TUSAYAN SNAKE CHREMONIES 
By JESSE WALTER FEWKES 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
When I began my studies of the Snake dance at Walpi, in 1891, it 
was said by all the white men whom I consulted that this weird cere- 
mony was confined to the pueblos of Walpi and Miconinovi, and there 
was no mention in the literature dealing with the subject of its exist- 
ence in other villages of Tusayan. During the course of my researches,! 
however, it was discovered that the same or a closely related ceremony 
takes place in even years at Oraibi and Cunopavi, and considerable 
material was collected regarding the exhibition in the latter village in 
1892. Shortiy after the publication of my memoir? on the Snake cere- 
monials of Walpi, attention was called to the existence of a similar rite 
in Cipaulovi, so that we are now cognizant of its celebration in five 
Tusayan villages—Walpi, Miconinovi, Cunopavi, Cipaulovi, and Oraibi. 
As the remaining two pueblos, Siteomovi and Hano, are now known 
not to have a Snake dance, we have exact information concerning the 
Tusayan villages where this ceremony is observed. 
The ever-increasing interest in the Snake dance of the Hopi dates 
from the description by the late Captain J. G. Bourke in 1884. Siuce 
the publication of Bourke’s valuable book, many articles of more or 
less scientific value have appeared, so that this rite has now come to be 
one of the best known of all aboriginal American ceremonials. Most 
of these accounts, however, deal with the Walpi presentation, and there 
is a wide field of research still uncultivated in the other pueblos. 
The Snake dance at Miconinovi was first described by Mr Cosmos 
Mindeleff,? and although it has been witnessed by many persons since 
his article appeared, the ceremony still remains one of the most obscure 
of all these presentations. 
The first notice of the Snake dance at Oraibi we owe to Mr J. H. 
Politzer, of Phenix, Arizona, who published numerous newspaper 
: 1These Sates — made in 1896, while the author was connected with the Bureau of American 
Ethnology. 
2 Journal of American Ethnology and Archeology, Vol. Iv. 
3 Science, Vol. vu, June 4, 1886. 
16 ETH——185 
