Contents

Thomas Banyacya

Thomas Banyacya, Sr. (June 2, 1909 – February 6, 1999) was a Hopi Native American traditional leader.^[1]

Biography[edit]

Thomas Banyacya was born on June 2, 1909, and grew up in the village of Moenkopi, Arizona. He was a member of the Wolf, Fox, and Coyote clans.^{[citation needed]} He first attended Sherman Indian SchoolinRiverside, California and then Bacone CollegeinMuskogee, Oklahoma.^{[citation needed]}

He lived in Kykotsmovi, Arizona, on the Hopi Reservation. During World War II, Banyacya was a draft resister, who spent time in prison over seven years each time he refused to register for the draft.^[2] In 1948, he was one of four Hopis (the other were David Monongye, Dan Evehema, and Dan Katchongva) who were named by elders to reveal Hopi traditional wisdom and teachings, including the Hopi prophecies for the future, to the general public, after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.^[2]

Banyacya died on February 6, 1999, in Keams Canyon, Arizona.^[2] He had been married to Fermina (née Jenkins).^[3][4]

See also[edit]

• Janet McCloud
• Hibakusha
• Uranium in the environment
• Anti-nuclear movement in the United States
• The Navajo People and Uranium Mining

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• "Voice of Indigenous People – Native People Address the United Nations" Edited by Alexander Ewen, Clear Light Publishers, Santa Fe New Mexico, 1994, 176 pages. Thomas Banyacya et al. at the United Nations
• Native Americans in the twentieth century By James Stuart Olson, Raymond Wilson,VNR AG, 1984
• Remembering Thomas Banyacya
• Testimony/ Thomas Banyacya Sr., World Uranium Hearings, 14 September 1992, Salzburg
• Thomas Banyacya Hopi Traditional Elder
• Uranium Mining and Indigenous People