Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895: Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1895-1896, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1898, pages 519-744Fewkes, Jesse Walter
History
Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895: Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1895-1896, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1898, pages 519-744
The visit of Padre Juan Garaycoechea to Tusayan was at the invitation
of Espeleta, chief of Oraibi, but he went no farther than Awatobi,
where he baptized the 73 Hopi. He then returned to the "governor," and
arrived at Zuñi in June. According to Bancroft (p. 222), "In the
'Moqui Noticias' MS., 669, it is stated that the other Moquis, angry
that Aguatuvi had received the padres, came and attacked the pueblo,
killed all the men, and carried off all the women and children,
leaving the place for many years deserted." Although I have not been
able to consult the document quoted, this conclusion corresponds so
closely with Hopi tradition that I believe it is practically true,
although Bancroft unfortunately closes the quotation I have made from
his account with the words, "I think this must be an error." Espeleta,
the Oraibi chief, and 20 companions were in Santa Fé in October, 1700,
and proposed a peace in which the Hopi asked for religious toleration,
which Governor Cubero refused. As a final appeal he desired that the
fathers should not permanently reside with them, but should visit one
pueblo each year for six years; but this request was also rejected.
Espeleta returned to Oraibi, and immediately on his appearance an
unsuccessful attempt was made to destroy Awatobi, followed, as
recounted in the legend, by a union with Walpi and Mishoñinovi, by
which the liberal-minded villagers of the Antelope mesa were
overthrown. Documentary and legendary accounts are thus in strict
accord regarding the cause of the destruction.
The meager fragmentary historical evidence that can be adduced shows
that the destruction of Awatobi occurred in the autumn or early winter
of 1700. In May of that year we have the account of the visiting
padre, and in the summer when Espeleta was at Santa Fé, the pueblo was
flourishing. The month of November would have been a favorable one for
the destruction of the town for the reason that during this time the
warriors would all be engaged in secret kiva rites. The legend relates
that the overthrow of the pueblo was at the _Naacnaiya_,[67] which now
takes place in November.
For many years after its destruction the name of Awatobi was still
retained on maps including the Tusayan province, and there exist
several published references to the place as if still inhabited; but
these appear to be compilations, as no traveler visited the site
subsequently to 1700. It is never referred to in writings of the
eighteenth or first half of the nineteenth centuries, and its site
attracted no attention. The ruins remained unidentified until about
1884, when the late Captain J. G. Bourke published his book on the
"Snake Dance of the Moquis," in which he showed that the ruin called
by the Navaho Tally-hogan was the old Awatobi which played such a
prominent part in early Tusayan history.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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