For more than a thousand years prior to the European invasion of North America, agricultural villages, which the Spanish would later call Pueblos, had been established in what would become Arizona. In spite of the fact that each village was an autonomous political and cultural unit these villages were lumped together by the U.S. government as “Hopi.”
The designation “Hopi” is a contraction of Hopi-tuh which means “peaceful ones.” Among the Hopi, town sites were determined by two factors: (1) the proximity to water, and (2) the desire for security. To provide security, the Hopi villages tend to be located on the tops of mesas.
The Hopi had lived in their mesa-top villages in what is now northern Arizona for many centuries before the United States claimed the right to govern the area. They did not, however, sign a treaty with the United States and therefore did not reserve a portion of their homelands for themselves.
In 1882, President Chester A. Arthur created the Hopi Reservation by Executive Order. One of the reasons for establishing the reservation was concern about the influence of the Mormons. In his chapter on Hopi history in the Handbook of North American Indians, Frederick Dockstader reports:
“With increasing hostility manifested toward Mormon occupancy of the Southwest, federal authorities felt it was necessary to head off their further expansion: one avenue was by way of the establishment of controlled lands.”
The Executive Order which created the reservation allowed the Hopi only the use of the lands and did not recognize their ownership of the lands. The reservation was totally surrounded by the Navajo reservation and excluded the major Hopi village of Moenkopi. The Hopi were not consulted in the creation of their reservation, and its boundaries ignored a larger area that was settled and claimed by the Hopi. The rather arbitrary boundary lines created by the American government did not please the Hopi. Their ancestral homeland had encompassed hundreds of miles of land and had ranged from near what is now the New Mexico-Arizona borderlands, west to the Grand Canyon, and south to the Mogollon Rim. The Hopi clan petroglyphs and religious shrines had demarcated this area for many centuries.
While the United States has insisted on dealing with the Hopi as if they were a single tribe, they are actually about a dozen independent pueblos.
With the creation of the reservation, J. H. Fleming was appointed as the Indian agent for the Hopi. Regarding the Hopi ceremonial dances, he felt that—
“The great evils in the way of their ultimate civilization lie in these dances. The dark superstitions and unhallowed rites of a heathenism as gross as that of India or Central Africa still infects them with its insidious poison.”
Navajo
When the reservation was created, there were at least 300 Navajos living in the area which was designated as the Hopi Reservation. They were not asked to leave. From the viewpoint of most government administrators all Indians were the same and there was little understanding of the cultural differences between tribes.
In 1890, a delegation of five Hopi leaders, including Lololoma , traveled to Washington, D.C, to meet with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Thomas J. Morgan. They wished his help in dealing with the Navajo who had raided their villages and destroyed their crops. In his chapter in American Indians/American Presidents: A History, Matthew Sakiestewa Gilbert reports:
“After listening to the Hopi chiefs, Morgan recommended that the Hopis leave their homes on the mesas and disperse throughout the reservation to prevent additional Navajo encroachment.”
In addition, he encouraged them to send their children to the government boarding schools.
Forced Schooling
During the nineteenth century, the United States government policies called for American Indians to be totally assimilated into American culture and for any remnants of tribal culture to be eradicated. One of the important institutions for assimilation was the boarding school where children could be removed from their families, stripped of their culture, and forced to become English-speaking Christian Americans. Historian Clyde Ellis, in an article in the Chronicles of Oklahoma, writes:
“Reformers and policymakers believed the school could mold Indian youths into a new race, one in which the values of thrift, discipline, individuality, and Christianity would more closely reflect those of white society.”
Hopi historian Matthew Sakiestew Gilbert, in his chapter in Eating Fire, Tasting Blood: An Anthology of the American Indian Holocaust, writes:
“Although off-reservation boarding schools largely existed to train Indian students in industrial trades, school officials forced Indian pupils to attend Christian gatherings, pray Christian prayers, and adopt, at least for a time, a cultural worldview based on Christianity.”
As a part of government assimilation policy, the United States built a boarding school for the Hopi at Keams Canyon in 1887. The federal government set quotas for attendance from each of the Hopi villages. However, the Hopis in the village of Oraibi refused to send their children to the school.
Thomas Keam, an English trader, took a group of Hopi leaders, including Lololoma, the chief of the village of Oraibi, to Washington, D.C. to meet with President Chester A. Arthur. In his chapter on Hopi history in the Handbook of North American Indians, Frederick Dockstader reports:
“Lololoma was apparently deeply impressed by what he saw in the capital. Crediting these wonders to the White educational system, he changed his attitude completely and began to use his influence to persuade his people to send their children to school; thus began the disintegration of Oraibi.”
