Navajo Visitation Report
[From an article by Malcolm Brenner in The Independent.]GALLUP - A May 16, 1996 memorandum from Navajo Nation President Albert Hale substantiates widespread stories that an elderly Navajo woman living in Arizona received a visitation from two Navajo deities.
The visitation reportedly occurred on May 5 at Rocky Ridge, near Third Mesa, on the eastern edge of the Hopi Reservation. President Hale declared the week of May 17-24 Spiritual Unity Week to commemorate the event.
"By now, everyone has heard of the Rocky Ridge appearance of the deities," Hale said. "This is a significant event to Navajo people everywhere." Hale granted all Navajo Nation employees four hours of administrative leave during the week to visit the site for prayers and offerings. "I call upon the people of this great Navajo Nation to devote this week to prayers and prayer services," Hale said. "We must give thanks for the many blessings that we have, and to pray for our land, for abundance of rain, for our future and for our children."
While it has gone unreported by local news media, rumors of the visitation have spread rapidly across the Navajo Nation, which is currently experiencing one of its worst droughts this century. Hale's memorandum was the first official confirmation that something had actually happened at Rocky Ridge. But traditional Navajos, who guard the secret doctrines of their religion carefully, are refusing to reveal any details of the visitation to the Anglo press. Even the tribally owned and operated Navajo Times, a weekly, neglected to mention the event in its May 16 issue.
"I can't talk about it," is the response given over and over by Navajos when asked about the event. "It's too sacred to talk about," said Ray Baldwin Louis, spokesman for the Office of the Speaker of the Navajo Tribal Council. Louis expressed fears that the non-Navajo press would treat the event in a sacrilegious manner.
The site where the visitation occurred was reportedly the scene of a major Navajo ceremony on the weekend of May 18-19. Only Navajos and their linguistic relatives, the Apaches, are being allowed to visit the site, but they are reportedly visiting by the hundreds to pray and leave offerings.
The visitation is being discussed by almost every Navajo, from police officers and physicists to sheep herders. Versions of the event collected from different sources bear a striking similarity, suggesting a common origin, but the name of the woman who received the visitation remains unknown.
The Independent has compiled a composite version of the story from widely-circulated rumors. The version may or may not reflect the actual events that happened at Rocky Ridge, but it is what Navajos are passing on by word of mouth.
The visitation was witnessed by an elderly Navajo woman living with her adult daughter in a remote area near Rocky Ridge. The woman had not spoken for several years, reportedly because she had been struck by lightning.
On the night of May 5, the woman began to speak in Navajo, asking "Have they come yet?" and "Where are they?" Although there was no sound of a vehicle, the family heard footsteps around their dwelling, and the old woman went outside.
The woman saw a light come down from the sky and found she could not move. She found herself facing two of the Navajo Holy People, or Gods. One version of the story identifies the visitors as Haashch'eelti'i (Talking God) and Haashch'eoghan (Growling God). Another version identifies them as the Hero Twins Monster Slayer and Born-for-Water, who figure as demigods in the Navajo creation story.
One figure was dressed in white; one, in blue. The beings addressed the old woman, saying that the reason the Navajo Nation is suffering from the drought is because the Navajo people are not honoring their traditional religious practices. They are not conducting their corn-pollen prayers in the mornings and are not using the Navajo language as they did in the past.
Unless the Navajo people return to their traditional practices, the beings warned, the drought and other misfortunes would continue to befall them. Some versions state that the beings gave a time limit of four years before some type of major disaster occurs. Having delivered their message, the Holy People disappeared, and the woman found she could move again. Looking down, she found a circle of corn pollen on the ground with two footprints inside of it, one made by each of the Holy People.
While the appearance of the Holy People has particular significance for the Navajos and related tribes, the general outlines of the event -- the remote location, nocturnal timing, the isolated status of the visionary, the lights, and the issuance of a prophecy or warning by the beings -- are characteristic of religious visions in general.
[In 1846, the Virgin Mary appeared to children in La Salette, France. Warnings similar to those of the Navajo Holy People were given. See Epimetheus for further description.]
In 1917, the Virgin Mary appeared to a group of children in the village of Fatima, Portugal. Thousands of people witnessed the final event, in which the sun appeared to dive from the sky and swoop over the crowd. Like the Navajos, the Vatican has not released the prophecies given to the children.
In the 1980s, children in the town of Medjugorje, Yugoslavia, also reported persistent appearances of the Virgin Mary. [Also, there were warnings and prophecies.] While the Catholic Church at first refused to validate the appearances, the site has since become a shrine.
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