Notes from a 1967 meeting about a possible BE-in in Hopi land

“Dick Alpert, PhD, explained that the national publicity of such an event would certainly reveal to the public the injustices of reservation life and give way to redress at the hands of the Federal Gov't. He referred to the prophecy of the Hopi which states that the sons of the white-evil-man will be brothers to the Indian. He called for spiritual unity among brothers and spoke of 10-20,000 warm bodies soaking up the magic sun of Arizona.”

“Thomas, interpreter for the Hopi People of the Third Mesa, said no. No, because you mean well, but you are foolish. You are foolish because you don't think of the Inidan. — We are a small people — You fathers crush us. You are a tribe of strangers to yourselves — You gather and you disperse — You are not together — You are not one with each other. — There is no need for us to invite brothers to our home — There is no need to advertise in all underground papers of a Be-In in Hopi Land — There is no need to organize the discovery of one's self into a false tribe of 15,000 seekers. If you want to come to Hopi Land you will. If you want to understand the Indian way you will come to us and be silent and watch with closed eyes and we will not have to invite you nor will you have to invite each other — it will be.”