My maternal ancestor had recognized a woman chief (_Mamzrau
monwi_), and saved her at the place of massacre called Maski, and
now he asked her whether she would be willing to initiate the
women of Walpi in the rites of the Mamzrau. She complied, and thus
the observance of the ceremony called Mamzrauti came to the other
villages. This _Mamzrau monwi_ had no children and hence my
maternal ancestor's sister became chief, and her badge of office,
or tiponi, came to me. Some of the other Awatobi women knew how to
bring rain, and such of them as were willing to teach their songs
were spared and went to different villages. The Oraibi chief saved
a man who knew how to cause the peach to grow, and that is why
Oraibi has such an abundance of peaches now. The Miconinovi chief
saved a prisoner who knew how to make the sweet, small-ear corn
grow, and this is why it is more abundant there than elsewhere.
All the women who knew prayers and were willing to teach them were
spared, and no children were designedly killed, but were divided
among the villages, most of them going to Miconinovi. The
remainder of the prisoners, men and women, were again tortured and
dismembered and left to die on the sand hills, and there their
bones are, and the place is called Mastcomo, or Death Mound. This
is the story of Awatobi told by my people.[17]
[17] "Preliminary account of an expedition to the cliff villages
of the Red Rock country; and the Tusayan ruins of Sikyatki and
Awatobi, Arizona, in 1895." By J. Walter Fewkes, from the
Smithsonian Report for 1895, pp. 568-569.
It is difficult to conceive of the conservatism of some of the older
Hopi. A glimpse of the clinging to the myth of the golden age is shown
by the speech of the old chief Nashihiptuwa, to whom the past was an
ideal time of plenty and contentment under the bright sky of Tusayan.
It was Sunday and the camp by a peach orchard in a deep valley at the
Middle Mesa was made lively by the presence of about thirty Indian
laborers, mostly Walpi "boys." Far above on the rocky mesas could be
seen three Hopi towns which bear names difficult of pronunciation,
"The place of peaches" being most picturesque. To the West were
innumerable barren hillocks, furrowed and gullied, rising toward the
warm sandstone cliffs bearing the pueblos at the top. Along the wash
which from time immemorial had been carving out this wonderfully
sculptured valley were the bean and melon patches of the Indians, and
on the higher ground dark green peach orchards. Out of the mouth of
the valley there stretched the wide plain, merging into the many-hued
desert.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account