Discoveries on the Colorado, VIII

—

Discoveries on the Colorado

BY JOSEPH F. ANDERSON, OF THE UTAH ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPE-

DITION, 1913

VIII — The Hopi Indians—Snake Dance and other Customs

There was much disappointment in the camp of the Utah

Archaeological Expedition when, in mid-August, 1913, it reached

the Wetherill trading post, Arizona, three hours too late to accom-

pany Colonel Theodore Roosevelt and his party to witness the

world-famous snake dance of the Hopi Indians at Oraibi, three

days' travel from the post. The hardy ex-President had known

of the approach of the Utah party and had very courteously waited

two days at the trading post in the hope of forming a junction with

the Utah explorers. Difficulties incident to breaking trails through

unsurveyed wilds and encountering flood-swollen streams and

quicksands prevented the Cummings party from moving on sched-

ule time.

The snake dance of the Hopi Indians is the grand climax of

a religious ceremony covering nine days. It comes on the last

day and is the part of the ceremony open without restriction to

spectators.

Some accounts of the snake dance describe it as a chaotic,

savage, wild, pagan dance, but Dr. J. W. Fewkes, of the Bureau

of Ethnology, characterizes it as a solemn, dignified, religious rite.

This is probably the correct view, for the whole nine-day ceremony

is known to be an elaborate prayer for rain. Each year this cere-

mony is performed, alternating at Walpi and Oraibi, the pueblo

towns of the Snake and Antelope fraternities respectively. The

six other pueblos inhabited by the Hopis are Tewa, Sichomovi,

Mishongnovi, Shipaulovi, Moenkopi and Hotavila.

Upon the approach of the month of August each year these

people meet and determine, by meteorological signs, with which

they are familiar, the date upon which the ceremony shall begin.

The snake dance is usually completed before the end of August

and the equinoctial rains of September and October are regarded

as answers to their prayers —

prayers which were carried by the

snakes to the Spider- Woman goddess in the underworld. The

Spider-Woman is an important personage in Hopi mythology

They say it is she who weaves the web of the clouds in the skj

from which the rain comes.

Four days are required for gathering snakes for the dance

one day for each of the four world quarters. In 1913, about two

,

DISCOVERIES ON THE COLORADO 911

hundred reptiles were thus gathered. The haunts of the snakes,

which the Hopis well know, and never disturb, are visited, and

all kinds collected with bare hands. The poisonous rattlers and

side-winders are no more feared than the harmless blow snakes

and blue-racers.

The snakes are carried to the top of the lofty mesa where

the pueblo is perched. The writhing reptiles are deposited in

large jars from which they are

taken in handfuls by the war-

rior priest as the dance pro-

ceeds. After many prelimi-

naries of racing, chanting,

dancing, singing, incantations

and praying, the spectacular

snake dance begins. A num-

ber of Snake priests line up

opposite a similar line of An-

telope priests. After some

minutes of swaying, stamping

and chanting, the Snake

Photo by Brooks, Utah Arch. Exped. priests break up their line into

terraced homes in the cliffj groups of three. Each group

Reading from left, the men are Thomai

Harper and Prof. Byron Cummings, head

arkranrpc in

advances tUm tO

in fnrri tne war

tr> +n<i War-

of the Utah expedition. nor priest who gives to one

man in each trio an angry snake. The reptile is placed in the

mouth and carried thus between the teeth during the dance which

follows. Each snake carrier then drops the snake from his mouth

and returns for another to repeat the operation. As soon as a

snake is dropped to the ground another member of the trio, the

"gatherer." prevents its escape by quickly picking it up and holding

it in his hands. This act is repeated until his hands are full of

snakes and some must be turned over to the Antelope priests, who

have all the while remained in line, solemnly chanting.

Should an angry rattler coil for a vicious strike at the gath-

erer, the feather whip is used. The tickling of the feathers causes

the creature to uncoil and seek to escape. With a lightning grasp

the expert "gatherer" seizes the escaping reptile and holds it. It

is said that a priest is rarely bitten, but should such an accident

occur, an antidote is given, the composition of which is, and has

always been, kept a profound and carefully-guarded secret by the

Hopis. It is said to be a far more potent antidote for snake bites

than anything known in civilization, and would therefore be a

boon to the world if the Hopis would reveal their secret. To do

so, they believe, would be an unpardonable act of sacrilege.

At a' given signal all the snakes are thrown into a writhing

pile, inside a circle of sacred meal. The mass is sprinkled by the

chief priest with sacred meal and at another signal each snake

priest grabs all the snakes he can carry in each hand and darts

;

912 IMPROVEMENT ERA

down the steep sides of the mesa and deposits them with due

reverence on the plain from which they came. It is now expected

that the snakes will descend to the underworld and make a plea in

behalf of the Hopis for rain to mature the crops of corn upon

which these strange people depend chiefly for a living.

The Snake Dance of the Hopis is based upon their legendary

lore, according to which, the peo-

ple on the earth made their ascent

to the earth's surface from the

underworld, through the Grand

Canyon of the Colorado. Some

people went north others went

;

south and the Hopi's settled on

the dry mesas where they now

are. The chief of the Hopis had

two sons. Tyo, the elder son,

resolved to let the Colorado river

carry him to the underworld

where he would ask the Spider-

Woman to weave clouds and

send rain to the withering corn

of his people. Throwing himself

into the river he descended to

the underworld. Spider-Woman

met him there, gave him power

Photo by Brooks, Utah, Arch. Exped. of invisibility and permitted him

THE CANYON OF THE SAN JUAN to mingle with the

RIVER Snake-Ante-

This river, with its turbid water, its lope people of the underworld

treacherous quicksands, and its unfore-

shadowed floods, is a veritable vampire who controlled the coming and

in the desert. going of the clouds spun by

Spider-Woman. Tyo returned to the upperworld with two

maidens, one of whom he gave to his brother and the other he

kept for' himself in marriage. Soon the Snake-Antelope people

from the underworld came up to the Hopi home and ate corn

pollen for food. They then left the mesa in the form of snakes

and communicated the prayers of the Hopi people to the gods in

the underworld. It is for this reason that the Hopi Indians never

harm snakes, but dance and pray with them each year.

