Palatkwapi-Sedona: City of the star people

(ORDO NEWS) — Hopi legend says that there was once a great temple city of wisdom built by the Star People, the Kachins.

Many Hopi clans visited this city during their migrations across America and later shared stories about it when all the clans reunited at their final destination in the Hopiland Mountains.

This mysterious city, known as Palakwapi, “Red House”, was the place where the Star People taught the Indians the important rituals and secrets of the universe that are still observed and revered by the tribes today.

There has been much speculation over the last hundred years regarding the whereabouts of Palatkwapi.

Many ethnographers have located Palaquapi in the Sedona Verde Valley area, but there have been others who have placed it much further south.

However, everyone agrees that the city of the Star People was located somewhere south of the Hopi Mesa.

One of the Hopi legends about the Patka or Water clan, retold by ethnographer Alexander M. Steven in The Hopi Journey, reads:

“… no one knows where the Red Land is, but it is somewhere in the extreme southwest of Hopiland.”

Distance is of course relative, especially when you are hiking.

Some researchers argue that Palatkvapi is Palenque on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, which is located not southwest of Hopiland. In addition to the fact that this jungle town once had red-painted buildings, it seems to contradict many known facts about the “Red House”.

For example, one of the main Hopi legends of Palatkwapi says that the city was surrounded by “high walls” and that the name of the city “comes from a high cliff of red stone.”

Palenque does not have high cliffs of red stone, and its temple complex was not completely destroyed by an ancient flood. If there was a major flood in the past of the city, then it is recorded in the Maya Flood Myth, which, however, is an astronomical event depicted on the walls of its temple.

Moreover, the destruction of Palatkvapi began with the burning of the surrounding pine forest, and Palenque is in the midst of a sultry tropical jungle consisting of cedar, mahogany and sapodilla.

And if Palatkvapi is associated with the Maya city of Palenque only because of the similarity of their names, let it be known that Palenque is not the original name of the city.

Its original Mayan name was Lakamha, which means “Big Water”. Palenque is the Spanish name given to it by the conquistadors and means “fortified place”.

On the contrary, Sedona and the Verde Valley have almost all the characteristics that are attributed to Palatkwapi, which is why the most famous Hopi historian and ethnographer, Jesse Walter Fuchs, definitively identified it as the site of an ancient holy city.

Fukes was so convinced of his identification that he prompted him to name one of the most heavily petroglyphic Hopi ruins in the Palatki area of ​​Sedona, which is a shortened version of Palatkwapi.

One of the difficulties in determining the exact location of Palatkuapi is that there are numerous land routes leading to it. This is the result of different Hopi clans arriving at the Red House by different routes during their migrations.

However, the routes taken by most of the clans when they left Palatkwapi and traveled north to the Hopi Mes are very consistent and in many cases identical.

It was this general route that allowed ethnographers to definitively locate the ancient Palatkvapi as the area of ​​the Sedona Verde Valley. In fact, this route still exists today and is known as the “Palakwapi Trail”.

After carefully studying the routes taken by 30 different clans after leaving Palakwapi and traveling to the mountains of Hopiland, Jesse Fukes and other ethnographers compiled a “universal route”.

This universal route is fully described in the book “The Fourth World of the Hopi” by Harold Kurlander. The following is an abridged version of it, supplemented by northern Arizona place names:

“The clans that traveled north from Palatkvapi [Sedona Verde Valley] stopped here and there, built winter villages, and then moved on. It is said that for several years they settled in a place called Kunchalpi.

There they rested and grew their blue corn. Old people died, children were born, and over time, many people appeared for whom Palakvapi was just a word in the mouths of their grandfathers.

But one night, a bright shooting star appeared in the northeastern sky, and this was taken as a sign that migration should resume.

Then the people left Kunchalpi and set off again, moving a little to the east, until they came to a place which they called Hohokyam. There they settled again, sowed their fields and rested from their journey.

After many years they left Hohokyam and moved to another place, Neuvakwiotaka, which is now known as Chavez Pass, and there they remained for a long time.

Then, having gathered a lot of crops in Neuvakwiotak, they went on until they came to the Colorado River, not far from where the city of Winslow is now located.

There they founded a settlement, which they called Gomolovi, the Small Mound, consisting of two villages, a larger one and a smaller one. The people of the Water and Sand clans occupied the smaller village.

The larger village was inhabited by the Tobacco and Rabbit clans, the Sun clan, and others, including the Eagle, Hawk, Turkey, and Moon clans.

After some time they were joined by the Badger clan and a group called the Reed clan.” which was called Gomolovi, the Small Mound, consisting of two villages, a larger one and a smaller one.

The people of the Water and Sand clans occupied the smaller village. The larger village was inhabited by the Tobacco and Rabbit clans, the Sun clan, and others, including the Eagle, Hawk, Turkey, and Moon clans.

