The Story of Kokopelli

'A CLUTTER OF SHAPES DANCED, STICK FIGURES, ABSTRACTIONS: THE INEVITABLE KOKOPELLI, HIS HUMPED SHAPE BENT, HIS FLUTE POINTED ALMOST AT THE GROUND . . .'

Almost as common in the Southwest as saguaro cacti and roadrunners is the image of a hunchbacked man. He appears on street signs, on T-shirts, decorating prehistoric pots, and adorning bola ties hung about men's necks. He can be seen in shops and museums, in private homes, and in advertisements. He is Kokopelli, the Humpbacked Flute Player. Drawn by prehistoric residents, he also appears with great frequency on the sheer cliff sides of countless canyons. Cut from iron with a torch, he may be seen happily playing his flute on the signposts lining the sidewalks of Central Avenue in Phoenix. He may even be found riding a bicycle to mark the trails for mountain bikers near Aspen, Colorado, and striding confidently down the hiking paths in the Grand Canyon. But who is the Hump-backed Flute Player, and why is he called "Kokopelli?" Despite being one of the most written about images of both prehistoric and historic Native Americans, he remains a riddle. Is he a deity or just a misshapen human? And why was he so popular long ago - and still today? Countless theories speculate about who he is and what his purpose was and why he can be found over such a large area. Some wellknown authorities, such as anthropologist Dr. Alfred Kidder, have noted humpbacked figures in northern Mexico, an implication that the image derives from the Toltec or Aztec peoples. Others have seen similarities in figures among the Chumash pictographs of California or symbols left by the Kiowa as far away as the Great Plains. Many writers attempt to explain him through his name, Kokopelli. But this is only his Hopi name. He is known to the Tewa of New Mexico as Nepokwai-i, and to the Zuni as Ololowishkya. When he plays his flute, in many ways he resembles the Pan-Pueblo figure of Paiyatamu. Other researchers see in him a variety of characters: a trader from Mexico, a 17-year locust, a large black man who makes moccasins for young women, a traveler with a backpack who seduces maidens, a befeathered dancer, and a hunter of mountain sheep. But surely one individual could not have

