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The Hopi And The Book Of Mormon


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Hello all, I recently re read Brian Stubbs article from FAIR on Uto Aztecan languages and similarities to Hebrew/Egyptian. I recall being given a tape forever ago by my parents called They Saw Our Day by a guy named Lance Richardson (who is well known for writing a book about his nde called The Message) He talks about how the Hopi had a tradition where they would bury an arrow in the earth to symbolise their desire to live a peaceful life. The point being implied was that this was similar to the massacre of the anti nephi lehies. If i recall there were some other similarities in the story but don't recall them right now (I think that the myth also mentioned people being massacred like in the BoM). Anyways, is anyone aware of any other work done linking the Hopi to the BoM?

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I wouldn't call this a smoking gun, nor do I have a reference for it, but near the beginning of my service in the Arizona Phoenix Mission our boundaries took up the Navajo and Hopi reservations in northern AZ (they were later split off to help form the new Farmington mission). One time a group of converts came back from having received their endowments and told us "Yeah.....we've done that before....well, not that exactly, but it's a Navajo ceremony passed on from our ancestors, only different." The branch president confirmed that his grandpa, who was a Hopi chief, was in charge of conducting a similar set of rites among his people.

Some specific parts were:

Being cleaned in the river and then having fat which had been heated up used to anoint the Hopi

The chief would give you your animal name which was only to be given to the Great Spirit

Several times you would have to pass by members of the tribes who would stop and challenge you on knowing words and symbols

A symbolic battle with the Trickster

Ultimately coming to a tent with a blanket drawn across the entrance and being "challenged" before being able to enter into the presence of the Great Spirit in order to gain wisdom.

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This works against all the work the LGM-types have been doing to limit Book of Mormon influence to Mesoamerica. It seems like the Hopis=Mormons theory requires the hemispherical model.

Not really, they could be the result of a post Nehpite migration by Lamanites.

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This works against all the work the LGM-types have been doing to limit Book of Mormon influence to Mesoamerica. It seems like the Hopis=Mormons theory requires the hemispherical model.

Nope - only in your imagination.

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I wouldn't be so quick to discount Cobalt-70. But when it comes to the imaginary, I always defer to the apologists.

Good thing I'm not an apologist. Just a country kid with the ability to see beyond the end of his nose.

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Hello all, I recently re read Brian Stubbs article from FAIR on Uto Aztecan languages and similarities to Hebrew/Egyptian. I recall being given a tape forever ago by my parents called They Saw Our Day by a guy named Lance Richardson (who is well known for writing a book about his nde called The Message) He talks about how the Hopi had a tradition where they would bury an arrow in the earth to symbolise their desire to live a peaceful life. The point being implied was that this was similar to the massacre of the anti nephi lehies. If i recall there were some other similarities in the story but don't recall them right now (I think that the myth also mentioned people being massacred like in the BoM). Anyways, is anyone aware of any other work done linking the Hopi to the BoM?

Google responds:

http://www.einarerickson.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=137

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This works against all the work the LGM-types have been doing to limit Book of Mormon influence to Mesoamerica. It seems like the Hopis=Mormons theory requires the hemispherical model.

I doubt the Hopis are Mormons. But if there is any evidence for it, the possibility should be investigated, even if it creates problems for the LGT. I would still favor the LGT on other grounds, but even so.

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Hello all, I recently re read Brian Stubbs article from FAIR on Uto Aztecan languages and similarities to Hebrew/Egyptian. I recall being given a tape forever ago by my parents called They Saw Our Day by a guy named Lance Richardson (who is well known for writing a book about his nde called The Message) He talks about how the Hopi had a tradition where they would bury an arrow in the earth to symbolise their desire to live a peaceful life. The point being implied was that this was similar to the massacre of the anti nephi lehies. If i recall there were some other similarities in the story but don't recall them right now (I think that the myth also mentioned people being massacred like in the BoM). Anyways, is anyone aware of any other work done linking the Hopi to the BoM?

Anecdote Alert!

My parents served a stake mission to Pueblo Indians in New Mexico. One of the few LDS Pueblos, Eugene Naranjo,

told them much the same thing about the temple and the sacred kiva ceremonies, but to his credit he would not reveal details.

Is anyone familiar with the Pueblo story about Clemente?

Bernard

Edited by Bernard Gui
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Helaman 3

Then again, if you take Helaman 3 literally in a way that explains the Hopi, and you believe that some ancestors of the Hopi literally "did spread insomuch that they began to cover the face of the whole earth, from the sea south to the sea north, from the sea west to the sea east," then you have other problems. Like DNA and linguistics. The Hopi would be no less Nephite than would the Comanchee, or the Mohawk. Nephites spreading across North America works against LGM.

Edited by Cobalt-70
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Not really, they could be the result of a post Nehpite migration by Lamanites.

Nope - only in your imagination.

I doubt the Hopis are Mormons. But if there is any evidence for it, the possibility should be investigated, even if it creates problems for the LGT. I would still favor the LGT on other grounds, but even so.

