Chaveyo

Introduction to the Hopis

The Hopi Indians of Arizona are descended from the Uto Aztecan linguistic stock, an archaeological language classification. Their name is derived from Hopitu-Shinima, The Good People, and except for a brief period of their history during the Spanish reign, they have always fulfilled the true meaning of the peaceful way of life.

The Hopi are a handsome people, with the classic Indian physiognomy: high cheek bones, straight, broad noses, dark, slanted eyes, full-lipped mouths. They have glossy black or dark brown hair and are generally small of stature, muscular and agile. Their skin tones tend to be pale reddish-brown, rather than the deeper browns and reds of other tribes. Their definitive coloring may be the result of the purity of their race, for there has been little intertribal mixture. Though years ago many Hopi men had Navaho wives, intermarriage between the tribes is almost nonexistent today.

Deeply concerned with the preservation of their culture and religion, they spend the long winter nights spinning out their people's legends and religious traditions. Much of their history has been lost for all time, for the Hopi have no written language. Their folklore and customs have been passed along from generation to generation only by the spoken word, from father to son in the homes and at the kiva men's meetings.

The lack of a written language has meant a great loss to the history of the Southwest as well, for archaeologists place Hopi (and Pueblos) in the area as early as 300 A.D. At that time, they were pithouse and flatland dwellers, then cliff dwellers about 700 A.D., village builders circa 1050 A.D., and historical beginning around 1540 A.D. A great drought from 1276-1299 changed the location of the clans and migration followed up to the Pueblo Rebellion of 1680, when the people settled in more or less the saine area as they live today.

The revolt of the late seventeenth century was a defensive measure on the part of the Hopi, for the Spanish priests demanded that they cease all their heathen ceremonies and adhere only to Catholic beliefs. The "peaceful ones," fearing According to the Hopi viewpoint as interpreted from past generations to the present, Hopis were citizens of their state before Federal and state naturalization status.

According displeasure from the gods who had brought them rain and good crops, drove the "long gowns" off and retreated to the high, defensible plateau and its three mesas which today form the nucleus of the Hopi Reservation.

The Hopi villages, past and present, their history, location, name and meaning, can be outlined as follows: Antelope Mesa: Awatovi (Place of the Bow), founded ca. 1332, destroyed ca. 1700, during Pueblo Rebellion.

First Mesa: Walpi (The Gap), founded 1417, relocated after 1680. Sichomovi (Flower Mound), founded ca. 1730, relocated 1750. Hano (The People), founded ca. 1700. Polacca, founded ca. 1890.

Second Mesa: Mishongovi (Rising Up Place), founded ca. 1200, relocated after 1680. Shungopovi (Tall Weeds by the Spring Village), founded prior to Mishongovi and Oraibi, relocated 1680. Shipaulovi (Where the Mosquitos Are), probably founded after the Revolt.

Third Mesa: Oraibi (Where the Orai Rock Is), founded ca. 1150, never relocated. Moenkopi (By the Running Water), founded 1871-5 (upper and lower). Was present as farming village in 1700s, permanently settled in 1871. Kiakochomovi (Hill of Ruins) or New Oraibi. Founded 1900. Hotevilla (The Place of a Spring Inside a Cave Where a Low Entrance Might Scratch Your Back), founded 1906. Bacabi (Place of the Reeds), founded 1907.

Today, over 6,000 Hopi live on the reservation in centrál northern Arizona. They are not the vanishing Americans as some claim, for estimates in 1904 placed their number at 2,338.

Though they are surrounded by 125,000 Navaho on their reservation, which encloses the Hopi land on all four sides, they choose to remain there in order to protect their sacred places, kivas and shrines and to be on the land of their forefathers.

The Hopi children attend elementary schools on the reservation, high schools at Ganado and Winslow and the Indian School in Phoenix, and the universities in Arizona. They often return home for ceremonies, now held mostly on weekends, both during their student life and as business employees. The Bureau of Indian Affairs offers employment assistance services to the young people who do not choose to return to the reservation immediately after graduation, but prefer to sample the white man's ways for a time.

The Hopi have their medicine men, but all medical facilities are under the Public Health Department and entirely separate from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. There is a hospital at Keams Canyon on Hopi land, and a modern, brand new medical center in Phoenix.

Living conditions on the reservation have improved greatly in recent years with the advent of running water, electricity and better sanitation. The Hopi have always lived in houselike dwellings in fact, the Pueblo ancestors built the first skyscrapers: five-story stone apartment houses designed to accommodate thousands. Today, their home is usually a single family dwelling which is owned by the Hopi woman, along with the furnishings, food, seed, springs and garden. The Hopi man owns the livestock, fruit trees, tools, ceremonial regalia and the family car.

The basic beliefs of the Hopi culture manifest themselves in individual Hopi family life, too, in other ways than the division of household properties. Sharing is the keynote: the elders impart their wisdom and experience to the young, who in turn hold them in highest esteem. Children are taught respect from their earliest years; they are free as the wind until age six, when formal schooling and home training begin, the duties increasing with their years. Teenagers mature early, are bright and imaginative, and quick to learn the ways of the "bahana" (white people) at government schools.

Though the Hopi cling tenaciously to their heritage, they also realize the importance and necessity of keeping one foot in the white man's world. Federal legislation enacted in 1918 bestowed U. S. citizenship on the Indians; Arizona legislature did not follow suit until 1952, although many of the state's Indian sons had completed tours of duty in the European and Pacific theaters in World War II. Their military service opened their eyes to other ways of life and gave them a deeper respect for their own. Today, many Hopi have two names: one an Anglicized name for government records, the other a clan name of religious symbolism.

The main mode of living for the Hopi is dry farming. They raise corn, their staple food, as well as beans, melons and peaches. Sheep and cattle are also stocked, for breeding as well as food, along with chickens, turkeys, burros and horsesand, for ceremonial purposes, eagles.

Many Hopi also earn their living through the sale of their arts and crafts in trading posts on the reservation and in Northern Arizona towns such as Flagstaff and Winslow. They are traditionally fine artisans -- the women are makers of pottery and baskets, the men are weavers and moccasin makers.

It is also the men who create the beautiful pieces of turquoise and silver jewelry, and who recently have turned out so many fine drawings, paintings and sculpture. In any craft, the Hopi is a perfectionist; their logical nature and serene, patient demeanor lend themselves aptly to the arts. They are, by the same token, excellent mechanics, masons and painters.

The governing body of the Hopi is the Council of Elders, made up of clan leaders and religious leaders, for the social structure of the tribe is democratic, based entirely on clans into which one is aristocratically born. The Tribal Council is recognized officially as a governing body under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. The Bureau of Indian Affairs now acts only in a technical and special advisory capacity, allowing rule by tribal leaders.

Hopi clans are orderly, social units of people descending from a common maternal ancestor, under a descriptive symbol for the purpose of religious, political and economic activities and welfare. Each clan has material as well as spiritual tradition, knowledge, rights, ownership and community and tribal respon-