Westward hoboes : $b ups and downs of frontier motoringDixon, Winifred Hawkridge
General
Westward hoboes : $b ups and downs of frontier motoring
Dixon, Winifred Hawkridge
Automobile travel; West (U.S.) -- Description and travel
The Hopi were originally migratory people moving slowly down to their
present home from the north. Probably the cliff dwellings in Colorado
and the southern Utah country, and certainly in the Canyon du Chelley,
were built by them. After Walpi had been settled, other tribes came to
Sichomovi. Meanwhile the Spanish monks had discovered Tusayan, and had
thoroughly disciplined and intimidated the unhappy people. Like the
parent who gives his son a thrashing, they did it for the Hopi’s good,
but their methods were tactless. Great beams a foot thick and twenty
long may today be seen in the old houses in Walpi, which these sullen
Hopis dragged from San Francisco mountains a hundred miles away, under
the lash of the zealous monks. The Walpis seem to have a morose nature,
which one observes today in their attitude toward visitors. Perhaps the
regime of the Spaniards cured them forever of hospitality. They joined
enthusiastically in the rebellion of 1680. When every Spaniard was
killed, the Walpis went back contentedly to their reactionary ways.
The Hano people are of the Tewa tribes, some of whom still live near
Santa Fé. On the invitation of the Walpi, they migrated to Tusayan, but
the Walpi treated them abominably, refusing to share their water with
them, or to allow them on their mesa. When the Hano asked for food,
the Walpi women poured burning porridge on their hands. When the Hano
helped defeat the Utes they were allowed to build the third village on
top of the mesa. They still speak a different tongue from the Walpi,
though they lived for centuries within a quarter of a mile of them. The
reason is interesting, if true.
“When the Hano first came, the Walpi said, ‘Let us spit in your mouths
and you will learn our tongue,’ and to this the Hano consented. When
the Hano moved to the mesa they said to the Walpi, ‘Let us spit in your
mouths, that you may learn _our_ tongue,’ but the Walpi refused, saying
it would make them vomit. Since then, all the Hano can talk Hopi, and
none of the Hopis can talk Hano.”
However that may be, our little guide was uneasy when we crossed into
Walpi, and exchanged no words with its inhabitants, who as they passed
gave him uncordial looks.
As we left Walpi, it was almost twilight. It had been a burning hot
day, but the coolness of evening at high altitude had settled on the
sizzling rock. Shadows that in midday had actually been, not purple,
but deep crimson, had lengthened and become cool blue-gray. We
carefully steered our car, loaded with Hopi pottery, down the rocky and
uneven wagon trail. At times, the ledges projected so high in the road
that we heard an unpleasant scraping noise of loosening underpinnings.
We used our brake constantly, and braked with our engine at the
steepest turns. At last we reached the sandy stretch at the bottom, and
with the advantage of a downgrade, managed to get through it safely.
[Illustration: SECOND MESA, HOPI RESERVATION.]
[Illustration: A HOTAVILLA SYBIL.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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