“Those who are gone”
I have been blessed to have traveled to 50 countries and to have spent a quarter of my life living overseas. I hope to be able to continue doing this. I have also been blessed to travel all over my own home state of Arizona, rich with geological wonders, such as the Grand Canyon, and landscapes that take my breath away every time I feast my eyes on them. Arizona is truly a great, wonderous state.
But this past weekend, a long weekend for the American holiday of Thanksgiving, I traveled a mere 26 miles/42 kilometers from my home in Southern Arizona to visit a place I had never been, though I knew about it — Signal Hill in Saguaro National Park, home to the Hohokam petroglyphs.
These petroglyphs — rock drawings — were left by those people who are now known as the “Hohokam” people. According to the Saguaro National Park website, “Most of the rock art found in Saguaro National Park was created by the prehistoric Hohokam and is in the form of petroglyphs. These are created by etching, pecking or scraping designs into the dark patina found on the surface of sandstone and other rocks.” The rocks and art are protected by simple metal enclosures less than waist high and some are right in front of you and quite obvious while others are further off, requiring some careful scanning of the rocks to see the drawings.
After viewing these fascinating creations, the questions naturally arise: who were these Hohokam people and why did they leave these drawings behind? Without going into too much detail, suffice it to say that the Hohokam people inhabited parts of the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico from the early part of the first century, AD, to the late 1700s. As to why they left these drawings, let me again quote Saguaro National Park: “Did rock art serve a purpose? Was it communication or decoration? We can only guess at the intended meaning of the artist. We may look at rock as a reflection of Hohokam culture. Some possible purposes of rock art include: hunting, fertility or spiritual symbols; boundary markers or landmarks; records of important events; clan symbols; and solstice and calendar markers.”
As you consider the “why” of these Hohokam people creating this rock art, tere’s something to think about: “Hohokam” means “those who are gone” or “that which is perished.”
Which brings me to my question to you, Macedonia: given what is going on with Macedonia these days, having had your current Government give away your name and much else and now watching that same Government attempt to give away your identity and much else, will historians look back one day at some of the culture you have left behind and describe you, the Macedonians, as “those who have gone” and “that which is perished?”
Can a people disappear? Well, this past weekend, I looked at the art left behind by a people who have disappeared.
As Macedonia and the Macedonians — wherever they live — continue to be bullied by Bulgaria, Greece, and the woke elites in the US State Department, EU, and NATO, it should become abundantly clear that there are only two courses of action — give in to the bullies and deny your own existence and disappear, or fight back.
Macedonia, under Zoran Zaev, has already given in much to one of the bullies, Greece. I am convinced, however, that that damage can be undone, one day, and will in fact be undone, one day. However, if Macedonia, under Zoran Zaev, gives in to Bulgaria’s childish demands, then quite simply, there will be nothing left to give. Macedonians will gradually become something else, but definitely not Macedonians. And other peoples will then name you with whatever name they want and will write your history.
Now, here’s something else to think about: the word “Hohokam” comes from another indigenous people, the O’odham, a living people who today inhabit part of my state of Arizona. When the “Hohokam” people disappeared or perhaps were assimilated into the O’odham peoples, the O’odham peoples developed that word, “Hohokam” to describe the people before them, the people “who are gone.”
To put it a bit more bluntly, a living people today made up a name of their own choosing to give to the ones who disappeared.
