would
go away and no one would complain about this. She went up
the embankment to where the hut was, where the mother was laying.
And, as she drew near, she could hear the cries of the child.
When she went inside, she found the child was back in the
arms of its mother. She tried to destroy him two more times
and both times she failed. Whatever we do in life, we always
have to try three times. And if we fail by the third time, that means
it was not meant to be at that time. And so this child was raised.
Soon he became a young man. Everything he did drew attention
because he behaved differently from the other children. But
when he grew to be a young man, one day he announced that
he had a great purpose in life, that he was instructed to travel
into the direction of the rising sun in the east, where there were
a people continually destroying each other through warfare.
He started to build a stone canoe made of white stone. While he
was building his canoe the people were ridiculing him, laughing
at him because they said stone would never float. When the
canoe was ready, he announced to the people, "The time has come.
I must depart from this area and go towards the rising sun where
human beings are destroying one another. We must bring peace
and good will to these people. Try to reason with them, that it is
wrong to destroy one another." And so with that, he got into his
canoe and he pushed it out in the water and they noticed it floated.
And he pushed himself, and they noticed it moved very swiftly.
And they stood there as they watched him go into the distance,
disappearing from sight. When he reached the other shore,
he saw men running about; they were hunting. And when he
spoke to them he shared with them the ideas of the Tree of Peace
and the peace that he wanted for that area. The hunters were
disturbed, and they were nervous because they were instructed
to hunt game and to bring it back to a certain evil person that had
control of the whole area. They were afraid of him. Even though
they listened to the message of peace, they left and went back.
Then he went a short distance to a hill and there, on top was a
little hut where a woman lived. Her name meant "New Face."
He knew the purpose of this woman before he came there.
She invited him inside and prepared some food for him.
In former times, this woman used to put poison in the food
she would offer to the men that were hunting, going through
that area and she would destroy them, kill them. The Peacemaker
had knowledge of this and he started to talk to her, reasoning
with her that it was wrong to take life and that only through peace
can people exist and prosper. He talked to her for a long time
and finally she started to understand what he meant and slowly
she came to the point where she accepted the Great Peace.
She was the first one that ever accepted this peace and for this
he said that she would be known forever as the Mother of Nations.
From the symbol of that woman came the future Clan Mothers
who would choose the leaders in the future. And up to the present
time, the women still choose our leaders in the Iroquois Confederacy.
When she accepted this, he realized that now the work had to start,
to try and convince these warring nations to come together and put
aside the war and to live in peace. Then he arrived where the worst
people on the face of the earth were at that time, the Ganienkeh people,
who are known as the Mohawks today. He approached the worst
ones of all. When he arrived at their villages, the leaders, who ruled
by their strength, invited him into a circle and they counseled with him.
They asked him what he was doing in that area. So he laid before
them the plan of peace. He set up the clans and how they would work,
that certain families would have certain leaders and there would be a
mother for each one of the families. At that time they doubted his
message because they did not trust him. So they said, "We have
decided to put you through a test. There is a certain tree in the distance
by a great drop-off. Down below there is a strong current of water and if
you look down there, there are rocks protruding up. We will ask you to
climb to the top of this tree, and we will knock it over with you in it.
If you survive this, then we will accept what you bring to us." So with
that he agreed. He climbed to the highest branch of that tree and then
they labored to knock it over. The people came forward and looked over the
edge for a long time. Soon they became tired of waiting, and they turned
around, but on the following morning something happened. As they looked,
in the distance there was smoke rising, coming in the direction of a corn
field. They saw him. It was he who had been destroyed, he lived,
preparing his meal. So they came back together in that circle and there he
assigned the duties of the leaders. He said, "From now on, you leaders who
used war to settle your problems, war will be put aside and in its place
peace will prevail. You will all have equal height, all you leaders
representing the different clan families. You will council for the welfare
of the future. Whenever you are in a meeting to discuss any item, your
first thought will be projected seven generations into the future,
so that the decision you make today will not harm your grandchildren."
