If the visitor will give an order for a pair of _totchi_, he may see
the whole process at his leisure. A piece of well-curried cowhide,
preferably from the back of the animal, is produced, the outline of
the foot is marked out on it and a margin is left by the cutter for
the turning up of the sole. This is all the moccasin maker seems to
require, and his formula for the height of the instep has not been
divulged, but it must be effective, because moccasins are made to fit
with greater art than is displayed by many civilized shoemakers.
The soles are buried in damp sand to make them pliable, and the front
section of the top is sewn around the edge reaching to about the ankle
bones. The moccasin is then turned inside out and the ankle section
sewn on. Tying strings are added, or if especial style is desired,
silver buttons made by Navaho from dimes or quarters take their place.
The Hopi live a very long way from the range of the deer, a fact which
accounts largely for their use of woven fabrics. But deerskins must
always have been in demand, and these were got in exchange with the
Navaho, Havasupai, and other neighbors. In this way in old times
buffalo skins and pelts of animals came to Tusayan, and Hopi bread and
blankets went to remote mountains and plains.
It would be interesting to know whether the Hopi formerly were sandal
people or moccasin people, and this knowledge would reveal a great
deal that is now mere guesswork as to their history. The sandal people
would mean those of the south who were of Mexico, where no moccasins
seem ever to have been worn. The moccasin people would be those of the
north, the tribes of our mountains and plains, among whom this
foot-wear is typical. Perhaps the Hopi belong to both classes. The
cliff-dwellers wore sandals, and for winter had boots of network to
which turkey feathers were skilfully fastened as covering. The sandals
found in the cliff-houses are variously woven from rushes or agave
strips, or maybe a plain sole of leather with the toe cord, but those
worked of cotton showing ingenious designs are worthy of the highest
admiration.
Those clans of the cliff-people and the clans from the south that
congregated in Tusayan centuries ago were sandal wearers, while the
resident clans and those coming from the north, perhaps bands of the
Ute,--were moccasin wearers and impressed their language and moccasins
on the Hopi. This was much to the advantage of the Hopi, granting that
they had never thought of better protection than sandals from the
biting winter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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