Rain Run

As the sky slowly lightened and the morning stars heralded the dawn, a lone figure steadily loped across the face of a windswept mesa in the heart of the Hopi Indian homeland. Fleet of foot and strong of spirit, the 74-yearold elder paced himself along timeworn trails as he readied himself for a spiritual pursuit shared with other Hopi tribal members. Several years of drought had withered the Southwest, including the Hopi Indian Reservation. Tribal elder Bob Mack and other Hopi runners were training for a prayer run-a rigorous 14-day adventure beginning in the early morning hours of March 2 at the Hopi village of Moenkopi and continuing south to Mexico City in time to join the 4th World Water Forum. The runners traveled more than 2,000 miles in quarter-mile relays, quietly carrying commingled water sent from as far as Mount Fuji in Japan and the Lake of Galilee near Jerusalem while praying for peace every step of the way.

"Running is sacred, a moving prayer," says Ruben Saufkie Sr., a member of the Hopi Water Clan and organizer of the 2006 Hopi run. "As [a runner's] feet hit the ground, the Earth vibrates and carries the message to all corners of the world."Although the participants worked as a team to carry the sacred message, most of their training was completed individually. G. Aaron Mockta, 27, has been running all of his life. "It's part of doing your duty," Mockta says. "The Earth is alive. [Running] gives you the strength and ability to carry the message."

Mack also started running at an early age, but unlike some of the other participants, this wasn't the first time he ran for rain. For decades, the sprightly septuagenarian has sprinted in spiritual ceremonies including the rain-evoking SnakeAntelope Ceremony. The route retraced the footsteps of his forefathers along a thousand-year-old path rooted in Hopi history and culture.

Throughout the centuries, Hopi runners have played pivotal roles-carrying water for crops, relaying messages of mutiny, sprinting for spiritual ceremonies, chasing Olympic dreams and pounding pavement in an effort to preserve the world's water resources.

Inhabiting centuries-old villages situated on three mesas, the 7,000 tribal members struggle to balance the traditions of their religiously ordered lifestyle with fast-paced intrusions from the modern world.

Old Oraibi, one of the 12 Hopi villages, dates back to A.D. 1150-making it the oldest continuously inhabited village in the United States. The Hopis trace their ancestry back even farther, to a time when the clans followed migratory routes that legend claims stretched to the far corners of the Americas. The stories recount how the clans finally rejoined on the mesas of the Hopi homeland-an arid plateau at the "center of the universe."

Satellite imagery has revealed those ancient runners' trails,

Stretching across the Four Corners region in the United States and deep into Mexico and beyond. Just as long-distance runners once carried messages along the Inca Highway from northern Ecuador to southern Chile, the Puebloan Indians in the American Southwest relayed messages between their remote communities. Runners carried word of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, and Hopi runners figured prominently in the united attack against Spanish occupation. By using bundles of knotted yucca cords to count down the days, the people of more than 70 Puebloan villages scattered across 300 miles launched a precisely timed uprising that for a time expelled the Spanish. Centuries later, the American government hired Hopi runners to carry messages. In 1903, George Wharton James documented this willingness to employ stalwart Hopi runners. “For a dollar,” he wrote, “I have several times engaged a young man to take a message from Oraibi to Keams Canyon, a distance of 72 miles, and he has run on foot the entire distance, delivered his message, and brought me an answer within 36 hours.” Another fleet-footed messenger, Charles Talawepi of Old Oraibi, reportedly ran a message to Flagstaff at the behest of Walter Runke Sr., the Indian agent at Tuba City. Talawepi covered 150 miles in less than 24 hours, earning a $20 silver piece for his efforts.

Louis Tewanima ran with the 1908 U.S. Olympic track team and placed ninth in the marathon. In 1912, he earned Olympic silver for his swiftness in the 10,000-meter race. In his younger years, the hardy Hopi youth would run barefoot from his village to Winslow and back-a 120-mile trip-so he could watch the trains rumble through the busy railroad town. Sent to the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania as part of the U.S. government's mandatory school program, Tewanima rose to Olympic fame under the school's athletic program headed by Glenn Scobie “Pop” Warner. Eventually, like many of his people, Tewanima returned to his homeland, slipping quietly back into the Hopi way of life as a farmer and a priest, running for rain just as the Cloud people have done for thousands of years.

Long-distance runs play a key role in vital Hopi ceremonials intended to sustain life-giving rains. Living in a desert, the Hopi people perfected the agricultural technique of dry farming. A handful of natural springs scattered throughout the Hopi Reservation's 1.5 million acres offer the only yearround sources of water. With 10 inches of rainfall annually, Hopi farmers rely on unique planting techniques to block winds and retain the moisture needed to grow their specialized crops of corn, beans, melons and squash.

This intimate relationship with the land keeps the Hopis fine-tuned to the environment and the fragile equilibrium between life and death. To the Hopis, water is life. Like the Katsinam, spirit guides that relay messages from the people tothe gods, the Hopis pray on their feet-sprinting through the seasons and running for rain. The Cloud spirits are believed to rejoice in this display of fleetness, gathering together to watch and reward the swift sprinter with much-needed rain. In effect, the runner becomes the prayer.

Even though men traditionally run in ceremonies, several Hopi women participated in the ritual run to Mexico City. Like most Hopi children, 44-year-old Vivian Jones began running foot races as a child. With three children of her own, Jones decided to participate in the Mexico run.

"We ran for the whole nation and all living things that need water," says Jones. "At the beginning, I could feel the heaviness of the burden, but the closer we got, the lighter that burden became."

It came as no surprise to the runners that rain began to fall as the group approached the U.S.-Mexico border. And when they made a gift of the water they had carried for 2,000 miles, a bald eagle appeared and circled the congregation before winging off into the distance. Loud cries filled the square as the runners rejoiced, hoping the eagle would deliver their prayers for rain.

Coincidentally, or not, a spate of storms in March finally lifted the second-driest winter in history.

"The eagle delivered our prayers and [the gods] heard our message," says 23-year-old Ned Zeena. Solemn in his spirituality, Zeena recalls a time when he was lost in the matrix ofmodernity, enduring hardship and loss in Phoenix. But like many of his people, including Bob Mack and Louis Tewanima, Zeena returned to the Hopi homeland, where the dry, austere landscape binds his people to their sacred center.

Today, the Hopis no longer have to run to relay messages from one village to the other, but they still run with the clouds, race with the wind and sprint for the spirits, each step like a raindrop in the dust. All After researching this story, Carrie M. Miner decided to take her own running pursuits outdoors, hoping to find a little spiritual insight along the way. She lives in North Pole, Alaska.

Photographer Gary Johnson of Surprise marks his 20th year as a contributor to Arizona Highways.

when you go

Location: Second Mesa, Hopi Indian Reservation Getting There: From Flagstaff, drive east on Interstate 40 for 56 miles, past Winslow to State Route 87. Turn left (north) onto State 87 and drive approximately 60 miles to Second Mesa. Attractions: The Hopi Museum and Cultural Center is located on Second Mesa. The museum provides information about purchasing arts and crafts from Hopi artisans as well as information about tours and activities on the reservation. Travel Advisory: The best time to visit the Hopi mesas is during summer and fall. Please be respectful of the Hopi culture; recordings of any kind-photography, video and audio recording and sketching-are prohibited on the Hopi Reservation. Additional Information: (928) 734-0230 or (928) 734-9549; www.hopi.nsn.us/village2.asp.