As the clans which came to the Hopi country from Zuñi were comparatively
late arrivals of Tewa colonists long after the destruction of Sikyatki,
their potters exerted no influence on the Sikyatki potters. The ancient
Hopi ceramic art had become extinct when the clans from Awatobi, the
pueblos on the Little Colorado, and the late Tewa, united with the
Walpi settlement on the East Mesa. The place whence we can now obtain
information of the character of the symbolism of the Asa, Butterfly,
Badger, and other Tewan clans is in certain ceremonies at Sichomovi,
a pueblo near Walpi, settled by clans from Zuñi and often called the
Zuñi pueblo by the Hopi. One of the Sichomovi ceremonies celebrated at
Oraibi and Sichomovi on the East Mesa, in which we may find survivals
of the earliest Tewa and Zuñi symbolism, is called the Owakülti. The
Sichomovi variant of the Owakülti shows internal sociologic relation to
the Butterfly or Buli (Poli) clan resident in Awatobi before its fall.
This statement is attested by certain stone slabs excavated from Awatobi
mounds, on which are painted butterfly symbols. The Walpi Lalakoñti,
first described by the author and Mr. Owens in 1892, has also survivals
of Awatobi designs. It appears that while it is not easy to trace any of
the rich symbolism of Awatobi directly into Walpi pottery, it is possible
to discover close relations between certain Awatobi symbols and others
still employed in Walpi ceremonials. Sikyatki and Awatobi were probably
inhabited synchronously and as kindred people had a closely allied or
identical symbolism; there is such a close relation between the designs
on pottery from the two ruins that Awatobi symbols introduced into Walpi
have a close likeness to those of Sikyatki.[57]
The natural conservatism in religious rites of all kinds has brought
it about that many of the above-mentioned designs, although abandoned
in secular life of the Hopi, still persist in paraphernalia used in
ceremonies. It is therefore pertinent to discuss some of these religious
symbols with an idea of discovering whether they are associated with
certain clans or ruins, and if so what light they shed on prehistoric
migrations. In other words, here the ethnologists can afford us much
information bearing on the significance of prehistoric symbols.
One great difficulty in interpreting the prehistoric pictures of
supernaturals depicted on ancient pottery by a comparison of the
religious paraphernalia of the modern Hopi is a complex nomenclature of
supernatural beings that has been brought about by the perpetuation or
survival of different clan names for the same being even after union
of those clans. Thus we find the same Sky god with many others all
practically aliases of one common conception. To complicate the matter
still more, different attributal names are also sometimes used. The names
Alosaka, Muyinwû, and Talatumsi are practically different designations of
the same supernatural, while Tunwup, Ho, and Shalako appear to designate
the same Sky-god personage. Cultus heroines, as the Marau mana, Shalako
mana, Palahiko mana, and others, according as we follow one or another
of the dialects, Keres or Tewa, are used interchangeably. This diversity
in nomenclature has introduced a complexity in the Hopi mythology which
is apparent rather than real in the Hopi Pantheon, as their many names
would imply.[58] The great nature gods of sky and earth, male and
female, lightning and germination, no doubt arose as simple transfer of
a germinative idea applied to cosmic phenomena and organic nature. The
earliest creation myths were drawn largely from analogies of human and
animal birth. The innumerable lesser or clan gods are naturally regarded
as offspring of sky and earth, and man himself is born from Mother Earth.
He was not specially created by a Great Spirit, which was foreign to
Indians unmodified by white influences.
As the number of bird designs on Sikyatki pottery far outnumber
representations of other animals it is natural to interpret them by
modern bird symbols or by modern personations of birds, many examples of
which are known to the ethnological student of the Hopi.
In one of a series of dances at Powamû, which occurs in February, men and
boys personate the eagle, red hawk, humming bird, owl, cock, hen, mocking
bird, quail, hawk, and other birds, each appropriately dressed, imitating
cries, and wearing an appropriate mask of the birds they represent. In
a dance called Pamurti, a ceremony celebrated annually at Sichomovi,
and said to have been derived from Zuñi, personations of the same birds
appear, the men of Walpi contributing to the performance. Homovi, one of
the Hopi Indians who took part, made colored pictures representing all
these birds, which may be found reproduced in the author’s article on
Hopi katcinas.[59]
In the Hopi cosmogony the Sky god is thought to be father of all gods
and human beings, and when personations of the subordinate supernaturals
occur they are led to the pueblo by a personator of this great father of
all life. The celebrations of the Powamû, at the East Mesa of the Hopi,
represent the return of the ancestors or kachinas of Walpi, while the
Pamurti is the dramatization of the return of the kachinas of Sichomovi
whose ancestors were Zuñi kin.
Life figures or animal forms, as birds, serpents, and insects, depicted
on Little Colorado pottery differ considerably from those on Sikyatki
ware. Take, for instance, bird designs, the most abundant life forms on
ancient pueblo pottery on the Little Colorado, as well as at Sikyatki.
It needs but a glance at the figures of the former to show how marked
the differences are. The leader of the kachinas in the Powamû, which
celebrates the return of these ancestral gods to the pueblo, Walpi, wears
an elaborate dress and helmet with appended feathers. He is led into the
village by a masked man personating Eototo.[60]