566 



HOPI 



[b. a. e. 



flowers, etc. Cotton, wheat, and tobacco 

 are also raised in small quantities, but in 

 early times native cotton was extensively 

 grown. In years of stress desert plants, 

 which have always been utilized to some 

 extent for food, form an important part 

 of the diet. 



The Hopi have of late become more or 

 less pastoral. Flocks (othciallv estimated 

 in 1904 at 56,000 sheep and 15,000 goats), 

 acquired originally from the Spaniards, 

 supply wool and skins. They own also 

 al)out 1,500 head of cattle, and 4,. 350 

 horses, burros, and mules. Dogs, chick- 

 ens, hogs, and turkeys are their only 

 other domesticated animals. All small 

 desert animals are eaten; formerly ante- 

 lope, elk, and deer were captured by be- 

 ing driven into pitfalls or corrals. Com- 

 munal rabbit hunts are common, the an- 

 imals being killed with wooden clubs 

 shaped like boomerangs (see Rabbit 

 sticks). Prairie dogs are drowned out of 

 their burrows, coyotes are caught in 

 pitfalls made of stones, and small birds 

 are captured in snares. 



The Hopi are skilled in weaving, dye- 

 ing, and embroidering blankets, belts, 

 and kilts. Their textile work is durable, 

 and shows a great variety of weaves. The 

 dark-blue blanket of the Hopi woman is 

 an important article of commerce among 

 the Pueblos, and their embroidered cere- 

 monial blankets, sashes, and kilts made of 

 cotton have a ready sale among neighbor- 

 ing tribes. Although the Hopi ceramic 

 art has somewhat deteriorated in modern 

 times, fair pottery is still made among the 

 people of Hano, where one family has 

 revived the superior art of the earlier vil- 

 lagers. They weave basketry in a great 

 variety of ways at the Middle Mesa pue- 

 blos and in Oraibi; but, with the excep- 

 tion of the familiar sacred-meal plaques, 

 which are well madeand brightly colored, 

 the workmanship is crude. The Hopi 

 are clever in making masks and other re- 

 ligious paraphernalia from hides, and ex- 

 cel in carving and jiainting dolls, repre- 

 senting kachinas, which are adorned with 

 bright feathers and cloth. They likewise 

 manufacture mechanical toys, which are 

 exhibited in some of their dramatic en- 

 tertainments. Nowhere among the ab- 

 origines of , North America are the Hopi 

 excelled in dramaturgic exhibitions, in 

 some of which their imitations of birds 

 and other animals are marvelously real- 

 istic. 



The Hopi language is classified as Sho- 

 shonean; but, according to Gatschet, it 

 "seems to contain many archaic words 

 and forms not encountered in the other 

 dialects, and many vocables of its own." 

 The published vocabularies are very 

 limited, and comparatively little is known 

 of the grammatical structure of the lan- 



guage; but it is evident that it contains 

 many words of Keresan, Tewa, Pima, 

 Zuiii,Ute,Navaho, and Apache derivation. 

 As among other Southwestern tribes a 

 number of words are modified Spanish, as 

 those for horse, sheep, melon, and the 

 names for other intrusive articles and 

 objects. Slight dialectic differences are 

 noticeable in the speech of Oraibi and 

 Walpi, but the language of the other 

 pueblos is practically uniform. The 

 Hopi language is melodious £^d the 

 enunciation clear. The speech of the 

 people of Awatobi is said to have had a 

 nasal intonation, while the Oraibi speak 

 drawlingly. Although they accompany 

 their speech with gestures, few of the 

 Hopi understand the sign language. The 

 Keresan people have furnished many 

 songs, with their words, and Zuiii and 

 Pima songs have also been introduced. 

 Some of the prayers also have archaic 

 Tanoan or Keresan words. 



The Hopi are preeminently a religious 

 people, much of their time, especially in 

 winter, being devoted to ceremonies for 

 rain and the growth of crops. Their my- 

 thology is a polytheism largely tinged 

 with ancestor worship and permeated 

 with fetishism. They originally had no 

 conception of a great spirit corresponding 

 to God, nor were they ever monotheists ;. 

 and, although they have accepted the 

 teachings of Christian missionaries, these 

 have not had the effect of altering their 

 l^rimitive beliefs. Their greatest gods 

 are deified nature powers, as the Mother 

 Earth and the Sky god — the former 

 mother, and the latter father, of the 

 races of men and of marvelous animals, 

 which are conceived of as closely allied. 



The earth is spoken of as having always 

 existed. In Hopi mythology the human 

 race was not created, but generated from 

 the earth, from which man emerged 

 through an opening called the sijwpu, 

 now typified by the Grand canyon of 

 the Colorado. The dead are supposed 

 to return to the underworld. The Sky 

 Father and the Earth Mother have many 

 names and are personated in many ways; 

 the latter is represented by a spider; the 

 former l)y a bird — a hawk or an eagle. 

 Such names as Fire god, Germ god, and 

 others are attributal designations of the 

 great male powers of nature, or its male 

 germinative principle. All supernatural 

 beings are supposed to influence the rain 

 and consequently the growth of crops. 

 Every clan religion exhibits strong ances- 

 tral worship, in which a male and a 

 female ancestral tutelary of the clan, 

 called by a distinctive clan name, is pre- 

 eminent. The Great Horned or Plumed 

 Serpent, a form of sky god, derived from 

 the S., and introduced by the Patki and 

 other southern clans, is prominent in sun 



