The Astronomy of the Hopi Indians

Thom A. , Megalithic sites in Britain (Oxford, 1967); Ortiz A. , The Tewa world: Space, time, being and becoming in a pueblo society (Chicago and London, 1969), 84, 99, 177–78.

Fewkes J. W. , “The Group of Tusayan Ceremonials Called Katcinas”, Fifteenth annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology … 1893–94 (Washington, 1897), 255–60; Curtis E. S. , The North American Indian, xii, “The Hopi” (reprint of the 1922 edition, New York, 1970); Nequatewa E. , “Hopi Hopiwime: The Hopi Ceremonial Calendar”, Museum notes (Museum of Northern Arizona), iii (1931), 1–4; Forde C. D. , “Hopi Agriculture and Land Ownership”, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, lxi (1931), 384–388; Parsons E. C. , Hopi and Zuni ceremonialism (Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association, xxxix, Menasha, Wis., 1933), 58–61; [ Stephen A. M. ], Hopi journal of Alexander M. Stephen ( Parsons E. C. , ed.) (Columbia University Contributions to Anthropology, 23; 2 vols, New York, 1936), 1037–42; Beaglehole E. , Notes on Hopi economic life (Yale University Publications in Anthropology, 15; New Haven, Conn., 1937), 22–28, 34–38; Titiev M. , “Dates of Planting at the Hopi Indian Pueblo of Oraibi”, Museum notes (Museum of Northern Arizona), xix (1938), 39–42; Old Oraibi, A study of the Hopi Indians of Third Mesa (Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, 22, 1; Cambridge, Mass., 1944), 22–28, 34–38; Ellis F. H. , “A Thousand Years of the Pueblo Sun-Moon-Star Calendar”, pp. 60–87 in Aveni A. F. (ed.), Archaeoastronomy in Pre-Columbian America (Austin, Texas, 1975).

For a thorough discussion of Spanish contacts with the Hopi see Brew J. O. , “The History of Awatovi”, Part 1 of Franciscan Awatovi (Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, 36; Cambridge, Mass., 1949), 1–43. On the nature of Spanish influence on the Eastern Pueblos see Schroeder A. H. , “Rio Grande Ethnohistory” in Ortiz A. , New perspectives on the Pueblos (Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1972).

Ellis , “The Pueblo Sun-Moon-Star Calendar”, 71.

Titiev , Old Oraibi, 49, 69–95, 82, and n. 119.

Stephen , Hopi journal, pp. xx–xxiv.

Titiev , Old Oraibi , 144–6; Stephen , Hopi journal, 60, 82.

Stephen , Hopi journal , 155–8, 287–9; Titiev , Old Oraibi, 120. For the horizon point chant see Voth H. R. , “The Oraibi Powamu Ceremony”, Publications of the Field Columbian Museum, Anthropological Series, vol. iii, no. 2 (1901), 149–52.

Wing Crow , A Pueblo Indian journal, 1920–1921 ( Parsons E. C. , ed.) (Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association, xxxii; Menasha, Wis., 1925), 74–75, n. 119, and 120, n. 184; Forde , “Hopi Agriculture”, 384–388; Stephen , Hopi journal, 373–4.

Titiev , Old Oraibi, 146–54.

There are major differences between the Hopi villages in the sequence of women's festivals. At First Mesa Lalakonti is in early September, at Second and Third Mesas it is in late October or early November; Marau alternated with Oaqöl at Oraibi; Oaqöl was only rarely celebrated at First Mesa.

For the relation to harvest see Beaglehole , Hopi economic life , 23–24. See also Stephen , Hopi journal , 830, 950; Titiev , Old Oraibi, 164–70.

Nequatewa , “Hopi Hopiwime”, 1.

Eliade Mircea , The sacred and the profane: The nature of religion (New York, 1957), chaps 1 and 2.

Fewkes J. W. , “The Ceremonial Circuit among the Village Indians of Northeastern Arizona”, Journal of American folk-lore, v (1892), 33–42. Associations with the directions are tabulated in Bradfield R. M. , A natural history of associations (New York, 1973), ii, 91–94; expanding on the earlier table in Levi-Strauss C. , The savage mind (Chicago, 1966), 41. Snakes are collected from the four directions on four successive days of the Snake ceremony ( Stephen , Hopi journal , 587); offerings are made to the four directions on four successive days of Niman Kachina ( ibid. , 495). The association of the four directions with colours and direction gods is a commonplace in North and Central America. See, for example, Thompson J. E. , Sky bearers, colors, and directions in Maya and Mexican religion (Contributions to American Archaeology, 2, 10; Carnegie Institute of Washington, 1934). A similar relationship linking the four cardinal directions, the number four, and the efficacy of ritual has been noted in a different context by Jean Leclant in pp. 220–2 of his “Espace et temps, ordre et chaos dans l'Egypte pharaonique”, Revue de synthèse, xc (1969), 217–39.

