l Recently, High Country News and
other papers ran rather long stories about Lori Piestewa, a Hopi
lady in the armed forces who was killed over in Iraq (HCN, 5/26/03:
The tangled messages of a servicewoman killed in combat).
I doubt that many of the Hopis thought very highly of her joining
the military. The Hopis are probably among the most peaceful people
on earth. As far as I know, they have never had a war, not with the
U.S., not with Mexico, not even with their warlike neighbors, the
Navajos. And yet, the Hopis have probably survived and kept their
culture better than any of the other Indian tribes. One of their
villages, Oraibi, is believed to be the oldest continuously
inhabited village in the United States. One is reminded of
Jesus’ saying, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall
inherit the earth.”
In fact, even the name Hopi
means “peace” or “the people of peace.” If
a Hopi does something mean or violent, this is said to be cahopi
(not Hopi). During World War II, there were at least 12 Hopi young
men who refused to be inducted into the military and were sentenced
to do time in a federal prison. One can say, “Well, 12
isn’t very many,” but, when one considers that this is
out of a population of about 8,000, it’s a pretty high
percentage compared to the number of conscientious objectors in the
U.S. population.
So, why do editors think Lori
Piestewa’s story is worth printing? One possible explanation
might be that they want to draw our attention to the fact that
there are some people who don’t believe in war, and are
trying to live by that belief. Personally, I hope so, because
another Hopi belief is that some day men will come up with
something so dangerous and powerful that they can destroy the earth
with it. Some of them believe this thing is the atom bomb, and that
the end is not far off.
Chuck Worley
Cedaredge,
Colorado
The author was a conscientious objector, and
served prison time with a number of Hopi conscientious objectors
during World War II.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Lori Piestewa’s real lesson.
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