Hopi Indians
   
What the Hopi Indians Need to Know About Themselves!
-Gene D. Matlock, B.A., M.A. Knowledgeable Hindus never fail to be amazed when I discuss the Hopis and the tribes that "emerged" in America with them, for each of these tribes has a Hindu counterpart. The Navajos or Diné, as they prefer to call themselves, have the same names and traditions of a people who once lived in Western Tibet: Nabhi-Ha (Poverty-Stricken Prophet or Holy Person) or Nabhi-Hya (Prophet or Holy Warriors). Din(i) means "People of Religion." Both terms fit them well, for their whole culture revolves around religion. Their famous sand paintings are used to cure physical and spiritual diseases, just as the Tibetan Buddhists sand paintings do. Both the Navajos and the Tibetans destroy these paintings after they are finished.

The Utes (Yutes) must be descendants of the Hindu Yuddhi who once scattered all over the ancient world. The word Supai derives from a dialectical form of god Shiva/Siva: Suva. The Paiutes’ ancestors left their ancient home on the banks of the river Baihoot, or Jailum, the most westerly of the five great rivers of the Punjab (an Indian state and also a territory in Pakistan). In Greece, they became the Baoetia.Back in India, the Heheyas were Hahayas, a leadership clan of the Rajputs, better known to us as Phoenicians. The Heheyas were probably related to the Bahannas (White men) who led them to New Mexico, for the Hindu Rajputs had white skin.Apache easily derives from the Sanskrit Apazu/Apashu, meaning "without cattle; penniless; poor; wretched." The Apaches prefer to call themselves Inde (Indus People). The Hopis are Ophites or snake worshipers. The Opis religion was once one of the major religions of the ancient world, even in Egypt and Greece. It played an important part in the development of ancient Christianity. Many English-speaking Americans practice Christian Ophiolatry, It originated in Afghanistan where it and the practitioners were called Khofis, Hopis, or L’Hopitai. Afghanistan (Oph-gani-stan), Land of Ophis (snake-worshipping) tribes), derives its name from them. The Afghan Hopis were a conservative people who, as much as possible, took much less from the land than what it had to give, just as the Hopi traditionalists still do in modern New Mexico. Ancient Afghanistan, once part of India, was larger than it is now and included the neighboring republic of Uzbekistan. The forefathers of our Hopis were subject to a royal city state named Kiva. The Cologne Sanskrit Lexicon defines Kiva, as follows: Ki = "ant hill"; Va = "Dwelling." Kiva was so named because the majority of the common people lived in raised, mound-like pit-houses having clay or adobe roofs. People entered these houses by climbing down a ladder in the center, just as ants enter their mounds through a center hole. The royal buildings and homes of the higher classes were built of sun-dried bricks. They were tiered, looking exactly like the adobe villages of our own Southwestern pueblo Indians and those of the Anazasi whose ruins tourists now admire in Mesa Verde, Colorado and Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. In remotest times, Kiva was dominated by two dominant powers with similar names: Massaga (also called Massaka) and a smaller kingdom: Musaka. Their chiefs were called Yavhas.

The Greeks called Musaka "Mousika." Nearly all the inhabitants of ancient Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Kashmir, even the snake-worshiping Hopis, worshiped God Shiva under the name of Mah-eshvara (Shiva the Great). Therefore, the whole of this area was known as Sivapuri (Land of Shiva). There was much enmity between the Musaka and the Brahmin priestly class, but the former did ally themselves with the Brahmins long enough to help drive Alexander the Great out of India.

The Hopis insist that their place of origin was Sibapu or Sibapuni, in an "Underworld" known as Kiva. They were cruelly oppressed by the "spirit" leaders and priests of the ghostly kingdom of Muski. When they had reached the limits of their endurance, they begged their chief, Yai-Owa (Yavha?), to lead them out of bondage. Yai-Owa called on Masauwa (Maheshvara?), to remove them from Muski (Musaka?) and lead them to a new homeland. Some White men called Bahanna - a term similar to Vahana, the Sanskrit word for "mover; transporter; vehicle; ship; vessel; boat" - led them across a great lake to the new homeland. Yaponche, the Hopi Wind God, blew them there. Yah is an ancient Indian word for "Great Lord;" Ponch and Pani were ancient Sanskrit words for "Phoenician."

After the Bahanna (Vahana?) took the Hopis to Southwestern USA and helped them get established, they left, promising to return someday with supplies. As we all know, the Bahanna (White men) did come back, but not the ones the Hopis were expecting.

Back in ancient India, the Hopis of Kiva stored their food in a type of underground cellar which looked exactly like their homes. It was called Khava. In Sanskrit, Kha = "cavity; hollow; cave; cavern." Again, Va = "Abode; dwelling."

Since this was dry, inhospitable desert country, nearly as dead productively as the Muski of the Hopi myths, a few enterprising inhabitants of Kiva, who did not share the Hopis "grin and bear it" philosophy of taking constant beatings from Nature (Ishvara), or of being poor by choice, decided to mine the mountains and gorges for precious gems – and the newly discovered metals now known as copper and gold. From that time forward, the whole area began to progress. No longer did everyone have to farm for a living. People could survive in other ways, such as being miners, metalworkers, and merchants. All that area sprouted into one the greatest and most advanced civilization of the ancient world, though it is now dead.

These Khivites or Hivites, as the Bible calls them, were honored with the titles of Khi-Vira ("Ant Hill Heroes"). Kha-vira ("Cave Heroes"), and Kuh-Vira ("Mountain Heroes) because they burrowed deep into mountains to get the wealth that made this new empire of Khyber (Kheevira/Quivira) prosper.

