The history of the Hopi people is far reaching, if you take all the traditions, the clan traditions and later the collected Tribal traditions. It really teaches the Hopi knowledge way back into prehistory, going into what the people refer to as the final or “fourth way” of life. The essence of this history really centers around the Southwest particularly. The Hopis went through three prior worlds and then finally into South and North America and then focusing on the Southwest, where the Hopis are really prominent in terms of habitation and where their traditions are the strongest.
Mesa Verde is one of the areas in the Southwest with strong Hopi traditions. Over time, after the emergence into North America by the different clans from South America and so forth, they met up with different clans that were already residing here in North America. Those resident clans were the people we call the Motisinom, the “first people.” And then the ones coming from the south are the Nùutungkwisinom, the “last people.”1 Today, Hopi society is comprised of two cultures, the North and South American cultures. Part of the North American culture that we talk about today is the emergence into this current way of life, and the southern clans now having to learn how to live in this desert, because the South American clans came from tropical rainforests, so they had to learn how to survive here. The Motisinom who were already here taught us to learn how to survive. Of course, the gift of corn, by our spiritual leader Màasaw, enabled us to be able to survive here in this semiarid land that is the Southwest today. Part of the history is the big migration traditions of the southern clans. We were told to go in the four directions and establish our footprints out there. And that’s the prehistory of the Hopi people.
So over time you can see that the archaeology out in the Southwest is enormous, hundreds of thousands of archaeological sites that have endured time. Because Hopi clans were told specifically to build their homes with rock and also to scatter pottery so that it would endure and preserve the legacy of the Hopi people. And that’s what clans did throughout the migration period as they moved from one place to another. Sometimes they collected with other clans who later became phratries,2 and some independently were still following other groups of Hopi clans. So, the prehistory of the region is enormous and really establishes our principles of life and respect for our history, which became part of our religious teachings today.
So, if you look at the migrations, they lasted for hundreds and hundreds of years. We were told to look for a sign from the heavens, revealed through the appearance of what the Hopis refer to as the “blue star.” The blue star was seen during the day too, it was a big phenomenon, that was the sign that Hopis were looking for to enter their final migrations. Scientists say this was the supernova of AD 1054, that was what the Hopis saw, and it ended the migrations of the Hopi clans. A lot of evidence is out there through petroglyphs in particular, especially the spiral, which is the migration symbol of Hopi clans. So that occurred, then we were told that once the migrations ended, clans were to come together at different places and share their respective clan migration histories and present some of their ceremonies to each other.
So, this became part of this era that Mesa Verde is a part of. The Hopis call Mesa Verde Tawtaykya—it means the “Place of the Songs.” Spruce Tree House is called Salapa, “Spruce Springs Village.” Those are some of the prominent place names that Hopis use to refer to Mesa Verde today.3 Mesa Verde was then beginning to be inhabited by the first people, the Motisinom, and also the people who came from the south. Prominent in terms of some of the early occupation of the Mesa Verde area were Motisinom groups such as the Katsina, Badger, Gray Badger, Rabbit, and Tobacco Clans. Those were clans that had lived around that area and were sort of hosts to other clans that were converging into Mesa Verde. I call them the “convergence places”—the places where people were beginning to settle into the villages of Mesa Verde or adjacent areas such as the Ute Mountain Tribal Park.4 That’s where my clan, the Greasewood Clan, lived for a while, right in that Tribal park area. I base it on my observation of petroglyphs and so forth. So that was occurring. Later, other clans began to go over there, including the Flute, Parrot, Greasewood, Bow, and Third Mesa Bamboo Clans. Those are the prominent clans that I know about.