This is how the Mohawk people were brought together. Today we
are known as the foundation of the Great Law of Peace. And from
there they traveled in the direction of the Oneida people. They had
to overcome their leaders that continually fought amongst themselves.
They had to go to the Onondaga, the Cayuga and the Seneca.
Before they left the country of the Mohawk people, Hiawatha, who
was traveling in another direction, came towards them and he was
grief stricken because his wife and his daughters had been destroyed
by the evil person who I mentioned before. So at that time, the
Peacemaker and Hiawatha met and they worked together.
He employed him as a spokesman, because the Peacemaker had a
double row of teeth on the bottom and it impeded his speech.
Hiawatha became the spokesman of the Peacemaker.
The Peacemaker has a name. It is not supposed to be used at any time.
There is a day coming, when we will go into the forest and we will ask
for his assistance to come back and help us. That is the time, when
his name will be used three times. They came to the Onondaga after
they had overcome four of the nations. They had reached the Onondaga
but the evil being Tadodaho refused to give in to the peace.
He was a very evil man. They went by and approached the Cayuga and the
Seneca. Everybody had accepted, except Tadodaho and now they
tried to win him over by reasoning, by logical means. Still he would
not give in. Then the Peacemaker got an idea, because he knows
that Tadodaho likes to control and he said, "The union that we have
will contain five fires. When these five fires come together, they will
become one. For all time to come in the future, it will be your duty
to watch over this council fire of all of the Five Nations."
Then, and only then, did he accept the Great Law of Peace. The
Iroquois Confederacy's Great Law of Peace of Turtle Island was founded
in 950 A.D. by the Peacemaker and Hiawatha and comprises the Seneca,
Mohawk, Cayuga, Oneida and the Onondaga, the Iroquois speaking
peoples of the Eastern Woodlands. There were seventeen clans
within the Iroquois League. The clan's Corn Mothers have the real
power and are represented by forty-nine Grand Council Chiefs
who are selected spokespersons on behalf of the people.
During the early 1700's, the Tuscarora people were driven out of North
Carolina and we adopted them and gave them some land and they still reside
with us. Now today, we are called the Six Nations. To the present day,
Tadodaho, the title name, is carried by Leon Shanondoah of the Onondaga
people. Now they stood there, the leaders that they had found in
those times, numbered fifty. And he instructed them to stand in a circle
and hold hands with one another, and they chose this Tree of Peace.
A great white pine stood there, tall and strong. It seemed like it pierced
the sky it was so tall. As he stood there, at that time, he broke an arrow
in front of them. He said, "If you are alone, you are easily broken,"
and then he took one arrow from each nation, and bound them together
and no one, not even the strongest men amongst them, could break it.
He said, "In unity there is strength." Then he said, "One day in the
future this tree will start to fall, because a people will come here,
and they will hack at its roots, and it will start to die. It will start to
fall. It will take a long time. You leaders, we have instilled in you to
be ever strong. You will be burdened with its heaviness as it lands
on your arms. Keep your hands tightly closed with one another.
Even if the tree falls, it will never be permitted to touch the ground
and when that happens the grandchildren will be born and they
will help you to raise that tree again." I feel that we are the
grandchildren of those times. Let us get strength with one another
and go into the future holding hands with one another and make the world a
peaceful place to live for all our grandchildren in the future. Even though
we may not see it come to pass, we are starting something for our little
ones, they need to have a chance. Today, we have many historians in the
archives of Washington, DC, also in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
They are looking for documentation on the contributions that were
made by the Iroquois people. Our ancestors had great influences.
For instance, in 1744, a great chief brought together the twelve colonies.
He suggested they unify themselves into one. They were all separated
from one another, and he suggested unity between them. Later on,
in 1754, there was a meeting in Albany. Benjamin Franklin was there.
He was inspired by the teachings of the Iroquois leaders. He wished
to form a constitution based on the peaceful democratic model of
the Confederacy of Indian States. That led into the revolutionary war
period and then the birth of the Constitution of United States.