Today’s Khiva is a small city composed of little more than 40,000 inhabitants. Nobody knows how old it is. Legends state that it was founded by Shem,

Top

the son of Noah. In olden times, it was an oases on the silk road of Central Asia. Khiva was also the last important outpost where westbound travelers on the Silk Road could get good lodging and meals before crossing the Kara Kum desert to Iran. Khiva’s companion cities, Samarkand and Bukhara, hailed as the Phoenix cities of Central Asia, have been built, destroyed, rebuilt, and destroyed by nomadic invaders, conquerors and occasional earthquakes, over, over, and over again, for more than ten thousand years. Khiva rests above uncountable layers of ancient civilizations, whose clay and adobe buildings are now dust. That other area of Sibapu (Sivapuri), Kashmir, was heavily forested. The inhabitants of Kashmir built their homes, palaces, and temples out of logs. These, too, rotted away millenniums ago, leaving not one trace of Sivapuri’s ancient glory. It is significant to note that the Hopi word for "metal; silver; money" is SIIVA. The Sanskrit word, Sva, means "money; riches; property; glory." This word Siiva leads me to believe that the Hopis probably knew what metal was before the arrival of the Spaniards. The Hopis are famous for their Kachina dancers or dolls representing beings from various parts of the spirit world. The Kashis/Kassis, known in history as Kassites, were just the Hindu Kshatriya leadership caste. There are hundreds of Kachinas or Katsinas in Hopi religious traditions. Nearly all the names of these Kachinas can be traced to places or people in ancient India. I am of the opinion that Kachinas are the Hopi way of struggling with their lack of written history. Some of these Kachinas are, as follows: Ahola and Ahool: The Aiolas or Haiyulas also went to Greece, becoming the Elysians. Anga and Angwus: Anga was a large district in India, including Bengal, parts of Tibet, and Baghapuri. We English speaking people also descend from our Anga-Land ancestors. Eewiro/Eewero: These were the Iberians (originally Kheeveria) of Spain and Portugal. Haniya: the Hans or Huns of Western China. Hanomana: The Hanuman or "Monkey Warriors" mentioned in the epic Ramayana. Hemishu/Hemis: This is the "Far Away" Kachina. It is indeed "far away," being Hemis, a town and Buddhist monastery in Western Tibet. Hewta/Hooti/Hootsani: Huta is one of the thousand names of Shiva.

Hoohoomana/Hool: The Hoohoos or Hoos were an ancient group of Northern Indians.

Isoo: Issa, a name of Shiva.

Kaasaye: derived from Kshatriya.

Maakka: A people of Northern India who also became the Greek Macedonians (Makkadonia).

Masaw: Masiha or Mahesa, a name of Shiva.

Ngayaya: Naga-Yaya or "Snake Worshiping Shiva" cult.

Nukeshhey’a: Nahusha-Haya, or "Warrior of the God Nahusha," the same as the Indian Dyaus-Nahusha or the Greek Dionysius.

Oham: Ahom, a tribe of Nepalese.

Palasa; Palak: Pelasa/Pelasgos, a people from one of India’s most ancient regions: Bihar. They also became the Palestinians. There are at least 8 Kachinas beginning with the prefix Pala.

Sakwahu/Sikya:Sakha/Sakya, Scythians.

Sivu: God Shiva.

Tseeveya: God Shiva.

Yu’am: Yamm, the Hindu God of Death.

I have presented only about one-tenth of the total amount of Kachinas. The ones not named are no less "Hindu" in sound and meaning.

I was truly astonished when I found out the names of the Hopi Warrior Gods: Pokanghoya and Polangahoya. The Hindu origin of these two "Gods" is absolutely undeniable. In India in Greece, the 17th century Oriental scholar, Edward Pococke, himself wrote about the India-Indian warrior clan Pokanghoya: "the Greek Guneus, the title of the military chieftains of the Thessalonians, is a corruption of the Greek Gangyus, a name of the Hindu God of War." In ancient India, Po-gang-Hya meant "Chief Gang Warrior." Pokanghoya’s warrior companion, Polangahoya, was also a Northern Indian: Po-Lanca-Hya (Chief Lanca Warrior). These two warriors are the Hopi version of the Cabeiri/Quivira. The "Spider Woman" legends of many Amerindian tribes always give her different names of the Multi-Armed Mother Goddesses of the Hindus, such as Bhairavi, whom the Yaquis, Mayos, Opatas, and some O’odham clans called Vairubi. The Hopi name for "Spider Woman" also screams out its connection with India: Sowiti. Sowiti appears to be derived from Sati, a Shiva consort. Sati and Bhairavi were just two names of the same Hindu "Mother Goddess." The Hopi nation is covered with Hindu place names. Oraibi (Orayvi) derives from Eu-Ravi (The Great Sun God). The name of the Bahanna village of Hotevilla corresponds to the Persian influenced North Indian Hodee-Vira (Hindu Hero). The Hopi word Homolawa means "mounded vagina." Some Hopi clans claim to have "emerged" from the low hills near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, called Homolowi, where there are ruins of an ancient Hopi village bearing the same name. Homala is linguistically similar to the Sanskrit Himala, meaning the Himalayas. I insist that the Hopis really did "emerge" from the Himalayas. Hindu names and traditions are so abundant in the Hopi nation, language, culture, and religion, that to name them all would be like counting the trees in a forest. Some people may think that all these hundreds of names and traditions are coincidences, but I cannot. I am convinced absolutely that the freshness and vigor of these names and traditions indicate that the Hopis haven’t been here as long as the claim, for the Hopi myths definitely describe political and social conditions in India between 1000 and 1200 AD, when the Brahmins were trying to bring the tribals and lower classes into the caste system and deprive them of their land. There were many demographic upheavals in those days. For sure, someone brought them to America. I say that the Hopis have not been here for more than one thousand years!