So, Mesa Verde is significant in that it was bringing the clans together after hundreds of years of migration. And the purpose was to share migration experiences, to share their wisdom, share their teaching, share some of the ceremonies that they were carrying. A lot of ceremonies were fully revived in Mesa Verde such as Powamuy (the Bean Dance), which began to be the prominent ceremony in Mesa Verde.5 Of course, other clans performed their own respective ceremonies such as the Flute Ceremony. The other ceremony that was performed was the Sa’lako Dance.6 At least, this was the first time that the ceremony was actually performed publicly. And later, the full ceremony of Sa’lako was perfected at Aztec Pueblo and carried into Chaco by the Bow, Greasewood, and Bamboo Clans. So, the Sa’lako Dance was also performed up there. It became a habitation period for all these clans to establish themselves and also to leave other evidence, such as what archaeologists call T-shaped doorways that were put into the architecture by Hopi clans. The T-shaped doorway represents the hairdo of our spiritual leader Màasaw, with the chin on the bottom and the bangs on each side of head. That’s what the Hopis were told to put in there because we were carrying out Màasaw’s covenant with us, which was to migrate and put our footprints as evidence out there. That was the way Hopi clans put their insignia in Mesa Verde.
We survived for a period of time until spiritual people, through prayer, were now receiving final instructions as to what the final destination would be. In the interim, the Mesa Verde people interacted with other convergence places such as Hoo’ovai (Aztec Pueblo) or even faraway places such as Chaco. The Bears Ears National Monument area was very prominent with a lot of clans up there.7 Mesa Verde clans interacted with people up in the area we now call Bears Ears. Bear Strap, Snake, Sand, Lizard, Greasewood, Bow, Bamboo, and Flute Clans were up there.8 Those were the respective clans in Bears Ears that also had their own ceremonies, they say that they shared their ceremonies by invitation with people in Mesa Verde. For example, the Bears Ears people heard about the Bean Dance and asked the Badger and Katsina Clans to come up and perform it during the winter. So that’s what happened in one particular instance. Of course, the Flute Clan had the Flute Ceremony up at Bears Ears, and they were invited to come up to Mesa Verde to perform. And they were welcomed in Mesa Verde, and the Flute Clan never went back to Bears Ears. They were asked to stay permanently, because during the ceremony there was a lot of rain, leading to good harvests in Mesa Verde, so Flute was asked to stay permanently until finally instructed to come out to the Hopi Mesas.
Clans at Mesa Verde who were at the top of the hierarchy at those villages were the Katsina and Badger people, they were the ones determining whether clans should perform ceremonies at the villages. Katsina and Badger were very prominent in terms of leadership. As leading clans did later in the Hopi Mesas, they were assigning farming lands, determining the ceremonial calendar to be put into place—things like that were occurring under the leadership of those clans that were the first inhabitants of those villages. The Bow Clan was so powerful that Katsina and Badger didn’t allow Bow to perform, because they were a really prominent clan from Palatkwapi, and their reputation followed them.9 So, when Bow and our phratry went to Mesa Verde they weren’t allowed to perform their ceremonies, because they were too powerful. So, they never performed up there, but did eventually perform their Two Horn ceremonies at Aztec. They were the ones that built the great kiva and performed Sa’lako up there as well. They were really prominent, but perhaps prominent in a way that would distract from the simplicity of the Katsina Dances and Bean Dances. Greasewood people were allowed to perform a medicinal ceremony, the Yaya’t (Hopi Magician Society), plus four katsinam that we call the Somaykoli, the four cardinal colors, blue, red, yellow, and white. We were allowed to perform that to bring some healing practices into Mesa Verde.
One thing that’s interesting in our Greasewood tradition is the fact that Greasewood went from Bears Ears up to the place called Pamőstukwi (Fog Mountain), a pretty prominent place.10 I went there to see, and sure enough the mountain had a lot of clouds that settled on the base of the mountain. That’s where they migrated to, and then we were on verge of starvation, the Greasewood people, when another group of people came in. Apparently, these were the Ute people, that was their homeland around that area, they were the ones that met up with the Greasewood Clan, brought them bison pelts and bison meat, and that’s how the Greasewood people were able to survive out there.11 It was the Utes who told them there were other clans now in the Mesa Verde region. So, we asked them to lead us there. In our tradition, it was the Utes who led us to the Mesa Verde area. Greasewood settled in Ute Mountain Tribal Park.
Up in the Mesa Verde area, particularly toward Chimney Rock,12 the Hopi clans who went that far east reported conflict with—I don’t know which tribe—but they were the ones that experienced that. I don’t know if it’s maybe Plains tribes that went west, like the Comanche, or Kiowa or even the Utes. But they experienced that up in the Chimney Rock area. Whereas, in my clan tradition, we had a good strong tradition with Utes, we still call them our brothers and sisters, and vice versa too. So, different types of experiences in the Mesa Verde area.