We have a tradition of planting trees for peace. Whenever groups
of our people came together, in the past in history, the symbol of the Tree
of Peace was always present. For instance, after King Phillip's War
in 1689, we had a big gathering in New York state, that is what it's
called today. We had a ceremony there, at that time there were
representatives from France, there were representatives from
the Dutch and also from the English, and then we had Mohican
people there and the Mohawks, and some of the Algonquin that
lived around the eastern coast. At that time they came together
around an oak tree and it lived for two hundred and seventy two
years. It died in 1948. We just recently had a ceremony and
we replaced this tree and we brought together the same
representatives. I'm trying to revive this tradition.
I've taken it on by myself. I've traveled throughout the world, planting
for peace in the hope that we can understand one another by sharing
traditions with one another, also to promote the planting of the trees
that's very much needed in the world today. In the future, it is
going to be very important to many people that are coming
behind us. We the ones present will remember this day and
we ask all the forces of the universe to be with us today as we
dedicate, and light this eternal flame to the cause of peace.
We ask all the spirits of the world, and the universe,
to be with us at this time.
--- Chief Jack Swamp, Mohawk Nation
The Hiroshima Peace Flame
A Peace Pagoda, under construction by Monks of Nipponzan Myohoji in Ladakh,
will be inaugurated on August 25, 1990. An invitation has been sent to
Hopi elders and other Native American elders to attend this ceremony.
Monks of Nipponzan Myohoji took part in the procession carrying the
Hiroshima Peace Flame accompanied by the sacred chant, or Odaimoku,
Na Mu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo, Homage to the Lotus of the True Law.
The Peace Flame had previously been carried across the U.S. with
the 1986 Great Peace March and from Los Angeles to Moscow
with the 1987 American Soviet Peace Walk.
This Hiroshima Peace Flame was installed by Kaz Suyieshi, a Hiroshima
A-Bomb survivor, at the University of California Santa Barbara Eternal Flame
Memorial Peace Monument.
"I was born in California, but when I was not quite a year old my parents
took me back to their hometown, Hiroshima. It is most difficult for me to
talk about my past life. All the time, I wish I could forget. I try many
ways, it was most difficult for me for it was a horrible experience. When I
was eighteen, every day an American airplane, a B-29, used to come to the
city of Hiroshima. This B-29 was a most beautiful airplane. I used to give
it the name, 'Angel.' They never dropped a bomb, they never hurt us.
To me, it was Angel. The only difference was twenty five years ago,
August 6th. It was a beautiful airplane, and a beautiful day with
blue sky; I did see Angel. Then Angel disappeared. He left a small
spot in blue sky, that's the only difference. I talked to my neighborhood
girl, 'I wonder, what is that?' And the girl said, 'Where?' 'There, there.'
Then, a very powerful flash. I was unconscious for a while.
One moment there was a beautiful sky, and I did see Angel.
To me it was heaven, turned to be hell, just in one second.
I nearly died because of the radiation sickness."
--- Kaz Suyieshi, Hiroshima Survivor
Indian People, original people, visited our country, Japan. We appreciated
this. Our people have a long history, long culture. I look back to my
country, you can look to the American future. This century is a cleansing
time. Clean up your mind. Polish your mirror. If you polish the mirror,
the mirror inside becomes very light. See the will of the light, which
direction to walk. My master told me, a long time ago, to spread
the message, very important message. You can reach the whole world: I
believe for the whole world, that change has come. I pray for the future
generations.
--- Usen Yamato, Zen Monk
The teaching of the most venerable Nichidatsu Fujii, founder of the
Nipponzan Myohoji, is that the American Indian people must take
the lead in the world peace movement because of their karmic
relationship to the United States government, which is a major
problem in the world because of its initiation of the nuclear threat.
Basically, the Japanese monks understand that everything is based
on recognition of the natural law, and that law is behind the traditions
of the American Indian spiritual people. As the people of the world
recognize sovereignty, the jurisdiction of the natural law, then they
will also recognize the sovereignty and culture of the Native American
people as well.
The Venerable Nichidatsu Fujii was born in Kumamato prefecture
Japan in 1885. He was ordained at Usuki, sister city of Kandy,
the ancient capital of Sri Lanka. He studied the teachings of
Maha Bodhisatva Nichiren, who he considered to be the most
unique religious and spiritual leader in Japanese history.
