Hopi elder gets anthropology degree

[Richard Smith]

Great article!
I'm really glad to hear Ferrell Secakuku is trained and will be working with
his own,Hopi people .
 Al Qoyawayma,a good friend,and fellow potter has been sharing with me some
pretty fascinating work being done concerning Plasma ray formations and
Z-pinch research.Some of these researchers are almost certain that such
visual displays of light created by these plasma sightings might have been
visible in the sky 5,ooo years ago or so ,day or night creating unusual
formations that people all over the world  would have seen. These guys are
cautious in their research,though a book is soon coming I hear
They have been looking at pictograph sites all over the world for certain
consistant patterns and shapes that might yield clues...who knows?
Al gave me a stack of scientific journal material on the investigations
Sheeesh...and i thought Mia uses some weird words

Hey,when I gave the word "usitative" to my iMac dictionary it said:
doh shilth behoziin dah  !

richard





On 5/16/06 9:18 AM, "phil cash cash" <cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU> wrote:

> Hopi elder gets anthropology degree
> http://vocuspr.vocus.com/VocusPR30/DotNet/Newsroom/Query.aspx?SiteName=nau&Ent
> ity=PRAsset&SF_PRAsset_PRAssetID_EQ=108611&XSL=PressRelease
> 
> FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (May 11, 2006) -- When Ferrell Secakuku was a boy
> growing up on the Hopi reservation, his elders encouraged him to get a
> modern education as a way to preserve his tribe's culture. Now
> Secakuku, 68, is graduating from Northern Arizona University with a
> master's degree in anthropology to do just that.
> 
> "As an anthropologist my aim is to preserve the value of the Hopi life
> and to help record traditions so they may pass to future generations,"
> Secakuku said. "I'm really concerned that our culture is dying away
> because our young people are not learning our traditions and language."
> 
> Secakuku is one of 2,600 students to graduate this week during four
> commencement ceremonies at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. March 12 and 13 in the J.
> Lawrence Walkup Skydome on the university campus.
> 
> Secakuku, a member of the Hopi Snake Clan and Hopi Tribal chairman from
> 1994-1997, received his bachelor of science degree from NAU in 1964 and
> decided to pursue a master's in anthropology to not only help safeguard
> his experiences, but "to develop formal research skills to use when
> investigating the Snake Clan, religion and societal roots," he said.
> 
> Secakuku's research at NAU confirmed his beliefs that Hopi cultural
> roots, especially Snake Clan ceremonies, took shape in Mexico. His
> thesis: "Hopi and Quetzalcoatl: Is there a Connection?" explores the
> connection of Mesoamerican linguistic and religious ceremonies with
> Hopi history.
> 
> "While working on my degree I had the opportunity to travel down to
> Mexico with my professor, Dr. Miguel Vasquez. I saw many similarities
> of the Snake Clan culture at the Teotihuacan pyramid," Secakuku said.
> "The pyramid was built around A.D. 200 to honor the serpent
> Quetzalcoatl?a symbol of power and religious ritual in that area. I
> believe the Hopi brought that religion from there. We still practice it
> today."
> 
> Secakuku notes other commonalities among the Hopi and Mesoamerican
> cultures, including language connections and the belief that the Maya
> and Aztec also emerged from an underworld to this world. He is
> currently writing grants to fund further research.
> 
> "It's very amazing to discover some of these similarities that I have
> come across. It really goes to show we must have shared life together
> at one time," Secakuku said.
> 
> Secakuku, born and raised in the village of Sipaulovi, is a businessman,
> a farmer, a fine art painter and a Hopi elder who prepares his clan's
> religious ceremonies. He speaks about his life to students at NAU and
> community events. He's cultivating a nonprofit business, Mesa Media,
> Inc., to produce and market Hopi teaching language CDs and DVDs, and he
> is looking forward to graduation so he can spend more time at home.
> 
> "I've been working on my degree for two and a half years. The only time
> I've left Hopi was for educational purposes. At first, it was very
> foreign being here. I was away from the Kiva, the planting of corn, and
> I had to learn how to really read and write," Secakuku said. "Now I am
> ready to write about what I know so it will be remembered."
> 
> Chris Downum, an associate professor in anthropology, said, "Ferrell's
> thesis defense was historically important not just for NAU but for the
> discipline of anthropology. It marks the transformation of Hopi as
> subject to Hopi as scholar and expert. Non-Hopi anthropologists have
> taken so much from the Hopi over the past century, it was very
> gratifying to see Ferrell find his voice as an anthropologist and tell
> his part of the Hopi story in his own words."
> 
> -NAU-
> 
> CONTACT:
> Diane Rechel
> NAU Office of Public Affairs
> (928) 523-0611
> Diane.Rechel at nau.edu