It is seldom that the traveler will find less than three Indian tribes of
distinct family represented at or near El Tovar. In the Hopi House, as is
shown, there are Hopis and Navahos, and in their camp near by,there will
generally be found a band of Havasupais from Havasu (Cataract) Canyon,
making baskets or dressing buckskin.
To most people an Indian is an Indian, yet there is such a wonderful
difference between these three peoples, in features, language, habits,
religion, social customs and life, that a short comparison cannot fail to
be of interest and profit.
The Hopi Indian. The Hopis belong to the people popularly spoken of as
"pueblos," but this name signifies nothing more than town Indians, as
distinguished from the nomad or wandering tribes. They belong to the great
Shoshonean family, and are a short, stocky, gentle people, given to
agriculture, sheep raising, basketry and pottery, and a little weaving and
silver work.
The Navaho Race. The Navahos, on the other hand, are of Athabascan stock,
coming from the north, and are blood brothers of the Tinnehs of Alaska, and
the fierce and warlike Apaches of Southern Arizona. They are natural
horsemen, raising great herds of their wiry, active, hardy ponies, as well
as herds of sheep and goats. These are the chief industries of their men,
and the women are the most skilled blanket-weavers in the world.
The Havasupais. The Havasupais are of still another stock. They belong to
the Yuman family, and are kin to the Wallapais, the Mohaves, Yumas and
Cocopahs of the Colorado River.
Comparison of Three Races. In appearance, the Hopi and Havasupai are more
alike than either are like to the Navaho. As a rule, the Hopi is well built
and stalwart, with the unmistakable Indian face, but with less coarse and
sensual lips, higher and more intellectual brow, more alert and kindly eye,
and stronger chin than the Havasupai. The lobes of the nostril are wide and
flexible, showing the wonderful lung power of this great running people.
The Navaho shows, in the build of his flexible body, that he is a horseman,
a rider. His face is one of the strongest of Indian types, and is
distinctive and easily recognizable, as a rule. With high cheek bones,
strong square jaws, flexible, thin lips, large, limpid eyes and expansive
brows, the tribe shows a high order of intelligence, and while at rest,
their faces are kindly and inviting. There is a flash in the eye when
aroused that denotes great pride, absolute fearlessness and hatred of
control. It is a race of warriors, a race that for two centuries harried
the Spaniards as well as the gentle Hopi, whom they regarded as their
legitimate prey.
Costumes of Hopi Men. In dress, these three peoples are distinctive, though
in these days of part civilization and close contact with the whites, the
true Indian costume is being discarded for the conventional dress of the
latter. The Hopi men generally wear the true pueblo costume. In olden days,
it was the buckskin shirt and trousers, with a blanket over all. Now, the
trousers are generally of white calico, with a slit on the sides from the
knee down. A calico shirt is worn. The stockings are of blue wool, without
feet. Moccasins, with a sole of thick rawhide and uppers of dressed
buckskin, are worn. The invariable silk handkerchief, or red bandana
"bands" surrounds the hair, which is cut long, generally long enough barely
to reach the shoulders.
Costumes of Hopi Women. The women's native dress is most picturesque, and
far more adhered to than that of the men. The main dress is a welt-woven
blanket of deep blue, sometimes with slight red decoration, which is
fastened over the left shoulder and down the left side. The right shoulder
is left bare, unless, as invariably is the case with the Indians who
associate much with the whites, a light calico shirt is worn under the
dress. It reaches to below the knees, and is encircled around the waist by
a broad home-woven sash, which is wrapped two or three times around the
body, and has the end carelessly tucked in. The feet are covered with
moccasins, to which are attached swathings of buckskin, which are wrapped
around and around the legs, until they are as large as ordinary sized
stovepipes. The hair is worn in peculiar fashion, that symbolizes the
social condition of the wearer. At puberty a maiden is required by the
inflexible rule of the tribe to dress her hair in two great whorls--one
over each ear--called "nashmi." These are in imitation of the squash
blossom, which is the Hopi symbol of maidenhood and purity. When she
marries, she must change the fashion of dressing the hair into two pendant
rolls, in imitation of the fruit of the squash, which is their emblem or
symbol for matronhood and chastity.
Navaho Men's Costumes. The old time Navaho men wear the white calico
trousers, slit up the side, and a shirt, either of colored calico or of
some kind of velvet cloth. On the feet are moccasins, and the stockings are
the same footless kind as worn by the Hopi, fastened below the knee with a
wide garter. This is made in the same style as the sashes which the Hopi
and Navaho women wear around their waists, but is neither so broad nor so
long. The hair is either allowed to flow loosely over the shoulders, or is
arranged in a kind of square knot at the back of the head. As a basis for
this knot, a hairpin made of bone, from three to five inches long, smoothed
almost flat, with beveled or rounded edges, and often rudely carved, is
used. Around this knot a sash similar to a garter is generally wrapped to
secure it. The universal bands is worn around the head to help bind the
hair, and keep it away from the forehead.
Navaho Women's Costume. The women wear a brown, green, or red velvet shirt,
with a "squaw dress" beautifully woven of deep blue cotton, with a
conventionally designed red border. Around the waist the wide sash, before
described, is wound. This dress is both skirt and waist, but of late years
those women who live in or near our civilization discard their native
dress, and wear a skirt of calico, with the velvet shirt.
The Havasupai Dress. The Havasupai men and women now wear as near the
conventional dress of our race as their means will allow. When I first knew
them, the men seldom wore more than a pair of moccasins and a breechcloth
in summer, with buckskin shirt and trousers, and a Navaho blanket over the
shoulders in winter. The conventional dress of the women at that time was a
skirt made of shredded cedar bark, which was suspended from the waist to
below the knees, without shirt or shirt-waist. In winter, a Navaho blanket
was worn over the shoulders. Both men and women still wear the inevitable
moccasins, though the "civilized" members of the tribe buy their shoes at
the white man's store in Williams, Ash Fork or Seligman. The women
generally bang their hair across, about the center of the forehead, and
then allow the rest of the hair to hang loose. It is a great insult to a
Havasupai woman to ask her to throw back her hair from her cheeks, and to
do it oneself is a serious offense.
Language. In language, these people are as different one from another as
are the Turks, the Esquimaux and the French. Even in the simplest words
these differences are marked. Take a few comparisons. For good the Hopi
says lolomai, the Navaho yatehay and the Havasupai harnegie. Bad in Hopi is
ka-lolomai (not good), Navaho da shonda (of the evil one), Havasupai
han-a-to-opo-gi.