Culture and Coexistence into the Great Unknown
Here is a retelling of the Hopi story, The Revenge of the Katcinas (Kachinas or Katsinam). To grow crops and survive in their mountainous desert, the Hopis understand the necessity for proper devotion to the supernatural powers, known as the Kachinas, who embody the spirits of living things and also of ancestors who have died and become a part of nature. When the people fall out of favor with the supernaturals, disaster results.
The Butterfly Dance is a Hopi ceremony petitioning for rain, and health for all living things, thanking the beautiful butterfly for pollinating plant life.
Mytho-Historical Prophecy: Facing certain destruction by a massive wildfire raging down from the high peaks, the Oraibi village leader consults Old Spider Woman on overcoming the state of koyaanisqatsi, or life out of balance, that had befallen the land.
Following the dances of the kachinas in the wayward village of Pivanhonkyapi suffering the imbalance of Koyaanisqatsi, the dreaded Yaayapontsa arrive to purify the world with fire.
The Hopi curse of Koyaanisqatsi marks the total disintegration of the life of harmony and balance. The subject of a 1982 tone poem of modern day environmental devastation by Godfrey Reggio, also shown in the mythological destruction of the ancient Hopi city of Pivanhonkyapi.