First Mesa (Part 3: Hopi Culture)

Left: Hopi canteen (Stanford Museum). Right: basketware from the village of Oraibi

Note: Scroll down to start with First Mesa-Part 1 if you haven't read those posts yet.

Because it is a sacred place for the Hopi, outsiders are admitted to Walpi only by guided tour. The Hopi are a very spiritual people, and within its small area Walpi has a number of kivas, rooms which are used for religious and civic purposes. Most of the year the kivas are open only to men, but women are admitted at the time of the solstice festival.

Our guide was happy to explain Hopi beliefs and customs, but she sometimes had to stop and consider what was appropriate to tell visitors, and what should remain within the tribe. One important fact is that the Hopi are one of the few traditionally matrilineal societies, where inheritance and social status is determined by the female. A man will become part of his wife's clan upon marriage.

Read on to see what the World Culture Encyclopedia says about Hopi religious beliefs:

The Hopi universe consists of earth, metaphorically spoken of as "our mother," the upper world, and the under world from which the Hopi came and to which their spirits go after death. Although the concept of original creation is unclear, there are various accounts of the Emergence into this present world from three preceding ones, the place of emergence, or the sipapu, being located in the Grand Canyon. Each of the preceding worlds came to an end because of some evil done by witches, and the present world will someday come to an end also. In order to forestall this and to keep the world in harmony, ceremonies are performed by ceremonial societies and by kiva members. The universe is balanced between a feminine principle, the earth, and a masculine one, manifested in the fructifying but dangerous powers of sun, rain, and lightning. Evil is caused by the deliberate actions of witches, called "two-hearts" because they have bargained away their hearts for personal gain and must steal another's heart to prolong their own lives. When a ceremonial leader is believed to "steal" the heart of a relative to ensure that the ceremony will be successful, there is an element of magical human sacrifice in this belief.

In Hopi cosmology Dawa, the Sun-Spirit, created the Four Worlds.

There are three major classes of supernatural. The most individualized are the gods and goddesses, each having his or her special area of concern. Figures or impersonations of these deities are used in ceremonial activity.

A few of the kachinas are individuals, but most of them are classes of beings each with its different character and appearance. In kachina dances the dancers wear the costume appropriate to the kachina type they portray. Some types are more popular than others; new ones are invented and old ones drop out of use.

Kachina dolls from 19th c. to present. Artists unknown.
These are given to girls to teach them about the over 300 kachina spirits.
Finally, there are the generalized spirits of natural objects and life-forms, who will be offended if one of their earthly representatives is treated improperly. Thus, when a game animal is killed, its spirit, and the generalized spirits of that animal type, must be placated.

The Hopi follow a ceremonial calendar determined by solar and stellar positions. The ceremonial year begins with Wuwtsim, the Emergence ceremony, in November. Soyal, occurring at the time of winter solstice, is conducted by the village chief, and its officers are the men holding the leading ceremonial positions in the village. It is at this time that ceremonial arrangements for the coming year are planned. Powamuya, in February, is a planting festival in which beans are sprouted in the kivas in anticipation of the agricultural season. This is a great kachina festival, with many types being represented. Kachina dances begin after Soyal and continue until July, when Niman or Home Dance is held. This celebrates the return of the kachinas to their unearthly homes in the mountain peaks and the under world.

Snake dance at Walpi

Snake-Antelope and Flute Dances alternate biennially in August, the first emphasizing war and the destructive element and the second emphasizing the continuity of life after death. In September, Mamrawt, or the principal women's ceremony, is held. This contains many elements found in Wuwtsim. The other women's societies hold their ceremonies in October. Along with these ceremonies, there are some that are held only from time to time and others that have been defunct for many years. In addition, there are many small rituals. Accounts of the late nineteenth century indicate that hardly a day passed without some ritual activity taking place somewhere in each village. While ceremonies have specific purposes, all are in some way thought to bring rain, which is valued both for itself and as a symbol of abundance and prosperity. The kachinas, especially, are rain-givers. Kachina dances are joyous public events, consisting of carefully choreographed dance sets interspersed with comical performances of clowns. The clowns, like ignorant children, mock everything and understand nothing. Social deviants are shamed by the clowns' mockery.

