#hopi #supplies
Hopi Reservation. Part 1 of 2. Delivering Winter Supplies from Salt Lake City and Other Places in Route.

On the Hopi Reservation located in the Four Corners area of the United States, part of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico, there are ancient villages, some settled in 1540 by the Hopi. The word Hopi means Peaceful People. I traveled to the 3rd Mesa. Hotevilla. I’m a White woman and I live in a large, busy city that’s an eight hour drive to the Reservation. For many years, and with the assistance of others, we gathered winter supplies for the tribe. The supplies were delivered to a large community center building in the village where they would be unload, organized and distributed by us and members of the tribe.
A cattle truck had proved to be a great way to pick up and deliver the supply items. Along the eight hour drive, we stopped to pick up things that farmers and others wanted to donate. Those items included chickens, windows, doors, tools, construction materials, farm equipment, clothing, and medical supplies. Because I live in a large city, where people have mountains of too much of everything, I was able to gather up things. I also collected books, educational supplies, electronics, new scouting uniforms, manuals, food, bottled water, and eyeglasses. Whatever would be good and useful, but also fun, such as games, and athletic supplies.

I would be up in the night washing and ironing donated clothing and packing them neatly in boxes. It’s important how donated items are presented. No cast off trash! Nothing stained, stinking, ripped or moldy. It’s bad enough to be poor, but to add humiliation to poverty makes it even worse. The message to the Hopi would be-
“We care about you. We want you to survive and have joy in your hearts."
What comes with poverty is White prejudice, loss of hope, depression, alcoholism, drug abuse, prostitution, theft, violence, illness and death. It becomes a part of the culture, and is passed down from one generation to the next. Unscrupulous Whites, the scum of the Earth, enter the villages to sell drugs and rot gut alcohol. Hopi men, women and young people fall down and freeze to death.

One winter, along the way to the Reservation, the tarp blew off the cattle truck and the chickens escaped. We had to stop and run after them along the highway and into fields. Chickens are a treasure, especially for those who live in isolated, rural areas without transportation. We drove to those places to deliver chickens and medical supplies.
The old cattle truck truck was freezing cold. The heater hardly worked at all. The cab front seat could fit three people if two passengers took turns with one crunched up on the floorboard, under the dashboard. It’s fine because it’s warmer down there. Two are in the back of the truck. That location is too cold to endure for very long, so we had to all take turns going from the warmer inside of the truck to the cold back. The return trip was always worse in the back because without all the supplies, there was very little to block the cold air and wind.
Vans could also be used to deliver supplies, and things were shipped by the United States Post Office, but the cattle truck was the best for large deliveries of much needed supplies.