The designs on pottery taken from prehistoric ruins of pueblos or
villages once inhabited by the Snake clans claim the archeologist’s
especial attention. These clans were the most important early additions
to the Hopi villages and no doubt influenced early Hopi symbolism. There
is little trace in early pottery that can be recognized as peculiar to
the Snake. The Snake clans formerly lived at Betatakin, Kitsiel, and
neighboring ruins.
Among many significant differences that occur between the designs on
pottery from the ruins in Navaho National Monument and those of Sikyatki
may be mentioned the rarity of bird designs and the conventional
feathers above described. Parallel lines and triangles have been found
on the pottery from Kitsiel and Betatakin. Terraced figures are common;
spirals are rare. Pottery designs from this region are simpler and like
those of the Mesa Verde cliff-houses and the ruins along the San Juan
River. Not only do the designs on prehistoric Sikyatki pottery have
little resemblance to those from Tokonabi, a former home of the Snake
clan, but the pottery from this region of Arizona is of coarser texture
and different color. It is the same as that of the San Juan area, the
decorations on which are about uniform with those from the Mesa Verde and
Chelly Canyon. The best vases and bowls are of red or black-and-white
ware.
In the pottery symbols of the clans that lived at Tokonabi (Kitsiel,
Betatakin, etc.) the archaic predominated. The passage architecturally
from the fragile-walled dwelling into Prudden’s pueblo “unit type”
had taken place, but the pottery had not yet been greatly modified.
Even after the Snake clans moved to Wukoki, near the Black Falls of
the Little Colorado, we still find the survival of geometrical designs
characteristic of the prepuebloan epoch. Consequently when the Snake
clans came to Walpi and joined the Hopi they brought no new symbols and
introduced no great changes in symbols. The influence of the clans from
the north was slight—too small to greatly influence the development of
Hopi symbolism.