Nichiren Bodhisatva never went to China to study, nor did he have
a particular teacher to learn from. Ven. Fujii first constructed
Nipponzan Myohoji at various places in China and Manchuria,
from 1917 onwards. The first Nippponzan Myohoji in Japan
was established in Tagonoura, in 1924. In 1931, at the age of
forty six, he entered India in order to embark upon his long
cherished mission, to return Buddhism to the land of its origin.
In 1933, Venerable Nichidatsu Fujii met Mahatma Gandhi
at Warda, Gandhi's first ashram in India. He participated
with Gandhi in the Great Salt March to protest the iniquitous
taxes of the British Raj, on that most fundamental commodity,
salt. When Mahatma Gandhi was arrested and placed in jail,
Nichidatsu Fujii took up the Odaimoku, beating his drum
outside the walls of the jail. Gandhi incorporated this famous
chant into the daily routine at the ashram, where it is maintained
to this day along with prayers from all the major religions of India,
Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity, and many others. Venerable
Fujii entered Sri Lanka, without any possessions but his drum.
He made a pilgrimage throughout the country, and was sustained
by the offerings people make to the ordained. At the foot of
Sri Pada mountain he was given relics of the Buddha by the
congregation. After World War II, Nichidatsu Fujii vowed to
erect Peace Pagodas in many countries of the world. The relics
that were given in Sri Lanka were enshrined in the first Peace Pagoda
constructed at Hanaokayama, Kumamoto prefecture, in 1954.
Venerable Fujii after this constructed stupas worldwide. Of four Stupas in
India, the first was in Rajghir, New Delhi and others in Bombay, Orissa, and
Calcutta. Pandit Nehru also donated relics to Fujii in 1957, at the
dedication ceremony in Rajghir, where the relics are enshrined today. In
1978, Venerable Fujii was awarded the Nehru Award for International
Understanding. Venerable Fujii has constructed Pagodas in America, United
Kingdom, Japan, India, Sri Lanka, and under construction are pagodas in
South Africa, and Ladakh. The most Venerable Fujii's Stupa is a place which
symbolizes the prayers for peace:
"You must eliminate the frame of mind considering that the peace pagoda
belongs to a different faith when paying veneration to it. Instead,
see it as the God of your own faith. This is the reason for erecting
a peace paogda, the reason for the apparition of the Stupa."
Venerable Fujii died on January 9, 1985, at the age of ninety nine
at Atami temple in Japan.
"To trust, this is a religious civilization, to trust heaven, to trust the
earth, to trust God. These things will not reply, but we trust without
doubting. To save others and to save the world, these are the
tasks of the spiritual civilization. The spiritual civilization will
eternally shed light that will never terminate. The sufferings of
the Indian peoples during the past one hundred and eighty years,
and their sufferings today, are a lesson from which we all must
learn, so that humankind may live peacefully in the future.
However, by bearing this, the bright future life of humanity
will be constructed."
--- Venerable Nichidatsu Fujii
On June 26th 1945 , the United Nations Charter was signed in San
Francisco. The maintaining of international peace and security was declared
to be one of its main purposes and principles. An atomic bomb was
dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th and on Nagasaki on August 9th, the same
year. On October 24, 1945, when the U.N. Charter became effective,
disarmament was already a major issue. The United Nations Security Council
had to face the urgent task of formulating plans to regulate the production
and use of nuclear weapons. In January 1946, the United Nations Atomic
Energy Commission was set up. In 1961, the United States and the Soviet
Union came to an agreement, and presented a program for general and complete
disarmament to the United Nations. This has become a significant document
which provides a signpost and a pointer for contemporary disarmament
efforts. Negotiations started from 1961 onwards and agreements were
concluded, yet steps for general and complete disarmament were left out
of the option. The fact that the very existence of nuclear weapons is a
crime, in itself, has been lost sight of. Thus, the argument for nuclear
disarmament was wasted by negotiations dealing with partial measures.