This is a sample of the mystic myths in which these unique

people revel and sincerely believe. It is said that they still believe

that the Grand Canyon of the Colorado communicates with the

inner recesses of the underworld. It is a part of their religion

their heaven is the underworld.They have long known of Chris-

and are nominally Catholics, but their real religion the

tianity, —

one to which they cling with true Hopi conservatism is their —

primitive animistic cult.

DISCOVERIES ON THE COLORADO 913

Conservatism is shown not only in their religion, but in their

many queer social and political customs.

There are about two thousand of these people occupying eight

villages of adobe on the elevated cliffs of the mesas in the Moki

Reservation, Arizona. Some of these houses were built long

before the discovery of America, and are still occupied. Houses

several stories hisrh are built in terraces and are entered through

THE GILA MONSTER

One of the venomous reptiles of Arizona. Its poison is not considered dangerous

unless it gets its fangs fastened in the flesh for some length of time. It will hang on

like a bull dog until detached.

holes in the roofs, by means of ladders. The Hopi kiva, or cere-

monial chamber, an underground chamber in which various

is

religious rites are performed, including the washing of the snakes

used in the snake dance.

The houses are built by the men and women in co-operation,

but when built they are owned by the women. Like the Navajo

woman, the Hopi woman owns most of the property, and is the ac-

knowledged equal of the man. The children belong to her clan,

and have her clan name. When she marries, she receives her

newly-married husband into her home; he leaves his own clan

and becomes a member of

hers.

The Hopis are said to

have no laws for punishment

for crime except for witch-

craft. Being a tractable,

peaceful, industrious people,

they seem to have an antipathy

THE SIDE-WINDER RATTLE SNAKE to any kind of punishment or

One of the most poisonous of snakes and one strife. Corporal punishment,

of the reptiles used in the Hopi snake dance.

it is said, is never adminis-

tered to children nor adults. They are often spoken of as the

people without jails, courts, asylums or criminals. Their very

name, Hopi, means "the peaceful people." Heaven, to them, is a

place in the underworld — a "happy hunting ground" without piin-

ishments or retribution. So peaceful are they that they are pointed

out as the only Indians in the United States who have never been

in armed conflict with the people of the United States. No doubt

their love for peace led them to make their homes high up on the

elevated mesas to avoid conflict with the warlike, nomadic tribes.

914 IMPROVEMENT ERA

There is one other "crime" besides witchcraft which receives

punishment from the Hopi. In Hopiland are seen many burros,

with their long cars entirely absent or partly cropped. Such a

burro bears the Hopi stigma of a corn-thief. The cornfields of the

Hopis are tin fenced and the burros run loose, but are supposed

to curb their appetite for green, juicy corn-fodder. To teach them

this lesson the Hopi — —

queer reasoner that he is cuts a small bit

of the burro's ears off each time his burroship invades the corn

Photo by Brooks, Utah Arch. Exped.

A CLIFF HOME PERCHED ON THE MESA SIDE

patch. Many of the poor beasts, ignorant of their "crimes," become

totally earless without learning to avoid the corn field.

The Hopis are thoroughgoing agriculturists, wresting with

great labor a meager subsistence from their little fields on the dry,

sandy plain below their homes on the mesa tops. Among the

crops they were cultivating, when seen by white men shortly after

the discovery of America, were corn, beans, melons, squash, cot-

ton and some other garden plants. Now, besides these crops, they

raise peaches, apricots, wheat, onions, chili, sorghum cane, nectar-

ines, grapes, potatoes, tomatoes, tobacco, sunflowers and other

garden truck adapted to their climate, soil and crude methods.

They raise small flocks of sheep and goats for wool and use the

burro for transportation. Scarcity of fuel makes it necessary for

them to carry wood from great distances on the backs of these

DISCOVERIES ON THE COLORADO 915

durable little animals. They also own a few cattle and horses.

Their only other domesticated animals are dogs, chickens, hogs

and turkeys. They eat nearly all of the small desert animals, and

in times of stress will eat some of the desert plants.

The Hopis are governed by a council of hereditary clan elders

and chiefs of religious fraternities. The people are divided into

several phratries, consisting of numerous clans, each of which has

itsheadman.

The costume of the Hopi man consists of a cotton shirt, short

pantaloons, breechclout, moccasins and hairband. They are fond

Photo by Harper, Utah Arch. Exped.

UTAH ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPEDITION AT WETHERILL TRADING POST

The burros are packed with six weeks' provisions, and the expedition's equipment.

The burro is indispensible in desert transportation.

of ornamentation and wear bracelets, shell necklaces, turquoise and

silver ornaments and earrings. The women wear the same cos-

tume described by their Spanish discoverers nearly four centuries

ago. Ablanket is thrown over one shoulder and fastened at the

waist with a belt. The one shoulder is left bare and an arm-hole

is cut in the blanket for the opposite arm. They wear moccasins

and leggings of buckskin, and ornaments similar to those worn

by the men. Small children run naked in warm weather. While

working in the fields or participating in ceremonies, the old men

wear no clothing except the breechclout.

The Hopis are great lovers of their children. What Mrs.