AllMovie

The Hopi way of life and religion are subjects of fascination for numerous sympathetic individuals around the world. It is a settled, agricultural way, with intricate and elaborate traditions that depend on prolonged close contact between the generations for its continuance, and can only be sustained by maintaining the entire cultural fabric as a unified whole. Interfering with any part of their lifestyle would irreparably break the interlinked chain of ceremonies and practices which are their heritage and would, in effect, destroy the culture, because it is completely dependent upon all the parts being present. Part of the fascination for outsiders is that the culture has a highly evolved mystery tradition with roots going back to the dawn of time. Because it could so easily be broken up by outside forces, and because it is held in such great esteem by so many Native and non-Native people, the Hopi way was particularly targeted for "modernization" by the anti-Indian forces in the U.S. government, beginning at the beginning of the 20th century. This documentary, which is entirely in the Hopi language (with English subtitles), details the more recent efforts of the government to commit cultural genocide and, sadly, indicates that it has had more than superficial success in doing so.