The Hopi Indians. Walter Hough

Whoever visits the Hopi falls perforce under the magic influence of their life and personality. If anyone entertains the belief that “a good Indian is a dead Indian,” let him travel to the heart of the Southwest and dispel his illusions in the presence of the sturdy, self-supporting, self-respecting citizens of the pueblos. Many sojourns in a region whose fascinations are second to no other, experiences that were happy and associations with a people who interest all coming in contact with them combined to indite the following pages. If the writer may seem biased in favor of the “Quaker Indians,” as Lummis calls them, be it known that he is moved by affection not less than by respect for the Hopi and moreover believes that his commendations are worthily bestowed.

The recording of these sidelights on the Hopi far from being an irksome task has been a pleasure which it is hoped may be passed on to the reader, who may here receive an impression of a tribe of Indians living at the threshold of modern civilizing influences and still retaining in great measure the life of the ancient house-builders of the unwatered lands.

To Mr. F. W. Hodge of the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution, a fellow worker in the Pueblo field, grateful acknowledgments are due for his criticism and advice in the preparation of this book. The frontispiece is by that distinguished amateur P. G. Gates of Pasadena. Under the auspices of the explorations carried on by Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, for the Bureau of American Ethnology, the writer had in 1896 his first introduction to the Hopi, a favor and a pleasure that will always be remembered with gratitude on his part. The indebtedness of science to the researches of Dr. Fewkes among the Hopi is very great and this book has profited by his inspiration as well as by his counsel.

I
THE COUNTRY, TOWNS, AND PEOPLES

Table of Contents

The Hopi, or Peaceful People, as their name expresses, live in six rock-built towns perched on three mesas in northeastern Arizona. They number about 1,600 and speak a dialect of the language called the Shoshonean, the tongue of the Ute, Comanche, and other tribes in the United States. There is another town, called Hano, making up seven on these mesas, but its people are Tewas who came from the Rio Grande valley in New Mexico more than two centuries ago.

There are a number of ways of reaching the Hopi pueblos. If one would go in by the east, he may choose to start from Holbrook on the Santa Fé Pacific Railroad, or Winslow (two days each), or by the west from Canyon Diablo (two days), or Flagstaff (three days). The estimates of time are based on “traveling light” and with few interruptions. A longer journey may be made from Gallup, during which the Canyon de Chelly, with its wonderful cliff dwellings, may be visited if one has a sufficient outfit and plenty of time.

The home-land of the Hopi, known as Tusayan from old times, is a semi-desert, lying a mile and a quarter above sea-level. It is deeply scarred by canyons and plentifully studded with buttes and mesas, though there are vast stretches which seem level till one gets closer acquaintance. From the pueblos the view is open from the northwest to the southeast, and uninterrupted over the great basin of the Colorado Chiquito, or Little Colorado River, rimmed on the far horizon by the peaks of the San Francisco, Mogollon, and White Mountains, while in the other quarters broken mesas shut out the view.

The rainfall almost immediately sinking into the sandy wastes, determines that there shall be no perennially-flowing rivers in Tusayan, and that springs must be few and far between and the most valued of all possessions. Were it not for winter snows and summer thunder-storms, Tusayan would be a desert indeed.

The hardy grasses and desert plants do their best to cover the nakedness of the country; along the washes are a few cottonwoods; on the mesas are junipers and piñons; and in the higher lands to the north small oaks strive for an existence. At times, when the rains are favoring, plants spring up and the desert is painted with great masses of color; here and there are stretches green with grass or yellow with the flowering bunches of the “rabbit brush” or gray with the ice plant. In sheltered spots many rare and beautiful flowers may be found.

The Hopi enjoy a summer climate the temperature of which is that of Maine and a winter climate that is far less severe than the latter, since most days are bright and the sun has power. Even in the warmest season the nights are cool, and an enjoyable coolness is found by day in the shade. The dryness of the region renders it ideal for healthful sleeping in the open air. A pure atmosphere like that of the sea bathes Tusayan; no microbes pollute it with their presence and it fills the body with good blood and an exhilaration like wine.

Perforce the Hopi are agricultural, and since there is little game to be hunted, they are also largely vegetarians, their chief food being corn. When the corn crop fails the desert plants are relied on to prevent starvation. The Hopi thus form a good example of a people whose very existence depends on the plants of the earth, and it speaks well for their skill as farmers, in so unfavorable an environment, that there are any of them living in Tusayan at this day.

Out of this environment the Hopi has shaped his religious beliefs, whose strenuous appeal is for food and life from the grasping destroyers of nature that whelm him. And in like manner he has drawn from this niggard stretch his house, his pottery, baskets, clothing and all the arts that show how man can rise above his environment. But let us have a closer view of this Indian who is so worthy of the respect of his superiors

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