HOTEVILLA-STEP-CHILD OF ORAIBI.

GAIN this August, as has been the custom for countless centuries, the Hopi Indians are preparing their annual entertainment for their rattlesnake brothers, messengers to and from the Rain Gods. This year, being an even year, the dance will be held on the Second and on the Third Mesa. Next year and every other uneven year Old Walpi re-echoes to the chant of the Snake Priests.

And, again the eyes of a curious white world are turned toward Northern Arizona and focused on the three mesas lying like spread-out fingers on a high plain. Here for six hundred years the Hopi Indians have lived, and since the first coming of Spaniards in 1540 have been performing the Snake Dance. There is no doubt but what this particularIndian ceremony is the outstanding attraction among all the interesting rites of North American Indians.

STRANGE was the quarrel that divided the Hopi people, that caused the building of Hotevilla and began the downfall of Old Oraibi, which was built long before Columbus came to the New World.

This year, at the Third Mesa, the Snake Dance will be held at Hotevilla, off-shoot of Old Oraibi, oldest continuously inhabited village in the United States. There will be many inquiries as white visitors toil up the steep trail past Old Oraibi. Why is the dance not here at Oraibi? Why is this gaunt, imposing old pueblo so nearly deserted? Just why did the Hopis leave this age-old habitation and build themselves another village only a few miles away? Many are the stories as to what caused the division, but we are lucky enough to have the official report of eye-witnesses to the conflict which ended in brother being pitted against brother, and son against father, just as our own enlightened people opposed blood kin in the war of the States.

The Hopi Indians have always been a peace loving tribe, not given to plundering weaker enemies or making warlike forays into the land of other Indians. Rather, they have meekly moved from place to place trying to escape extermination at the hands of warlike people and from the droughts that no human could combat. Soon after 1300 they moved to Northern Arizona and sought refuge on the Third Mesa, building their first village at Oraibi. From there they spread out on to the other two mesas, and from their lofty homes they successfully resisted extermination. The Spaniards found them friendly, that is, they were friendly until the Spaniards sought (Continued on Page 44)