After the destruction of Sikyatki there was apparently a marked
deterioration in the excellence of Hopi ceramics, which continued as
late as the overthrow of Awatobi, when the Sikyatki epoch ceased.
Shortly before that date and for a few years later there was a notable
influx of foreigners into Hopiland; a number of southern clans from
the Little Colorado successively joined the Hopi, bringing with them
cultural conceptions and symbolic designs somewhat different from those
existing previously to their advent. Among these clans are those known in
migration legends as the Patki peoples. Although we can not distinguish
a special Patki epoch in Hopi ceramics, we have some ideas of the nature
of Patki symbolism from large collections from Homolobi, Chevlon, and
Chavez Pass. From traditions and ceremonial objects now in use we also
know something of the nature of the objective symbols they introduced
into Walpi, and we can detect some of these on pottery and other objects
used in ceremonies at Walpi. Some of these symbols did not come directly
from the Little Colorado ruins, but went first to Awatobi and from there
to Walpi[52] after the destruction of the former pueblo in the autumn of
the year 1700. The arrival of southern clans at the East Mesa with their
characteristic symbols occurred approximately in the seventeenth century,
about 200 years after the date of the discovery of Hopi by Tovar. Awatobi
received the Rabbit, Tobacco, and other clans from this migration from
the south between the years 1632 and 1700, and Walpi received the Patki
shortly after or at the same time the Hano clans came from the far east.
The similarities in ancient pottery from the Little Colorado and that
belonging to the Sikyatki epoch can not be ascribed to anything more
profound than superficial contact. It is not probable that the ancient
pottery of Awatobi or that of Kawaika and other Keres pueblos on the
Awatobi mesa or in the adjacent plain was modified in any considerable
degree by incoming clans from the south, but survived the Sikyatki epoch
a century after Sikyatki had been destroyed.
The advent of the clans from the Little Colorado into the Hopi country
was too late to seriously affect the classic period of Hopi ceramics;
it appears also not to have exerted any great influence on later times.
Extensive excavations made at Homolobi, Chevlon, and Chavez Pass
have revealed much pottery which gives a good idea of the symbolism
characteristic of the clans living along this valley, which resembles
in some respects the classic Hopi pottery of the time of Sikyatki,
but several of these likenesses date back to a time before the union
of the Hopi and Little Colorado clans. As a rule the bird figures on
pottery from Homolobi, Chevlon, Chavez Pass, and other representative
Little Colorado ruins are more realistic and less conventionalized and
complex than those from Sikyatki. The peculiar forms of feathers found
so constantly in the latter do not occur in the former, nor does the
sky-band with its dependent bird figure ever occur on Little Colorado
ware. We are here dealing with less-developed conventionalism, a cruder
art, and less specialized symbolism. Even if the colors of the pottery
did not at once separate them, the expert can readily declare whether
he is dealing with a bowl from Sikyatki or Homolobi. There are, to be
sure, likenesses, but well-marked differences of local development. The
resemblances and differences in the case of bird figures on prehistoric
Hopi ware and that from the ruins on the Little Colorado can be readily
shown by considering figures 105, 106, and 107, found at Homolobi and
Chevlon, and the corresponding preceding bird figures. It may be
interesting to instance another example. Figure 104 shows a lateral view
of a bird with wings extended, bearing marginal dentations representing
feathers on the breast and a tail composed of four triangular feathers
and two eyes, each with iris and pupil. The upper and lower jaws in this
figure are extended to form a beak, as is customary in bird designs from
the Little Colorado ruins, but never found at Sikyatki. In figure 105 we
have another lateral view of a characteristic bird design from the Little
Colorado region, and figures 106 and 107 show hourglass bodies, a special
feature of the same region.
[Illustration: FIG. 104.—Lateral view of bird with double eyes.]
In the same way many other distinctive characteristics separating figures
of animals from the two regions might be mentioned. Those above given
may suffice to show that each is distinctive and in a way specialized in
its development, but the main reason to believe that the clans from the
Little Colorado never affected the symbolism of Sikyatki is the fact that
the latter ruin was destroyed before these clans joined the Hopi villages.
