ORAIBI, Ariz. — Above the creased high-desert landscape of northeastern Arizona, the Hopi village Oraibi, continuously inhabited for nearly 1,000 years, sits atop a blond mesa crumbling at the edges.
Each fall, during one of the Hopi calendar’s dozen or so ceremonial races, a hundred or more Hopi men gather in a pack on the scrubby plain below, all muted tones of mustard yellows and sage greens. A woman in Hopi dress holds a woven basket in the distance. Onlookers shout, “Nahongvita” — loosely, “stay strong” or “dig deep” in Hopi. A signal is given.
To the Hopi, to run is to pray.