The Book of Mormon is a record of the forefathers of our western tribes of Indians; having been found through the ministration of an holy angel, and translated into our own language by the gift and power of God, after having been hid up in the earth for the last fourteen hundred years, containing the word of God which was delivered unto them. (Joseph Smith, History of the Church 1:315.)

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Then again, if you take Helaman 3 literally in a way that explains the Hopi, and you believe that some ancestors of the Hopi literally "did spread insomuch that they began to cover the face of the whole earth, from the sea south to the sea north, from the sea west to the sea east," then you have other problems. Like DNA and linguistics. The Hopi would be no less Nephite than would the Comanchee, or the Mohawk. Nephites spreading across North America works against LGM.

Who said Helaman 3 "explains the Hopi"?

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I just located a life story of Eugene Naranjo on the Internet.

My parents became close friends with him when they served a mission

In Santa Clara. We went to his home several times on feast days.

He was on the Santa Clara tribal council and an LDS branch president.

He talks about his conversion to the church and the relationship between

his native religion and the gospel. I will start a new thread after I read it.

Edited by Bernard Gui
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Heh.....even the Lamanites and Nephites aren't Mormons...... :acute:

Kerry, you are the master of ferreting out obscure texts. Eugene Naranjo told

my parents about a man named Clemente who periodically visited the Santa Clara

Pueblo in northern New Mexico. I wish I had paid better attention and written down

what they related to me about Clemente. I know this sounds strange, but, IIRC,

Eugene compared him with one of the 3 Nephites. Don't quote me because I don't

have a lot of information. I'm going to go through my mother's papers to see if she

wrote anything about him. I've been looking for something about him for a long time.

Now that I've found an extended interview with Eugene, maybe there will be something

In there...or maybe you can work your magic...

Bernard

Edited by Bernard Gui
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I wouldn't call this a smoking gun, nor do I have a reference for it, but near the beginning of my service in the Arizona Phoenix Mission our boundaries took up the Navajo and Hopi reservations in northern AZ (they were later split off to help form the new Farmington mission). One time a group of converts came back from having received their endowments and told us "Yeah.....we've done that before....well, not that exactly, but it's a Navajo ceremony passed on from our ancestors, only different." The branch president confirmed that his grandpa, who was a Hopi chief, was in charge of conducting a similar set of rites among his people.

Some specific parts were:

Being cleaned in the river and then having fat which had been heated up used to anoint the Hopi

The chief would give you your animal name which was only to be given to the Great Spirit

Several times you would have to pass by members of the tribes who would stop and challenge you on knowing words and symbols

A symbolic battle with the Trickster

Ultimately coming to a tent with a blanket drawn across the entrance and being "challenged" before being able to enter into the presence of the Great Spirit in order to gain wisdom.

There were/are "shirt wearers" among the Sioux. The Shirt wearers were given a special shirt, and their primary obligation was the welfare of the people.

Edited by treehugger
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The Book of Mormon is a record of the forefathers of our western tribes of Indians; having been found through the ministration of an holy angel, and translated into our own language by the gift and power of God, after having been hid up in the earth for the last fourteen hundred years, containing the word of God which was delivered unto them. (Joseph Smith, History of the Church 1:315.)

I have no problem with that. The Uto Aztecan languages appear to be spread from The Gulf of Tehuatepec north to Utah at about the proper time period for a migratiion by Hagoth shipping. I believe they migrated up the west coast of Mexico.

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I have posted numerous times on this subject and similar subjects but here's what I've been able to come up with.

Hopi traditional stories possible tie to People of Ammon or Anti Nephi Lehi's

http://inthecavityofarock.blogspot.com/2010/09/hopi-children-stories-tie-hopi-history.html

Mayan and Hopi traditional stories that support Bountiful or Tula

http://inthecavityofarock.blogspot.com/2011/07/do-mayan-and-hopi-traditional-stories.html

Parallels between Hopi-Tewa migration story and that of Nephi and Lehi

http://inthecavityofarock.blogspot.com/2011/02/hopi-tewa-first-mesa-migration-history.html

Priesthoods among the Hopi and Maya and those of the Book of Mormon

http://inthecavityofarock.blogspot.com/2012/04/authorities-and-priesthoods-among-maya.html

Prospective of the Hopi Nakwach

http://inthecavityofarock.blogspot.com/2011/12/lds-prospective-of-hopi-nakwach-and.html

Hopi wedding ceremony compared to Everlasting Covenant

http://inthecavityofarock.blogspot.com/2011/03/hopi-wedding-ceremony-adds-validity-to.html

Sacred Hopi Stone Tablets

http://inthecavityofarock.blogspot.com/2011/08/hugh-nibley-and-sacred-hopi-stone.html

These are just a few links to some research I've either done or been able to dig up off of my blog. This is one of my favorite subjects to study. I would agree that the Helaman 3 scripture refers to many of the ancestors of the Hopi and other modern day Pueblo and many other tribes as well. Feel free to search my blog more if you'd like I've been able to spend considerable time with the Hopi and Navajo so I would say that I dedicate most of my reasearch in that direction. I think that Hugh Nibley was on to something in his comparison of the LDS Temple ceremony to that of the Hopi ceremonies in their Kiva's but thats a whole different subject that I would love to expound on later.

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