Gary A. David
Ancient flying machines have long been a tradition of
many cultures across the globe. Venerable Hindu texts
such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata describe
airships called Vamanas that were even used for battle.
Among the hieroglyphs on the wall of a 3,000 year-old
Egyptian temple at Abydos are depictions of what
appear to be modern airplanes and helicopters. Grooved
stone discs found in caves on the Chinese-Tibetan
border tell of an extraterrestrial race called the Dropas
whose spacecraft fell to Earth 12,000 years ago.
The Hopi Indians have inhabited three large mesas in
northern Arizona for over a thousand years. Their
legends also refer to aerial vehicles, perhaps from Orion.
The Hopi may have settled on the three primary
mesas in Arizona because they wanted to reflect
their star elders' constellation of origin. (See The
OrionZone by Gary A. David.)
These magical flying shields called paatuwvota existed in
the Third World, a previous epoch destroyed by an
immense flood. This was a time when great cities and
trade routes were built, and civilization was flourishing.
In an address delivered to the United Nations, Thomas
Banyacya of the Hopi Coyote Clan said: "The people
invented many machines and conveniences of high
technology, some of which have not yet been seen in
this age." We, of course, recognize this startling
description as echoing Atlantis.
In one legend the flying shield is associated with
Sotuknang, the Hopi sky god. Apparently a devastating
flood had destroyed Palatkwapi, "the red city to the
south" possibly located in the red rock country near
Sedona, Arizona. Shortly afterwards a brother named
Tiwahongva and his sister Tawiayisnima, who were
forgotten in the chaos and left behind by their fleeing
parents, set out on a journey to find them.
In the evening they decided to make camp. They were
just opening their bundle for dinner when they heard a
great roar overhead. The children were very frightened,
wondering what this strange thing could be. The brother
held his sister tightly to his breast as a fantastic being
descended from the heavens. He was wearing a costume
that glittered like ice (metallic spacesuit?) while his head
and face shone like a star. He spoke: "Do not be afraid.
My name is Sotuknang. Because of my sympathy for
your plight, I have come to help you. Get on my
paatuwvota and let us be on our way."
Hopi drawing of the sky god Sotuknang.
He then took them on his flying shield up into the sky so
that they could see for many miles around. Feeding the
hungry children ripe melons, he told them that they
must have faith in him and in his teachings that would
later arrive through their dreams. Finally he landed a
short distance from the village in which their mother and
father had settled, bid the young ones farewell, and flew
up again into the clouds. Forever grateful to the sky
god, the brother and sister walked into the village to be
reunited with their parents.
Mask of Sotuknang.
Because the Hopis had no such thing as a saucer, flying
or otherwise, they named it after the cultural
accouterment closest to that shape, namely, the
warrior's shield. The word tuwvota specifically signifies
this type of shield. Oddly, the concept of war is
connected in Hopi ideology with the stars. The use of
tuwvota rather than the more common word for 'disk' or
'circle' thus suggests a celestial origin for the
paatuwvota
Since the Hopi term paa means 'water', paatuwvota
possibly refers to the expanding concentric rings in
water. This might be a metaphorical description for the
way the peculiar airborne device appeared to function.
The related word patuka, or 'spindle', may also describe
the shield's spinning motion. In addition, the prefix padenotes wonder or awe. For the people of the desert,
water equals wonder, but pa- perhaps suggests the
reaction to this extraordinary means of transportation.
The tradition of the flying shield also appears in rock art.
The photo below is of an ancient petroglyph, or rock
carving, found near Winslow, Arizona, apparently
showing a triangular craft.
Petroglyph of a delta-winged spacecraft?
Grandfather Martin Gashweseoma of Hotevilla
(Third Mesa) next to petroglyph, possibly
depicting a "flying shield."
In his book Mexico Mystique, Frank Waters, a nonIndian expert on the Hopis, writes:
"On Second Mesa near Mishongnovi an ancient
petroglyph depicts a dome-shaped object resting on an
arrow which represent travel through space, and the
head of a Hopi maiden who represents pristine purity. As
the Hopis believe that other planets are inhabited, this
petroglyph represents a paatuwvota or a 'flying shield'
similar to a 'flying saucer' that came here in the
Beginning. So now at the End the sacred ones will arrive
from another planet, said to be Venus, by flying saucers.
Many Hopi traditionalists recently have reported seeing
flying saucers, all piloted by beings they call kachinas."
Some readers may be familiar with the wooden kachina
dolls that the Hopis carve. (See photo.) Kachinas are not
gods per se but spirits that act as mediators between
gods and humans. They may take the form of any
animal, plant, celestial body, or otherworldly creature.
During the spring and early summer the Hopis perform a
ceremonial cycle of masked kachina dances as a plea for
rain and the general well being of the tribe.
Eototo, chief kachina (left) and Aholi, his
lieutenant. Hopi kachina dolls at Museum of
Northern Arizona. The more correct spelling is
katsina. The Hebrew word for "officer" in the Bible
is katsin.