THE SEARCH FOR KOKOPELLI

THE SEARCH FOR KOKOPELLI

performed all of these interesting yet different roles. It seems more likely that the original Hump-backed Flute Player, in more recent times, has been combined with other individuals that are superficially similar, creating today's aggregation of beings all conveniently labeled "Kokopelli." Native Americans have played a flute for many reasons through the centuries: to win the love of a maiden, to compete with one another, or to encourage rain and the flowers of summer. In times past, some travelers may have announced their presence by playing a flute to avoid being killed as an enemy, while others may have used a flute to draw the curious mountain sheep within bow and arrow range. So while the flute is important to Kokopelli, it is not a definitive characteristic that separates him from all others. The most distinctive image of the Humpbacked Flute Player referred to as Kokopelli is a man with an enormous hump on his back, an overly generous phallus, and a clubfoot who is playing a flute. This image has been laboriously hammered into flat cliff faces and blackened boulders throughout the Southwest by pecking through a darkened surface with a stone to expose the lighter unweathered surface below, thereby making a petroglyph. Where caves and rock overhangs exist as protection, he is sometimes painted in pictographs done in yellow, red, or white pigments. Across the myriads of stone cliff faces in northern Arizona and New Mexico, petroglyphs of curved-horned mountain sheep parade singly or in groups, often beset by little stick men as hunters. That these are men is clear, and occasionally they play a flute or bend over holding a bow as they follow the animals. But almost never is a hunter shown with a clubfoot. These men are called Humpbacked Flute Players by many noted researchers, such as petroglyph authority Polly Schaafsma. Along the ledges of the San Juan River, in the Four Corners area, there are dozens of images of a bow-backed flute-playing figure lying on its back as it waves its legs in the air. Two long antennae, sometimes straight and at other times zigzagged like lightning, sprout from its head. Possibly this is the mythic Locust, a creature that upon emerging from the Underworld in search of a better land, lies upon its back playing a flute, undaunted and unblinking as the Cloud deities fling lightning bolts through it. To the south, in the depths of the desert, the prehistoric Hohokam created magnificent pottery, decorating immense jars and bowls with encircling bands of dancing figures. Some of the plates they made are quartered into vignettes showing a pair of dancers. With plumes waving from their heads, the males alternate with the females as they play their flutes, bending and swaying in an ancient conga line. To some, the rock carvings showing the old and bent leaning upon their canes are representations of the Hump-backed Flute Player. As it is not easy to be a good draftsman when pecking out a design on a cliff face with a rock, it may not be a flute that is shown, but a cane. In many ways, this resembles a prayer frequently uttered by the Pueblo people that they may live happily until they are as bent with age as the canes they hold. Decorating the pottery of the prehistoric Mimbres people of southwestern New Mexico are clearly drawn images of men carrying large burden baskets on their backs and steadying themselves with canes, which, if drawn close to their heads, appear to be flutes. With so many representations, it is easy to understand why there are innumerable legends, myths, and theories to explain who the Hump-backed Flute Player is and what he is about. Small wonder the image holds such an attraction. For the Hopi, the kachina known as Kokopelli is identified by Dr. Harold S. Colton of the Museum of Northern Arizona as the Assassin or Robber Fly kachina. When he borrows a flute and plays it in a dance, he is called the Hump-backed Flute Player; although most of the time he does not come playing a flute nor do representations of him have a clubfoot. Another problem, the name Kokopelli is not easy to translate, making it difficult to determine whether it is a fly or a flute player that is being referred to. Occasionally Kokopelli comes to the plazas where he tries to entice young girls with in the air. Two long antennae, sometimes straight and at other times zigzagged like lightning, sprout from its head. Possibly this is the mythic Locust, a creature that upon emerging from the Underworld in search of a better land, lies upon its back playing a flute, undaunted and unblinking as the Cloud deities fling lightning bolts through it. To the south, in the depths of the desert, the prehistoric Hohokam created magnificent pottery, decorating immense jars and bowls with encircling bands of dancing figures. Some of the plates they made are quartered into vignettes showing a pair of dancers. With plumes waving from their heads, the males alternate with the females as they play their flutes, bending and swaying in an ancient conga line. To some, the rock carvings showing the old and bent leaning upon their canes are representations of the Hump-backed Flute Player. As it is not easy to be a good draftsman when pecking out a design on a cliff face with a rock, it may not be a flute that is shown, but a cane. In many ways, this resembles a prayer frequently uttered by the Pueblo people that they may live happily until they are as bent with age as the canes they hold. Decorating the pottery of the prehistoric Mimbres people of southwestern New Mexico are clearly drawn images of men carrying large burden baskets on their backs and steadying themselves with canes, which, if drawn close to their heads, appear to be flutes. With so many representations, it is easy to understand why there are innumerable legends, myths, and theories to explain who the Hump-backed Flute Player is and what he is about. Small wonder the image holds such an attraction. For the Hopi, the kachina known as Kokopelli is identified by Dr. Harold S. Colton of the Museum of Northern Arizona as the Assassin or Robber Fly kachina. When he borrows a flute and plays it in a dance, he is called the Hump-backed Flute Player; although most of the time he does not come playing a flute nor do representations of him have a clubfoot. Another problem, the name Kokopelli is not easy to translate, making it difficult to determine whether it is a fly or a flute player that is being referred to. Occasionally Kokopelli comes to the plazas where he tries to entice young girls with hammered into flat cliff faces and blackened boulders throughout the Southwest by pecking through a darkened surface with a stone to expose the lighter unweathered surface below, thereby making a petroglyph. Where caves and rock overhangs exist as protection, he is sometimes painted in pictographs done in yellow, red, or white pigments. Across the myriads of stone cliff faces in northern Arizona and New Mexico, petroglyphs of curved-horned mountain sheep parade singly or in groups, often beset by little stick men as hunters. That these are men is clear, and occasionally they play a flute or bend over holding a bow as they follow the animals. But almost never is a hunter shown with a clubfoot. These men are called Humpbacked Flute Players by many noted researchers, such as petroglyph authority Polly Schaafsma. Along the ledges of the San Juan River, in the Four Corners area, there are dozens of images of a bow-backed flute-playing figure lying on its back as it waves its legs things that he holds up for them to snatch, but somehow he never seems to catch them. He has a "sister" kachina, Kokopell' Mana, who comes to the villages in the springtime. This "girl" kachina (portrayed by a man) is thought to be crazy about men and will chase them at great speed. If she catches one, she flings him to the ground and imitates the sex act to the roars of laughter from the village audience. If the man escapes, he is rewarded with corn or some other delicacy.

