The Unwritten Literature of the Hopi — John Locke — John Shaqi
The Unwritten Literature of the Hopi
John Locke · en
Not until recent years has pottery been made elsewhere in Hopiland than
at Hano. At present, however, Sichomovi, the Hopi village built so close
to Hano that one scarce knows where one ends and the other begins, makes
excellent pottery as does the Hopi settlement at the foot of the hill,
Polacca. Undoubtedly this comes from the Tewa influence and in some
cases from actual Tewa families who have come to live in the new
locality. For instance, Grace, maker of excellent pottery, now living at
Polacca, is a Tewa who lived in Hano twenty years ago, when the writer
first knew her, and continued to live there until a couple of years ago.
Nampeo, most famous potter in Hopiland, is an aged Tewa woman still
living at Hano, in the first house at the head of the trail. Her
ambitious study of the fragments of the pottery of the ancients, in the
ruins of old Sikyatki, made her the master craftsman and developed a new
standard for pottery-making in her little world.
Mention was made previously of the women employing their leisure in the
making of baskets or pottery. An interesting emphasis should be placed
upon the "or," for no village does both. The women of the three villages
mentioned at First Mesa as pottery villages make no baskets. The three
villages on Second Mesa make a particular kind of coiled basket found
nowhere else save in North Africa, and no pottery nor any other kind of
basket. The villages of Third Mesa make colorful twined or wicker
baskets and plaques, just the one kind and no pottery. They stick as
closely to these lines as though their wares were protected by some
tribal "patent right." Pottery for First Mesa, coiled baskets for Second
Mesa, and wicker baskets for Third Mesa.
The writer has known the Hopi a long time, and has asked them many
times the reason for this. The villages are only a few miles apart, so
the same raw materials are available to all. These friends merely laugh
good naturedly and answer: "O, the only reason is, that it is just the
way we have always done it."
Natural conservatives, these Hopi, and yet not one of them but likes a
bright new sauce-pan from the store for her cooking, and a good iron
stove, for that matter, if she can afford it. There is no tradition
against this, we are told.
[Illustration: Figure 2.--Walpi.
--Photo by Bortell.]
More than two centuries ago, these Tewas came from the Rio Grande
region, by invitation of the Walpi, to help them defend this village
(See Figure 2) from their Navajo, Apache, and Piute enemies. They were
given a place on the mesa-top to build their village, at the head of the
main trail, which it was their business to guard, and fields were
allotted them in the valley below.
They are a superior people, intelligent, friendly, reliable, and so
closely resemble the Hopi that they can not be told apart.