After some time they were joined by the Badger clan and a group called the Reed clan.” which was called Gomolovi, the Small Mound, consisting of two villages, a larger one and a smaller one. The people of the Water and Sand clans occupied the smaller village.

The larger village was inhabited by the Tobacco and Rabbit clans, the Sun clan, and others, including the Eagle, Hawk, Turkey, and Moon clans. After some time they were joined by the Badger clan and a group called the Reed clan.”

“After many moons, the various clans in Homolovi were attacked by the Apaches, who also decided to move to the area and attacked the people in their fields and took away their crops. To defend themselves, the clans called in their twin sons, Palongavhoy and Pyokanhoy, who met the Apaches on the battlefield.

At first, the Apaches laughed at the sight of two boys, saying: “Are there really no men left in Homolovi?” Then the warrior brothers threw their heavy stones and killed several of the enemy, after which the laughter stopped.

The Apaches fired several arrows, but Palongavhoya and Pyokangoya quickly moved in one direction or the other and left the arrows. After that, the Apaches rushed forward, and now each of the brothers took out a lightning arrow and fired it.

The arrows struck with a great flash and a thunderous noise. Many of the enemies lay on the ground dead or dying. Again the Apaches attacked, and again the warrior gods fired their lightning bolts, and now the ground was covered with corpses . Those Apaches who were still alive fled from the battlefield … ”

When the time came to resume migration from Homolovi to the Promised Land, some clans decided to break away and travel north to the San Francisco peaks, then to Wupatki, and finally complete their journey to Oraibi in the Hopi Mesas.

In the meantime, most of the clans stayed together, going first to the Little Ruin barrow near Wolpee, then to Awatowi, and finally to Oraibi.

Construction of Palatkvapi

As stated earlier, although the destruction of Palatkvapi appears to coincide with the end of the Third World, the period of its original construction is almost impossible to determine.

If, for example, one accepts the time periods known as “The Hopi Worlds” (“The world” is a cycle of time. Historically there were four worlds) or the “Dream Time” of the Australian Aborigines, then Palatkwapi could have been built both 10,000 years ago and a million or more years ago.

This is because “worlds” and “dream time” are very inaccurate time periods.

And then the question arises of how the city could have been built in the distant past. If the construction of ancient megalithic circles and temples took place during what the Hopi call the First or Second World – when people had an open head chakra and they constantly communicated with the Creator – their projects could be spontaneously put by the Creator into the minds of the builders.

Creative “Gods” may also have received some supernatural powers to build temples from the same source. In building the temples in Sedona, these “gods” were also assisted by the natural earth energies of the area.

The amplifying whirlwind force, combined with the particles filled with iron and crystals, would first strengthen the thought forms of the “Gods” and then magnetically unite the sand of Sedona into solid formations outlined by the builders’ mental blueprints.

Records of the scale of Palakwapi indicate that its original builders were kachinas. They also show that the original construction of the city predates the Fourth World.

However, it is believed that some of the construction (or reconstruction) of the Fourth World was carried out under the supervision of the Kachins and was carried out by the Hopi and / or representatives of other tribes living in Palakwapi. States of the Waters:

Under the supervision of the Kachins, Palatkwapi was built in three parts. The first section, completely surrounded by a high wall, was for ceremonial purposes; in the second section, adjacent to it, there were storage facilities for products; and the third section housed living quarters for people of all clans. A river ran under all three sections.

“The ceremonial part was the most important. There were no kivas then, as there are today, divided to accommodate initiates and participants in ceremonies. Instead, there were two buildings, one for initiates, the other for ceremonial purposes.

The ceremonial building was four stories, arranged in terraces, like in a pueblo, which we see today. The main door opened to the east, and there were two smaller doors facing north and south.”

“On the first or first floor, the people of Kachin taught the initiates the history and meaning of the three previous worlds and the purpose of the Fourth World to which man had come.

On the second floor, they taught the structure and function of the human body and that the highest function of the mind is to understand how the great spirit works within man.

The spirits, or kachina, taught this so that people would not become evil again and so that this Fourth World would not be destroyed like the first three.

In the third story, the initiates were taught the work of nature and the use of all kinds of plant life. Although people were still relatively clean and there were few diseases, some atrocities came bringing diseases with them, and for each of them there was a herbal remedy that people had to remember.

The fourth floor was smaller than the bottom three, so the ceremonial building looked like a pyramid. Initiates of great conscience who had acquired a deep knowledge of the laws of nature were admitted to this upper level.

Here they were taught the work of the planetary system, how the stars affect the climate, crops and man himself. Here they also learned about the “open door” at the top of their head, about how to keep it open and thus communicate with their Creator.

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