Briefing ...
Hopi: The Place, The Landscape, The People, and Their Culture & Ceremonies
Our exploration into what constitutes human dignity and living a dignified human existence continues with the exploration of Hopi origins and themes regarding human dignity and human rights.
Hopi
A person cannot and should not enter a discussion about Hopi as a place, a people, or a culture without at least providing a general overview of what Hopis believe to be their origin story and place in the world it assigns them. This is a difficult task for anyone, particularly for non-Hopi anthropologists and the like, who have tried to piece together a story from various accounts that – for reasons both sacred and not shared or shared but with a particular agenda within communities and against outsiders – cannot be considered total and/or final. But, in general, the origin story sets the place of Hopi in a much different context than what would be witnessed when visiting Hopi today.
For example, what is generally agreed upon is the origin story centers on a creator, Tawa or Taiowa, who created the First World out of endless space and who then created Sotuknang, whom he called his nephew, and whom he sent to create the nine universes according to his grand plan. It was Sotuknang, so one version of the story goes, who also created Spider Woman to serve as a messenger for the creator and an intercessor between the deity and the people. (In other versions of the Hopi creation myth, she, Spider Woman, creates all life, under the direction of Sotuknang.) Since that time, three more worlds have been created – the Second and Third, which were subsequently destroyed by the creator because of the evil ways of people, and the Fourth World in which Hopis (and non-Hopis) currently live.
There are also at least two versions of how Hopis entered the Fourth World: one version has Spider Grandmother placing a hollow bamboo reed between the Third World and the Fourth World through which people travelled to the Fourth World entering through an opening called a sipapu. Some consider this opening place to be within the Grand Canyon – oftentimes, it is centered at a village in Hopi called Walpi. Another version has Spider Grandmother sealing the more righteous people into hollow reeds which they used as boats to travel to numerous islands until they reached the mountainous coasts of the Fourth World. Whichever version a person might accept, the point is that the people were then directed to engage in a series of extensive migrations sending them to the farthest reaches of land in the north, south, east, and west. (Only the far north was closed to the Hopi, the “Back Door” of snow and ice, which some believe referred to the land bridge that connected Asia and North America.) Some have it the Hopi traveled throughout North and South America before returning to north-eastern Arizona.
The point of this discussion is not to settle the question about the Hopis’ origin; but to note that, under such an understanding, the Hopis would see their history and historical claim to land being much more than it is today. For example, in contrast to the Hopis’ origins being tied to the origins of the universe created by Sotuknang, anthropologists and historians argue the Hopis can trace their ancestry back only to the Ancient Puebloan and Basket maker cultures. In defense of this position, they point to the many stone structures and artifacts located at the Grand Canyon and across the Southwest that affirm the Hopi as one of the oldest living cultures in documented history, and the village of Oraibi – settled in the 11th Century – as one of the oldest continually inhabited settlements in the United States.
Additionally, to further place things in context, Hopi lands came under control of the U.S. government with the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848. Today, the Hopi
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