By 1890, the village of Oraibi was divided into two groups designated as “hostiles” and “friendlies” by the U.S. government. The spokesperson for the conservative “hostiles” was Lomahongyoma, an important ceremonial leader. Lololoma, the village chief, was the leader of the “friendlies.” The conservative faction refused to send their children to school, and since Lololoma supported the school program, he was imprisoned in a kiva. The Tenth Cavalry was then sent in to insure peace. The military troops invaded the village, freed Lololoma from his kiva jail, and “captured” 104 children for the school.
In 1894, conservative Hopis in the village of Oraibi continued to voice opposition to the requirement to send their children to school. Once again, federal troops were called in and 19 Hopi men were arrested and imprisoned at Alcatraz Island. Among those arrested and imprisoned was Lomohongyoma. As usual, there was no trial: the Oraibi leaders were simply arrested and imprisoned by the army.
In 1894, the government established day schools at Polacca and Oraibi.
Ceremonies
While Christian missionaries and the federal government viewed traditional Indian ceremonies as evil—often describing them as forms of Satanic worship—and illegal under American law, these ceremonies attracted tourists. One of the ceremonies that has fascinated non-Indians is the Snake Dance, a ceremony conducted every other year by the Snake and Antelope clans. Snakes are gathered in the fields. At the end of the 16-day ceremony, the snakes are carried about the plaza and then released in the four directions with messages for the spirit world. In their book The Encyclopedia of Native American Religions, Arlene Hirschfelder and Paulette Molin write:
“The functions of the ceremony are broad, related to hunting, war, cure of snakebite, lightning shock (snakes resemble lightning), as well as a plea for rain and crops.”
By 1895, about 70 non-Indian tourists gathered to watch the Hopi Snake Dance. By 1897, the non-Indian tourists who watched the Hopi Snake Dance had grown to about 200.
In 1897, while taking notes in a Hopi kiva during the Wuwuchim Ceremony, anthropologist Jesse Fewkes was warned by the elders to go home and lock his door because Masauwuh, a god who carries a flaming torch, was coming. Later, in his locked house, Fewkes was visited by a tall man who simply appears in the house. The stranger lit a cigarette with a flame from his mouth. The two played like children all night. Fewkes related this story to the elders and then quickly left the Hopi mesas.
Art
While there are many forms of Hopi art, pottery is probably the best known among non-Indians. The market demand for Hopi pottery had made some of the women potters, such as Nampeyo, famous among collectors. Nampeyo (1860-1942), from the Tewa-speaking village of Hano, brought about a revival of traditional ceramic designs. In 1895, anthropologist Jesse W. Fewkes claimed to have introduced Nampeyo to some of the pottery unearthed at the archaeological site of Sikyatki. According to Fewkes, Nampeyo found inspiration in the graceful geometry of its design and in the dusty mustards and earth terra-cottas of its polychrome coloration and this leads to a revival of Hopi pottery. However, Nampeyo’s biographer, Barbara Kramer, in her book Nampeyo and Her Pottery, points out:
“…the excavation of Sikyatki in 1895 was not the stimulus for a new pottery style. It served to energize a revival already begun.”
In 1898, Hopi artist Sikyatala learned silver work from the Zuni artist Lanyade. Sikyatala then taught this to other Hopi. Margaret Wright, in her book Hopi Silver: The History and Hallmarks of Hopi Silversmithing, says this about the diffusion of this art form from the Zuni to the Hopi:
“Since there were regular trading relations between the two tribes, the sharing of silversmithing techniques would not have been strange, especially with a Hopi man of the Mustard Clan, which had Zuñi associations.”
Smallpox
In 1898, smallpox struck the Hopi, infecting 632 people and killing 159. The government enforced quarantines and vaccinated several hundred people. The “hostiles” in the village of Oraibi refused vaccination.
Indians 101
Twice each week—on Tuesdays and Thursdays—this series explores American Indian topics. More nineteenth-century histories from this series:
Indians 101: The Early Years of the Coast or Siletz Reservation
Indians 101: Religion on the Fort Hall Reservation, 1869 to 1899
Indians 101: Greed and the Administration of Indian Reservations in the 19th Century
Indians 101: The Creation of the Fort McDowell Reservation
Indians 101: The Smithsonian and the Indians in the 19th Century
Indians 101: The Genoa Indian School
Indians 101: A very short overview of Indian removal
Indians 101: An Experiment in Self-Government