So, a lot of history, if you get into the specific clan traditions. It was in the Mesa Verde area that Greasewood and Bow and Bamboo, among others, met a culture of pygmies, small people that had a lot of physical prowess, keen eyesight, good runners, good warriors, very territorial. Initially, the pygmies didn’t allow some of the Hopi clans to enter into their territory. Eventually, we made a pact with them, and they are now called the Warrior Twins.13 They originally came from Aztec, New Mexico. They finally entered into a peace pact to protect Hopi clans as they journeyed.
So, all of these things were the dynamics of the villages. For perhaps 100–200 years, these big settlements such as Chaco, Aztec, Salmon, Zuni, Homol’ovi, Wupatki, Tawtaykya, those were the prominent Hopi convergence places. And there was interaction between those villages. At Homol’ovi, the Zunis were there with the Hopis. They went back and forth to share their ceremonies from Zuni to Homol’ovi, for example. So, these were the dynamics of these villages until the ceremonies were fully resurrected and completed and clans were satisfied that, because of their ceremonies, they were now worthy enough to go on their final footsteps which led them to the Hopi Mesas. Today, all of these ceremonies that were developed in those major villages are still practiced here on Hopi as a way to remember their connection to the past.
So, in summary, it’s a huge history, that’s what we’re trying to pass on to the next generation to learn about these clan traditions, so they don’t forget. Remember, our ancestral people are still there in those villages. And our evidence is out there to show the future that Hopi clans did indeed make these migrations and establish footprints through the Southwest. So, Mesa Verde is very, very prominent. Right around Mesa Verde are some other big villages, such as Yellow Jacket and other sites that Crow Canyon has mapped and excavated. These are part of the established villages of people who were nearing Mesa Verde and were ready to be called into the convergence places.
So, you see we have so much memory ingrained in ourselves, and we feel good about it, feel good about our connections to these places. How, collectively, clans were able to build the big villages we see in Mesa Verde, contribute as a community to dry farming, rain farming, and were able to produce the additional crops that we still carry on today, particularly corn and some of the bean species, identifying edible wild plants, that was a collective responsibility of people in villages to do so. Gathering of wood was communal too as people pitched in, carried the brush and greasewood out there in the valleys, sometimes even timber—cedar and juniper, pinyon, all collected for the clans to survive the harsh winters up there. Of course, they purposefully built the villages in alcoves facing southwest to get the most out of the moving sun, especially during winter, that was purposeful. They say that habitation rooms were small, just one room, a common room where family lived, and that way they used a minimum of fuelwood to keep the small houses warm during the winter.
Everything was carefully thought out, people began to prepare, and then finally the final messages came in from the spiritual people. They were now going to be led to their final home, the destiny of Hopi clans. That’s where the final migrations began to occur from all of these areas I mentioned, to the center of the universe, Tuuwanasavi, the center place. That began the settlements of Awat’ovi, Wàlpi, Songòopavi, Musangnuvi, Orayvi. Those were the Mother villages established after the migrations. Early on, when the convergence places started to occur, a lot of the clans began to interact, like Bears Ears to Mesa Verde, Mesa Verde to Aztec, and Aztec to Chaco. So, when the clans did arrive on the Hopi Mesas, eventually they began to get reacquainted with some of the clans they’d interacted with out there a long time ago. That further solidified the Hopi clans’ history on migrations. And particularly the first people, the Motisinom, who were hosts at these villages, helped to unify people from these same clans that they knew from a long time ago. That’s another form of cultural bond and strength of the Hopi people.
So today, when we reminisce about these traditions, it really helps you solidify your passion for understanding the history of Hopi people. You remember events up there in Mesa Verde that help us get a sense of really belonging even today. We don’t abandon these sites, we continue to make pilgrimages up there and we prepare our prayer feathers, we get these directional prayer feathers that we place on our shrines, and up to the northeast when we do that, we remember places like Mesa Verde. So, we don’t forget these ancient villages, and that way the culture still is bonding, it’s a way to have pride in a humble way about our past and rich history as Hopi people.