The ruins Homolobi and Chevlon were probably inhabited well into historic
times, although there is no archeological evidence that artifacts from
them were modified by European influences. The symbolism on pottery
shows that their culture was composite and seems to have been the
result of acculturation from both south and east. Some of the clans, as
the Tobacco, that peopled these settlements joined Awatobi before its
overthrow, while others settled at Pakatcomo, the ruins of which near
Walpi are still visible, and later united with the people of the largest
village of the East Mesa. So far as known, Sikyatki had been destroyed
before any considerable number of people had entered the Hopi country
from the Little Colorado,[53] the event occurring comparatively late in
history.
[Illustration: FIG. 105.—Lateral view of bird with double eyes.]
The pottery from the Little Colorado differs from prehistoric Hopi ware
much less with respect to geometrical designs than life forms. The break
in the encircling line, or, as it is called, the life gate, which is
almost universally found on the ancient Hopi vases, bowls, dippers, and
other objects, occurs likewise on pottery from Little Colorado ruins.
Some of the encircling lines from this region have more than one break,
and in one instance the edges of the break have appendages, a rare
feature found in both prehistoric Hopi and Little Colorado ware.[54]
[Illustration: FIG. 106.—Bird with double eyes.]
The influence of Keres culture on Zuñi may be shown in several ways,
thus: A specimen of red ware from a shrine on Thunder Mountain, an
old Zuñi site, is decorated with symbolic feathers recalling those
on Sikyatki ware ascribed to eastern influence. The nonappearance of
Keres and Tewa symbols on ancient pottery from the Zuñi Valley ruins,
Heshotauthla and Hálonawan, and their existence in the mountain shrine
above mentioned, implies that the latter settlement is more modern, and
that the eastern clans united with preexisting Little Colorado clans
comparatively late in its history. The first settlements in Zuñi Valley
were made by colonists from the Gila. There are several ceremonies in
the Walpi ritual which, like the New Fire, although immediately derived
from Awatobi, came originally from Little Colorado pueblos, and other
ceremonies came directly to Walpi from the same original source. Among
the former are those introduced by the Piba (Tobacco) clan, which brought
to Walpi a secret fraternity called the Tataukyamû. This brotherhood
came directly from Awatobi, but the Tobacco clan from which it was
derived once lived in a pueblo on the Little Colorado, now a ruin at
Chevlon, midway between Holbrook and Winslow.[55] The identification of
the Chevlon ruin with the historic Chipias has an important bearing on
the age of the Little Colorado ruins, for Padre Arvide, a Franciscan
missionary, was killed in 1632 by the Chipias, who lived west of Zuñi. In
other words, their pueblo was then inhabited.
[Illustration: FIG. 107.—Two birds with rain clouds.]
We know that the Piba joined Awatobi before 1700, or the year it was
destroyed; consequently the desertion of the Chevlon ruin (Chipiaya,
or Tcipiaiya) evidently occurred between 1632 and 1700, not so much
on account of Apache inroads as from fear of punishment by the
Spaniards.[56] As no clans from the other large pueblo on the Little
Colorado or Homolobi joined Awatobi, we can not definitely fix the date
that this group fled to the north, but it was probably not long after
the time the Chevlon clans migrated to Awatobi, from which it follows
that the Little Colorado settlements were inhabited up to the middle
of the seventeenth century. While the Little Colorado clans did not
influence the Sikyatki pottery, they did affect the potters of Awatobi to
a limited extent and introduced some symbols into Walpi in the middle of
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Among these influences may be
mentioned those derived from Awatobi after its destruction in 1700. It is
not possible to state definitely what modifications in pottery symbols
were introduced into Walpi by the potters of the clans from Awatobi and
the Little Colorado. Possibly no considerable modification resulted from
their advent, as there was already more or less similarity in the pottery
from these geographical localities. The southern clans introduced some
novelties in ceremonies, especially in the Winter Solstice and New-fire
festivals and in the rites of the Horned Serpent at the Spring Equinox.