O'Kane W. C. , The Hopis: Portrait of a desert people (Norman, Oklahoma, 1953), 138–9, described these two observation points in general terms. Stephen , Hopi journal , 36–62, identifies the house which can be precisely located on the detailed map of Walpi in Mindeleff C. , “Localization of Tusayan Clans”, Annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, xix (1900), Plate xxiii, as the house of the Spider lineage of the Bear clan, which is the only remaining house of this declining clan appearing in Mindeleff's survey. The observation point on Red Cape was used by Stephen as the base point for his horizon measurements as recorded in his “notebook S”, now in box 18 of the Elsie Clews Parsons collection in the library of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia. This point is marked by the symbol ⊙ in Stephen , Hopi journal, Map 10.

Wing Crow , Pueblo Indian journal, 120, n. 184; also pp. 73–75, 81, 87–93.

Stephen's survey with compass yielded azimuths within ±0°·9 for eighteen mountain peaks that could be readily identified on Geological U.S. Survey topographic maps.

I will employ the longitude of the Sun at Greenwich Mean Noon in place of the Gregorian date, for the practical reasons that this is the value tabulated in the American Ephemeris … prior to 1925 and that it is quite close to the position of the Sun at sunrise at Walpi Pueblo (long. 110°23′W).

The sources for Niman Kachina are: CMS—George Cochise, letter to Elsie Clews Parsons, Polacca, Ariz ., 24 July 1921 (Philadelphia, American Philosophical Society library, Elsie Clews Parsons Collection, box 18); CWJ— Wing Crow , Pueblo Indian journal, 97–101; FSC— Fewkes J. W. , “A Few Summer Ceremonials at the Tusayan Pueblos”, A journal of American ethnology and archaeology, ii (1892), 73–79; SHJ—Stephen, Hopi journal, 494–575.

The sources for Wüwüchim are: CNA— Curtis , The North American Indian, xii, 107–8; CWJ—Crow Wing, Pueblo Indian journal, 115–19; FNW— Fewkes J. W. , “The New-Fire Ceremony at Walpi”, American anthropologist, ii (1900), 80–138; FTN— Fewkes J. W. , “The Tusayan New Fire Ceremony”, Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, xxvi (1895), 426–8; PHW— Parsons E. C. , “The Hopi Wöwöchim Ceremony in 1920”, American anthropologist, xxv (1923), 160–74; SHJ—Stephen, Hopi journal, 997.

The fact that the Sun was not carefully observed in 1920 was noted by Crow Wing, who wrote in his Journal for 18 April 1921: “We think the Sun-Watcher is not a very good man. He missed some places, he was wrong last year…. All the people think that is why we had so much cold this winter and no snow.” ( Wing Crow , Pueblo Indian journal, 75).

For detailed descriptions of these observations see Stephen , Hopi journal, pp. 30, 62, p. 29, Fig. 16, and Map 4.

The sources for Soyal are: CNA—Curtis, The North American Indian , xii, 107–8; CWJ— Wing Crow , Pueblo Indian journal, 115–19; FNW— Fewkes J. W. , “The New-Fire Ceremony at Walpi”, Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, xxvi (1895), 426–8; PHW— Parsons E. C. , “The Hopi Wöwöchim Ceremony in 1920”, American anthropologist, xxv (1923), 160–74; SHJ—Stephen, Hopi journal, 997.

Stephen , Hopi journal, Map 4 and Plate I.

Parsons , Hopi and Zuni ceremonialism, 58–59; Wing Crow , Pueblo Indian journal, 101.

Since the data are not uniformly spaced, a Fourier analysis is not rigorously applicable; however, an iterative solution in which each coefficient was computed using the residuals from prior analyses yielded curves providing close fits to the data. A copy of the program, written in fortran, is available on request from the author.

Since errors in observing for Powamu would tend to reduce the interval between the earliest Powamu and Soyal, I tend to the view that the Powamu Planting follows the Warrior ceremony.

The Lunar viewpoint is maintained in Edward Curtis S. , The North American Indian , xii, 135, 156; the Solar viewpoint is in Parsons, Hopi and Zuni ceremonialism , 61, n. 246; and the agricultural view in Stephen , Hopi journal , 666–7, and Voth H. R. , “The Oraibi Summer Snake Ceremony”, Publications of the Field Columbian Museum, Anthropological series, iii, no. 4 (1903), 274.

Curtis , The North American Indian , xii, 156, asserts the same type of observation is used for both ceremonies. For a summary of conceptual similarities see Titiev , Old Oraibi, 153–4.

Wing Crow , quoted in Parsons, Hopi and Zuni ceremonialism, 58.

Titiev has argued from his observations at Oraibi that the Hopi were incapable of maintaining a precise calendar: Titiev , “Dates of Planting”, 39. From a preliminary study of the confusing Oraibi data, it seems more likely that there was a calendric disagreement at Oraibi, analogous to the disagreement on the date of Easter between the Western and Eastern churches, than any observational ineptitude.

Wing Crow , Pueblo Indian journal, 101–2.

Wing Crow , Pueblo Indian journal, 102; Curtis Edward S. , The North American Indian, xii, 176.

The Oraibi transfer is from Soyal Chief to Flute Chief, reflecting the different organization of that pueblo. See Voth , The Oraibi Powamu Festival , 152, n. 4, and Titiev , Old Oraibi, 146.