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JULY 12, 2000

A press released issued by the Hopi Tribe of Arizona labels the Navajo Nation's claim to Anasazi ancestry as "cultural rape."

"It's ethnic cleansing of the Hopi, plain and simple," stated Cedric Kuwaninvaya, a Hopi councilman. "It's like telling the Hopi, 'You never existed.'"

The press release is quoted in the July 11 issue of The Gallup Independent.

When American archaeologists came to the Southwest, Navajo residents told them the previous occupants of massive sites like Canyon de Chelly and Chaco Canyon were "Anasazi." In Dineh, the term translates to "ancient ones" or "ancient enemies," depending on whom you ask.

Navajo also described Chaco as a place of witchcraft. That story and other Navajo recollections of Anasazi history are somewhat in dispute, given that Chaco and most other sites had been abandoned by 1200 AD, two hundred years before the Navajo began making their presence in the southwest.

The Hopi and other Pueblos in New Mexico are the descendants of the occupants of the ancestral Anasazi sites.

Related Stories:
Controversy over cannibalism (Indian U. 05/16)
Ruins may become monument (Tribal Law 04/25)

Relevant Links:
The Hopi Tribe - www.hopi.nsn.us
The Gallup Independent, The Truth Well Told - www.cia-g.com/~gallpind/index.html
Secrets of the Dead, PBS - http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets
The Hisatsinom and the Hohokam - home.earthlink.net/~jsmog/hohokam.html
The Anasazi Diaspora, by Shonto Begay - indy4.fdl.cc.mn.us/~isk/art/beads/shonto.html
Anasazi Archaeology, Colorado - www.swcolo.org/Tourism/ArchaeologyHome.html
The Anasazi - www.desertusa.com/ind1/du_peo_ana.html
The Mystery of Chaco Canyon, a film - www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/mocc.html

From Amazon.Com:
Man Corn: Cannibalism and Violence in the Prehistoric American Southwest
Christy Turner, Jacqueline Turner
University of Utah