The Unwritten Literature of the HopiLockett, Hattie Greene
Philosophy
The Unwritten Literature of the Hopi
Lockett, Hattie Greene
Hopi Indians; Hopi Indians -- Folklore
=Tradition for Walking Beside the White Man But in Footsteps of Fathers=
In 1885, Wicki, chief of the Antelope Society at Walpi, told Mr. A.M.
Stephen one of the most complete and interesting variants ever collected
of the Snake myth.
One of its interesting details concerns a prophesy of the manner in
which the Hopitah are to take on the White man's culture. In plain words
the Spider Woman tells Tiyo that a time will come when men with white
skins and a strange tongue shall come among the Hopitah, and the Snake
Brotherhood, having brave hearts, will be first to make friends and
learn good from them. But the Hopitah are not to follow in the white
men's footsteps but to walk _beside them_, always keeping in the
footsteps of their fathers![36]
That is just what the Hopi are doing today.
[Footnote 36: Stephen, A.M., Hopi Tales: Jour. Amer. Folklore, vol. 42,
1929, p. 37.]
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
More than to any one else, I am indebted to Dr. Byron Cummings for
guidance in the preparation of this study; to Prof. John H. Provinse for
material and suggestion; to Dr. H.S. Colton and Mary Russell F. Colton
for the generous use of materials; and to my Hopi friends, Sackongsie of
Bacabi, Don Talayesva of Oraibi, Guanyanum Sacknumptewa of Lower Oraibi,
Quentin Quahongva of Shungopovi, Dawavantsie of Walpi, and Mother Lalo
of Sichomovi, for Hopi stories.--H.G.L.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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