The internal pressure of the United Nations was not able to stop the nuclear
weapons development, testing and production. The arms race is an
absurdity, nuclear war has trampled on all existing war regulations and
international law does not approve of this. How can any possible regulation
be applied to a war which does not even hesitate to risk human
annihilation?
When all the living see
at the Kapla's end,
The conflagration when it is burning,
Tranquil is this realm of mine
Ever filled with heavenly beings.
-- Lotus Sutra
Thomas Banyacya participated along with more than a thousand spiritual and
political leaders in the January 15th to 19th, 1990, Global Environmental
Forum for Human Survival in Moscow U.S.S.R. After his return, Banyacya
delivered his message to one hundred and fifty members of the Global
Walk for a Livable World, which carried the Hiroshima Peace Flame and
departed from Santa Monica on February 1, 1990, on a walk around the world
for the environment arriving at Washington, DC, at the end of September,
and to the United Nations for United Nations Day October 24th en route
to Hiroshima Japan for the August 6th 1993 arrival. On the eve of his
departure to the U.S.S.R., Thomas Banyacya discussed the possibility
of the final attempt of the Hopi Elders to speak at the United Nations
taking place this year in fulfillment of the "House of Mica Prophecy."
Jon Voight, Actor
Speaking on campus at UC Santa Barbara:
The messengers went into the world and they were told,
"You must go to the east and there will be a House of Mica."
This came down all these years, about a time when the
people would talk on cobwebs, there would be pathways in
the sky where people would travel. Many things of this nature
and they told about this House of Mica. Now, Thomas is
telling me this story, and he said, "We didn't know what the
House of Mica was." Now, mica is a rock that has a kind
of a glass aspect to it. So, they decided that they would
journey to the east and try to find the House of Mica. And
when Thomas tells this story, he tells of all these Hopi people
in vans. "Old Indians in vans," he says, "We didn't know how
to read maps and we were all over the place. We'd meet in
gas stations, then take off, then lose each other, try to come
back and it was a terrible time." He creates a very amusing
portrait of it all, you see, but these meek people were the
people that held this powerful truth that came down for
thousands of years. Hence, they were doing what they
were told to do, "Go find the House of Mica." So, they set
off loyally to follow through, this is in our time now, we are
talking about our time, 1950, my time. So they came to
New York City. And they tried to find out how to get to
the east (the east shore of New York City.) So they walked
to the east shore of New York City and they're all these people
looking for the House of Mica. All of a sudden, one points, and they look
up, and at this time you have to remember that there were not any other
buildings of glass in New York City, quite a remarkable thing to see in the
world. And there they saw the United Nations and they knew that's where
they were supposed to be, the House of Mica, the house of all nations. It
was said, "And you must knock on that door three times. Three is the
number. And if no one answers the knock after three times, then you know
you have done your part. And what will be, will be."
--- Jon Voight
"They haven't opened that door to the native people in the United Nations
to date. They let other world leaders come in and speak there. But they're
standing right here, on our homeland, yet this has never been opened
to native people at all. So the Hopi know that it is going to be hard, they
told us to knock on that door three times. A sacred number because three
worlds were here and people destroyed them and this is the fourth
one, final one. So we have to knock on that door three times. If the
United Nations people don't open that door, then we knock one more time.
Last one. And that will be, perhaps, this year. Maybe the United Nations
will open that door."
--- Thomas Banyacya, Hopi Elder
"Wampums are made from sea shells from the east coast. Purple Wampum
signifies grief. White Wampum means purity. Our people, a long time ago,
used to make large belts with designs as a way to record events. We still
use it in our councils when a runner is sent out, he will carry this Wampum
with instructions that he is working for everyone, not to stray from the
path and travel directly. Sometimes when we have a problem in the Mohawk
nation and we need the support of other nations to come together, we ask
for a Grand Council meeting. We send Wampum with the runner who
is going to deliver the message with the reason why we want a Grand
Council. The greetings that are included in that Wampum are recited
when he is asked to speak at the other nation and when this is
acceptable to that nation, they will instruct that runner, they'll return
that welcome and greetings and send him home and they'll prepare
other Wampums and send out runners to other nations. They are
starting to make these again. Our people, a long time ago used to
make large belts with designs and that is a way of recording
different events. We call them our national treasure. Just recently,
we had returned a dozen or so belts, that were very important to
our people, we have been trying to get them back for the last
eighty or ninety years. They were sold to the State of New York
in 1898. Our people have been trying, since that time, to get them
back and finally managed a few months ago to have them returned."
