The Unwritten Literature of the Hopi | Page 9

make quantities of stuff for sale and those few who become
real artists, ambitious to save from oblivion the significance and
idealism of the old art that was done for the glory of the gods. Indian
art may survive with proper encouragement, but it must come now;
after a while will be too late.
A notably fine example of such encouragement is the work of Mary
Russell F. Colton of Flagstaff, Arizona, in the Hopi Craftsman
Exhibition held annually at the Northern Arizona Museum of which she
is art curator. At the 1931 Exhibition, 142 native Hopi sent in 390
objects. Over $1500 worth of material was sold and $200 awarded in
prizes. The attendance total of visitors was 1,642. From this exhibit a
representative collection of Hopi Art was assembled for the Exposition
of Indian Tribal Arts at the Grand Central Galleries, New York City, in
December of the same year. A gratifying feature of these annual
exhibits is the fact that groups of Hopi come in from their reservation
100 miles away and modestly but happily move about examining and
enjoying these lovely samples of their own best work and that of their
neighbors; and they are quick to observe that it is the really excellent
work that gets the blue ribbon, the cash prize, and the best sale.
Dr. Fewkes points out that while men invented and passed on the
mythology of the tribe, women wrote it down in symbols on their
handicrafts which became the traditional heritage of all.
The sand paintings made for special ceremonies on the floors of the
various kivas, in front of the altars, are likewise designs carried only in
the memory of the officiating priest and derived from the clan
traditions. All masks and ceremonial costumes are strictly prescribed
by tradition. The corn symbol is used on everything. Corn has always
been the bread of life to the Hopi, but it has been more than food, it has
been bound up by symbolism with his ideas of all fertility and
beneficence. Hopi myths and rituals recognize the dependence of their
whole culture on corn. They speak of corn as their mother. The chief of
a religious fraternity cherishes as his symbol of high authority an ear of
corn in appropriate wrappings said to have belonged to the society
when it emerged from the underworld. The baby, when twenty days old,
is dedicated to the sun and has an ear of corn tied to its breast.

V. HOUSE BUILDING
* * * * *
As already stated, the house (See Figure 3) belongs to the woman. She
literally builds it, and she is the head of the family, but the men help
with the lifting of timbers, and now-a-days often lay up the masonry if
desired; the woman is still the plasterer. The ancestral home is very
dear to the Hopi heart, men, women, and children alike.
After the stone for building has been gathered, the builder goes to the
chief of the village who gives him four small eagle feathers to which
are tied short cotton strings. These, sprinkled with sacred meal, are
placed under the four corner stones of the new house. The Hopi call
these feathers Nakiva Kwoci, meaning a breath prayer, and the
ceremony is addressed to Masauwu. Next, the door is located by
placing a bowl of food on each side of where it is to be. Likewise
particles of food, mixed with salt, are sprinkled along the lines upon
which the walls are to stand. The women bring water, clay, and earth,
and mix a mud mortar, which is used sparingly between the layers of
stone. Walls are from eight to eighteen inches thick and seven or eight
feet high, above which rafters or poles are placed and smaller poles
crosswise above these, then willows or reeds closely laid, and above all
reeds or grass holding a spread of mud plaster. When thoroughly dry, a
layer of earth is added and carefully packed down. All this is done by
the women, as well as the plastering of the inside walls and the making
of the plaster floors.
Now the owner prepares four more eagle feathers and ties them to a
little willow stick whose end is inserted in one of the central roof
beams. No home is complete without this, for it is the soul of the house
and the sign of its dedication. These feathers are renewed every year at
the feast of Soyaluna.
The writer remembers once seeing a tourist reach up and pull off the
little tuft of breath feathers from the mid-rafter of the little house he had
rented for the night. Naturally he replaced it when the enormity of his
act was explained to him.
Not until the breath feathers have been