To other Hopi, Kokopelli is an individual who comes with a burden of babies on his back, which he leaves with the young women.

It is interesting that the story of the Locust and its flute playing is a part of the mythology of the Flute people who are supposed to have come to Hopi from the very area where most of the round-backed figures with antennae are found, namely the Four Corners region. In past years, when the Flute ceremony was held on First Mesa, painted stone slabs were set up on the kiva, two of which bore representations of the Locust playing its flute.

In 1961 Hopi brothers Wayne and Emory Sekaquaptewa started manufacturing silver jewelry. They hired well-known Hopi artist Peter Shelton, who was familiar with the broad field of Southwestern designs.

Shelton adapted many of the designs for use on the jewelry. One of them was the feathered dancer version of Kokopelli and his mate from Hohokam pottery. Today these dancers can be found not only on jewelry and in paintings but on ceramics such as the lovely pottery of Rosemary Lonewolf in New Mexico or decorating the outstanding pieces of the Hopi artist Dextra Quotskuyva or the contemporary work of Al Qoyawayma.

However, for the Tewa, a Rio Grande people who have lived on First Mesa since their escape from the Spanish in the early 1700s, there is yet a different story. When they came from near Santa Fe, they passed down the Rio Grande and across to Zuni before making their home on the mesas. They brought with them a different version of the Hump-backed Flute Player, a large black being called Nepokwai-i.

This kachina comes with a big sack of buckskins and other materials to make moccasins for the young women. Because he is believed to be of large size and dark-skinned, he has been erroneously equated with Estevan, the Moor who was a scout for Father Marcos de Niza and who lost his life at Zuni in 1539.

Thus on the Hopi Mesas alone there are many different conceptions of Kokopelli, some old and some new, that contribute a variety of images to Southwestern decoration.

They are not alone, for the people of Zuni know this figure also, and among them it is said that the Hump-backed Flute Player is an immensely successful Rain Priest able to make it rain at will, and that the many petroglyphs of him are prayers for his assistance. But, like the Hopi, the Zuni also have many names and characterizations of this individual. Thus he may reflect Ololowishkya with his enormous phallus, who comes with the flute-playing Paiyatamu during the Corn-grinding ceremony or possibly a combination of both.

It is from Zuni and Acoma as well as the Navajo of Chaco Canyon that an older tale comes concerning a gambler who won all of the Zuni people's possessions until some of their deities took pity on them and afflicted the Gambler with disease. His helper, who was a hump-backed flute player, perished with him when he died.

Many characteristics of the Hunchback God of the Navajo, Ganaskidi, are like those of the mountain sheep, and, if the god is not actually the animal, at least he had supernatural control over it. According to Col. James Stevenson, the hump on Ganaskidi's back, like those of the hunting animals, is made of clouds containing the seeds of all types of vegetation. Some other early ethnographers, like Washington Mathews, described him as a god of harvest, plenty, and mist, or with the hump on his back filled with rainbows.

One of the more common theories regarding the ubiquitous Kokopelli is that he represents a puchteca, an Aztec or Toltec trader from central Mexico. In a pack on his back, he brought copper bells, pyrite mirrors, and the feathers of macaws and other tropical birds to trade with the Pueblo people for turquoise and other items of value.

Just as the Mexican puchteca are depicted, he carried a flute to announce his arrival, so that people would not take him for an enemy. Because some of these traders are known to have made incredibly long journeys and certainly their appearance is similar - it is believed by some that the Hump-backed Flute Player is a representation of a Mexican puchteca.

But there is still another thought concerning this figure, for he bears in his image the unmistakable marks of a particular disease: tuberculosis of the bone. According to Joyce Alpert, a California-based medical researcher who has written about rock art, there are three symptoms in individuals so afflicted. They frequently have a sizeable hump on their backs, a clubfoot, and if they are men, a permanently erect penis. In ancient times, such an individual would be perceived as the ultimate symbol of fertility by those around him. Hunter, trader, musician, deity, or dwarf, his purpose captures our imaginations and sends us on searches to find his true identity. But because there is no single answer to Kokopelli's presence, the mystery remains, piquing our curiosity as much as the striking images of him cause us to sprinkle his likeness across the landscape.