Much like the fallen angels (or the Watchers) of the Bible
(see Genesis 6:1-4), the kachinas were sometimes
known to mate with Hopi women. This prefigures the
contemporary theme of alien abduction for the purpose
of reproduction.
One Hopi myth tells of a young bride who accompanies
her handsome Kana kachina husband back to her
Second Mesa village of Mishongnovi on a flying shield.
Kana kachina doll.
"As the shield lifted off, the kachinas all gave out a
boisterous yell. The spectacle was incredible; every sort
of kachina conceivable was present. All of a sudden as
the couple flew along, flashes of lightning were visible in
the air and the rumble of thunder could be heard. When
the shield rose higher, drizzle began to fall. The
kachinas were now accompanying them... [Her] parents
had headed to the edge of the mesa at this time to look
out. Looking down from the rim of the mesa, they saw
an incredible number of people coming across the plain.
To their great amazement all were kachinas, singing and
crying out their calls in a pandemonium."
This passage is taken from a book called Earth Fire: A
Hopi Legend of the Sunset Crater Eruption co-authored
by Ekkehart Malotki, a white professor of languages at
Northern Arizona University, and Michael
Lomatuwayima, a Hopi from the Third Mesa shrinevillage of Hotevilla. The Kana kachina is associated with
the volcanic eruption starting in 1064 AD that created
the now-extinct Sunset Crater located near the San
Francisco Peaks. Another sixty miles farther northeast a
large rectangular rock below the village of Mishongnovi
is also known as 'the house of the Kana kachina.'
As the entourage advanced from the 'kachina' peaks
toward Second Mesa, it bore a huge quantity of corn and
melons on their backs as gifts for the Hopis. This diverse
group of divine messengers must have been a
stunningly beautiful sight. In fact, the Hopis sometimes
refer to kachinas as 'the beautiful creatures.' This
designation emphasizes not only their esthetically
pleasing appearance but also their role as actual entities
in a kinship system.
Long ago the kachinas were adopted into the clans along
with various plants and animals during the migrations
that took place after the Hopi emergence from the
Underworld -- the Third World previously mentioned.
Their presence had clearly been physical or tangible as
opposed to supernatural or ethereal. In other words,
their influence was once felt directly on a material level.
As time went on, however, social and religious
corruption -- a recurring motif in Hopi thought -- forced
these bizarre but benevolent 'people' to abandon the
American Southwest. From that period to the present,
kachinas appear for the most part only in their spirit
forms.
Some Hopis believe that kachinas still maneuver these
mysterious aircraft. In his book The Terra Papers, the
Hopi/Apache author Robert Morning Sky describes how
his grandfather and five other men were camping in the
desert in August of 1947, shortly after the infamous
Roswell incident, when a flying disk streaked across the
night sky and crashed. From the wreckage they
recovered a silvery alien, unconscious but still alive,
whom they named the Star Elder. After they nursed it
back to health, the ET then telepathically described by
means of a crystal the galactic war raging above which
had downed its spacecraft. This X-Files material with a
Native American twist remains unconfirmed.
Unexplained sightings continue, however. In the
summer of 1970 hundreds of UFOs were seen about 125
miles southwest of the Hopi villages near the town of
Prescott, Arizona. On the evening of March 13th, 1997 in
the same vicinity a delta-winged craft perhaps as large
as a mile across with lights on its leading edges was
spotted drifting silently overhead before speeding off
toward the south. It later became known as the Phoenix
Lights.
USA Today headline, June 18th, 1997.
In 1998 the radio talk-show host Art Bell interviewed
two Hopi elders who stated that their very distant
ancestors knew how to travel to other planets. They also
said that during the End Times, we would be visited by
'people outside' the Earth who have an advanced
technology.
Trio of star elders, ceramic bowl, northern Arizona.
Many Hopi wisdom keepers believe that the increased
presence of flying shields signals the end of the Fourth
World, or our current era. In conjunction with Biblical
prophecies of the apocalypse, the kachinas or star elders
may be trying to warn us of this dire state of affairs. By
listening to these entities throughout the ages, the Hopis
living on their isolated mesas have long known the
global fate that now seems imminent. Some of the signs
and portends are in the skies. We need only look up.
Hopi Star Kachina. The three stars on his crest
may represent Orion's belt.
Copyright © 2008 by Gary A. David. All rights reserved.
About the Author
Gary A. David is author of The Orion Zone: Ancient Star
Cities of the American Southwest (Adventures Unlimited
Press, 2006). Mr. David's new book Eye of the
Phoenix: Mysterious Visions and Secrets of the
American Southwest is now also available from the
usual outlets, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble,
Adventures Unlimited Press, or get a signed copy from
the author. (www.theorionzone.com) He has published
articles in Fate, Atlantis Rising, Ancient American, and
World Explorer magazines. Gary lives with his wife and
daughter in northern Arizona, where the skies are still
relatively pristine.