Thomas Banyacya, Sr. (June 2, 1909 – February 6, 1999) was a
Hopi Native American traditional leader.
Biography
Thomas Banyacya was born on June 2, 1909 and grew up in the village of
Moenkopi, Arizona
Moenkopi (, nv, ) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Coconino County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to the southeast side of Tuba City off U.S. Route 160. The population was 964 at the 2010 census.
A Hopi community, it was founded in ...
. He was a member of the Wolf, Fox, and Coyote clans. He first attended
Sherman Indian School
Sherman Indian High School (SIHS) is an off-reservation boarding high school for Native Americans. Originally opened in 1892 as the Perris Indian School, in Perris, California, the school was relocated to Riverside, California in 1903, under the n ...
in
Riverside, California and then
Bacone College
Bacone College, formerly Bacone Indian University, is a private tribal college in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Founded in 1880 as the Indian University by missionary Almon C. Bacone, it was originally affiliated with the mission arm of what is now Ameri ...
in
Muskogee, Oklahoma.
He lived in
Kykotsmovi, Arizona on the
Hopi Reservation. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, Banyacya was a draft resister, who spent time in prison over seven years each time he refused to register for the draft.
In 1948, he was one of four Hopis (the other were
David Monongye,
Dan Evehema, and
Dan Katchongva) who were named by elders to reveal Hopi traditional wisdom and teachings, including the Hopi prophecies for the future, to the general public, after the
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.
[Thomas, Robert McG., Jr]
"Thomas Banyacya, 89, Teller Of Hopi Prophecy to World."
''New York Times.'' Feb 15, 1999 (retrieved Jan 28, 2011)
Banyacya died on February 6, 1999 in
Keams Canyon
Keams Canyon ( Hopi: Pongsikya or Pongsikvi; nv, ) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Navajo County, Arizona, United States. The population was 304 at the 2010 census.
Pongsikya is a narrow box canyon that is named after a plant of edible gr ...
, Arizona.
He had been married to Fermina (née Jenkins).
See also
*
Janet McCloud
Janet McCloud (also known as Yet-Si-Blue; March 30, 1934 – November 25, 2003) was a prominent Native American and indigenous rights activist. Her activism helped lead to the 1974 Boldt Decision, for which she was dubbed "the Rosa Parks of th ...
*
Hibakusha
*
Uranium in the environment
*
Anti-nuclear movement in the United States
The anti-nuclear movement in the United States consists of more than 80 anti-nuclear groups that oppose nuclear power, nuclear weapons, and/or uranium mining. These have included the Abalone Alliance, Clamshell Alliance, Committee for Nuclear ...
*
The Navajo People and Uranium Mining
''The Navajo People and Uranium Mining'' (2006) is a non-fiction book edited by Doug Brugge, Timothy Benally, and Esther Yazzie-Lewis; it uses oral histories to tell the stories of Navajo Nation families and miners in the uranium mining industry ...
References
* http://banyacya.indigenousnative.org/preun92.html Banyaca's letter to
Perez de Cuellar
External links
* "Voice of Indigenous People – Native People Address the United Nations" Edited by Alexander Ewen, Clear Light Publishers, Santa Fe New Mexico, 1994, 176 pages. Thomas Banyacya ''et al.'' at the United Nations
Native Americans in the twentieth century By James Stuart Olson, Raymond Wilson,VNR AG, 1984*
ttp://banyacya.indigenousnative.org Thomas Banyacya Hopi Traditional ElderUranium Mining and Indigenous People
{{DEFAULTSORT:Banyacya, Thomas
1999 deaths
Hopi people
Religious figures of the indigenous peoples of North America
Native American activists
Bacone College alumni
Indigenous peoples of North America articles needing expert attention
1909 births
Anti-uranium activists
20th-century Native Americans