The Indians of the Painted Desert Region: Hopis, Navahoes, Wallapais, HavasupaisJames, George Wharton
Religion
The Indians of the Painted Desert Region: Hopis, Navahoes, Wallapais, Havasupais
James, George Wharton
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New
The peaceful _hawas_ of the Havasupais nestle here and there among
these verdant growths. Themselves covered with willows, it is often
hard to distinguish them from the trees, were it not that at our
approach small groups of men, women, and children, some clad in
flaming red, others in all the colors of the rainbow, and some in even
less than Mark Twain's descriptive smile, stand forth and reveal the
dwelling-places. Now and again the curling line of bluish smoke of the
camp-fire reveals the hawa, and we gladly avail ourselves of one or the
other of these marks of identification to make ourselves more familiar
with the real home of the Havasupais. After investigation we find there
are several distinct types of houses, all simple and primitive, and yet
each different from the other.
Chickapanagie's summer home is a type of the simplest character. Two
upright poles with forks at the top, standing about six feet high, are
placed in line with each other fifteen feet apart. A cross-beam is
placed on these uprights. Then a row of poles, about eight to nine feet
in length, is sloped against the cross-beam. These are covered with
willows, and there is the completed hawa.
What queer dwelling-places men have, and ever have had, and possibly
ever will have. At the Paris Exposition of 1889 one whole street was
devoted to a history of inhabited dwellings. At one end were the
earliest "homes" of the paleolithic age, caves and huts, followed
by the Lake Dwellings and the wickiups, tepees, or tents of the
present-day Indian, the latter being the same primitive structures the
aborigines have ever used. The other end of the street was devoted to
the domestic architecture of our own day, and there, in a few hours,
one could study almost every known form of home structure. But who
could ever reproduce some of the homes these Havasupais live in? Wicker
huts in the open, and caves in the faces of solid sandstone walls two
thousand feet and more in height, these in turn surmounted by domes and
obelisks and towers and cupolas that no modern architect dare attempt
to rival.
These massive walls absorb the heat of the sun in summer time and thus
keep the canyon intensely hot both night and day. The large flow of
water and the dense growth of willows and other verdure keep the soil
constantly moist, so there is a humidity in the atmosphere which, in
hot weather, makes it very oppressive.
This moisture renders the canyon cold in winter, although the
thermometer never ranges very low. Snow falls but seldom, and then
disappears almost as soon as it lights. In 1898 there was snow that
stayed on the ground for several hours, but this was one of the
severest winters they have had for many years.
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