Water is life

Hopi elders say Patuwaqatsi, “water is life”, and our lives are in peril. Our lives are bound in, and surrounded by water. Water is crucial to the existence of life on this planet, and we neglect it. We are born from it and carry it with us in our bodies until our deaths reveal us as the dust that we are. It is the element that holds us together and is the home for many of our relations.

Our water is spoiled. Millions of gallons of oil and fuel contaminate our shores, our seas, and our groundwater every year. The coal and energy producers use our sacred water to move their product hundreds of miles as it is the most cost effective way to transport it. The groundwater that quenched our ancestors for thousands of years disappears as our populations increase their demands for energy, fuel, and clean water.

I am of the Yaqui, and of the Aztecs. My people are neighbors to the Pueblo and friends of the desert. Our neighbors to the North taught us that a painted prayer on our vases and buried deep in the earth could bring the Rain Bird. Our songs awaken the Great Bird that brings our people life. Now the cold spines of oil exploration pierce the earth, with no prayers for the Rain Bird, no songs for the land, no apologies for our intrusion. The grinding claws of energy extraction’s ceaseless demands for energy replace our prayers, and the Rain Bird eludes us.

Joaquin Newman