1899 photo of Hopi snake priest (with snake in mouth!)
(Library of Congress)

Next post: Monument Valley and the Colossus of Memnon

First Mesa (Part 2: Walpi)

"Picturesque Walpi, perched on the point of a rocky island in a sea of sand, is an irregular, rambling community-house, built without design, added to in haphazard fashion as need arose; yet it constitutes a perfectly satisfying artistic whole."
Edward S. Curtis, The North American Indian (1907)
Approach to Walpi a century ago. It looks much the same today.
Walpi is the oldest village on First Mesa. It was established in 1690 when a Hopi village at the foot of the mesa was abandoned out of fear of Spanish reprisals for the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Terraced onto a narrow rock table, Walpi is the most pristine and enchanting of the Hopi villages. (Oraibi [N35.87613 W110.63957], on Third Mesa, is older--going back to around 1100.)

This is a living village, not an abandoned ruin. But these days only a handful of elderly people stay here year-round. Because there is no electricity or running water in Walpi, residents now walk a few dozen yards to neighboring Sichomovi for bathing. In former times women hauled water up to the mesa from the plain below. There are no visible signs of commerce here, or any activity whatsover save the few villagers offering handmade kachina dolls or pottery for sale and the dogs that eagerly joined our tour.

Walpi street scene
Views from the windswept mesa are awesome. Stairways cut into the side of the rock lead to agricultural fields and cow pasture on the plain below. The constant going up and down, often with heavy loads, must have kept the Hopi in excellent shape in the past. Now, our guide said, "You can always recognize a Hopi because we are short ... and chubby!"

The impression I received of the Hopi was of a generous and peaceful people. All the people we met were extremely courteous and welcoming. They asked only that we respect their traditions and not take photographs. Photos shown here were taken by Edward S. Curtis in 1906. Northwestern University Library, Edward S. Curtis's "The North American Indian," 2003.



























Left: Stairway leading down from the mesa. Right: Young Hopi women

The plaza at Walpi


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Next: Part 3 (Hopi Culture)

First Mesa (Part 1: Arrival)

Looking up at First Mesa from below. You can't tell it by this photo, but three traditional villages sit on top of the mesa, 300-500 feet above the plain. The houses below are in the village of Polacca, on the plain.
We are so lucky I turned down a hamburger.

I had called ahead to the Hopi Reservation to ask what time guided tours were being offered of First Mesa, one of three mesas overlooking the Colorado Plateau that the Hopi claim as their ancestral home.

"Be there between three and three-thirty," I was told by the voice on the other end. Not knowing how long the drive would take, and not wanting to be late, I declined Mom's offer to stop at the Cameron Trading Post for another good meal, and instead we kept heading east through the seemingly empty scrublands of the Navajo Nation.

There are no signs announcing one's entry to the Hopi Reservation. The Hopi are not a large tribe (about 7,000 members in the last census), and their reservation is surrounded on every side by the 27,000 square miles of land belonging to the much more numerous Navajo.

Second Mesa (on the left side of the photo) as seen from Highway 264
One reason I wanted to visit here is that this is their home. These lands have always belonged to the Hopi; they were not forced to move here by the United States government. Approaching from the west, you go past Third and Second Mesas before reaching First Mesa.

When we arrived at the foot of First Mesa, I turned off the main road and followed a steep gravel lane to the top, several hundred feet above the plain below. I had been told to look for a stone building called Ponsi Hall, where the tour would begin. My precconceived notions of clearly marked signs and paved parking lots are far away from the reality here. Just park anywhere, walk up to Ponsi Hall--you can't miss it--and open the door to whatever awaits.

It was 2:15. We were 45 minutes early. Or so I thought.

When we walked in, a guide was teaching some Hopi words to a group of about a dozen tourists. I was a bit surprised that, although the language appears to be maintained somehow, it seems to be understood by a small minority...even older women in the room did not know number words beyond ten.

After a few minutes the demonstration was over, and the tour was about to begin. We paid our $8 registration fee and joined the group. It turns out that this was the only tour of the day, and had we arrived at three thirty it would already have been over.

I learned that atop the mesa are three traditional villages: Tewa, Sichomovi, and Walpi. Because this land is sacred to the Hopi, I was not allowed to take photos. A short walk took us from Tewa, the most modern of the three villages, through Sichomovi, and within five minutes we were at Walpi. What awaited us was a highlight of our entire trip.

Next: Part 2 (Walpi)
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