--- Chief Jake Swamp, Mohawk Nation
"The simple misunderstanding, that has been really the misunderstanding of
most people in the states as they have been taught, because of the misuses
of these histories, that Wampum is some sort of money, it's not money. It is
the sacred symbols of stories that are very powerful, that are really the
basis of the structure of that nation. Every nation has that, the Torah
among the Hebrews, the original writings of the Tibetans, or the Vedas
of India. That's what Wampum are. They are very precious.
They cannot possible be sold. They are for all the people.
They belong to the people. When they return to the people,
there is a great celebration because there is this truth
returning and it is a very major and powerful event."
--- Jon Voight, Actor
"I remember that Thomas Banyacya was wearing a red shirt with white pants.
He was kind of fat, with black hair in a pony tail. His hair was
receding. I remember Jake Swamp was wearing a white shirt with black
hair. I think he was wearing a feather. When both of them were talking, it
was like they were wise, as if they had been where they were talking about.
I couldn't hear all of what they were saying, but just by seeing them, I
could
tell what they were saying."
--- Mandy Gross
Santa Barbara Middle School
"I think that Tom has a compelling way of talking, and he blended words
of nature with modern things (trees-pollution). He was a very good
listener, and he gave good answers. I liked him very much."
--- Robbie Ballantyne
Santa Barbara Middle School
"Thomas Banyacya looked like he was fat, old, big nose, Indian clothes, dark
hair. Jake Swamp was fat, big nose, wore Indian and American style clothes.
He had dark hair, and wore a good watch. He said that the condors are
extinct in wildlife, that there used to be an old one left, but he got
lonely and gave up. He said that the Gods told the Hopi people,
that when the last condor was gone, he would revive the world."
--- J. P. Newton
Santa Barbara Middle School
"The thing I remembered about their talk was that when you are sad, mad, or
depressed, you should go and sit under a tree, or talk to a bird, or rock,
or whatever. I think that when you talk to an object like that, you become
(in some way) one with nature. This is a beautiful thought because the more
people respect nature (like they respect themselves) the more the earth will
respect us."
--- Dorien Davies
Santa Barbara Middle School
"They talked about their Indian culture and Mother Nature. Their English
was very clear, very pure. It was very educational and left a lasting
impression."
--- Amber Christiansen
Santa Barbara Middle School
"I heard them talking roundness, and pollution, and stuff like that; I
think it was educational and fun. I hope they come again, and we get to
meet them."
--- Sarah Guiguano
Santa Barbara Middle School
"He was a kind old man with short hair that was held back from his eyes by a
colorful head band, wearing old baggy white jeans and a colorful necklace
made by macramé. And when you looked into his eyes, they seemed to tell a
story. And the lines on his face told us that he had been there and back,
and he will do it again."
--- Melanie Mathieu
Santa Barbara Middle School
[drawing of the peace pagoda or stupa, showing at base:]
Na Mu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo
--------------end New World Times transcription
If you want to help spread the Rainbow Uprising message embodied in the Rainbow Peace Braids, to make them and wear them and share them freely for the direct cause of "Global Peace Now!", please read the message and instructions about how to make them here
Please also study the one-page classic Hopi Declaration of Peace.
See scans of the 7 pages from the original magazine at these links: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, Page 7.
More about Chief Jake Swamp and The Tree of Peace, The Great Law of Peace:
http://www.mohawknation.org
http://www.sixnations.org
More on Nichidatsu Fujii
http://www.graftonpeacepagoda.org
http://newenglandpeacepagoda.org
More on Thomas Banyacya
https://www.angelfire.com/on/GEAR2000/tbhopi.html
More about Reverend Yusen Yamato is at
http://globalpeacenow.org
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