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The Hopi were, and are, a highly religious people, with many traditions and legends. Many of these legends reflect the fact that there was a large amount of cross-cultural fertilization between the advanced civilizations of the Western Hemisphere. One of the most fateful Hopi legends involved the return of Pahána, the “One From Across the Water” or “Lost White Brother.” Pahána was to return around the year AD 1520. This sounds very much like the Aztec legend of Quetzalcoatl, possibly reflecting an exchange of religious men and legends from culture to culture.
The linguistic associations of the Hopi and the Aztecs show close relationships of the peoples. In addition, the presence of tropical birds, like parrots, plus feathers and seashells from the tropical regions of Meso-America has demonstrated that there was extensive commercial exchange between the Anasazi and their descendants, the pre-Conquest Hopi and Pueblo, and the Aztecs, and, possibly, even the Maya. The legend of Pahána also suggests that there was extensive religious/cultural intercourse between these societies.
Pahána was to return at a specific time and place. He failed to meet the original deadline, but this was not necessarily uncommon in the timeless Southwest. The Hopi, therefore, had contingency legends in case Pahána was late. These spoke of various planned places of return in case Pahána was on time, or 5, 10, 15, or 20 years late. In 1540, twenty years after the predicted date of return, Pedro de Tovar, with a party of 17 horsemen, some foot soldiers and a priest, arrived near the appropriate predicted site for the return of Pahána. Despite this coincidence, the Hopi were skeptical about whether this was the fulfillment of their prophesy.
The Spaniards had made their first expedition into the lands north of the Rio Grande in 1539 when Friar Marcos de Niza led a foray into what is now New Mexico. He got as far as the pueblo of Hawikuh, on the New Mexico/Arizona border, between the modern town of Saint Johns, Arizona, and Zuni pueblo, southwest of Gallup, New Mexico, before being turned back. Promising reports from this expedition caused the Viceroy in New Spain to send Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, explorer and the Governor of New Spain, on a larger expedition the next year.
Coronado's mission was to find the legendary Seven Cities of Cibola, the cities of Gold. This legend dated back to the period of the initial Moorish invasion of Spain, and, in variants, even back to the time of the Carthaginian /Roman conflict. The existence of the cities was considered to be gospel-writ-in-stone by the Spaniards. Every culture has its myths and symbols that take on a significance more important than fact.
The Coronado expedition was a major undertaking. The force started out with 336 Spaniards, approximately 1000 friendly Native guides and workers, and 1500 horses or mules, as well as large stocks of cattle, and sheep. They departed with the idea that Hawikuh was one of the fabled Seven Cities, or, at least, a key guide post on their road to Cibola.
The natives of the Pueblo settlements were astonished by reports of the size and nature of the party that was invading their land, stripping the countryside and consuming their vital water. Coronado's advance was quickly opposed by the Zuni, and he was attacked as he reached Hawikuh. He quickly subdued the settlement in a military action, however. He found no riches, but he did establish a pattern of bloody conquest that he would follow for the rest of his two-year exploration.
The Hawikuh Zuni leaders, who had attempted to ambush Coronado before he entered the city, wanted to take the heat and focal point off themselves, and told Coronado that there were “larger cities” to the northeast (Pueblo country) and to the northwest (Hopiland). Additional, independent reports of cities to the east led Coronado to conclude that the fabled cities probably lay in that direction. Coronado split off the de Tovar group and sent it to check the Hopi region, and to look for a “Great River” in that region. The small size of this group reflected Coronado's low opinion of the tales of wealth in that direction.
Pedro de Tovar followed instructions, and led his small force toward the Black Mesa. He did not realize that rumors of the arrival of White Men in the lands to the south had long preceded him to Hopiland. Stories of the appearance of Friar Marcos during the previous year had rapidly reached the Hopi. The leaders of the Pueblo/Hopi/Zuni had a system of runners who were fast and efficient in transmitting important news from village to village when threats to the people were involved. Reports of the battle at Hawikuh had reached the Black Mesa, almost as soon as the fight happened.
Pedro de Tovar did not know exactly where he was going, or what he would encounter. The Hopi knew that he was coming, but were divided as to what de Tovar was, man or deity. As would happen many times, some of the Hopi saw a threat to their existence, and others saw the fulfillment of an old prophesy. The religious conservatives wanted to follow their prescribed traditions, despite the evidence of a threat. They felt that Pahana should be allowed an opportunity to fulfill sacred prophecies.
As de Tovar moved closer, Hopi intelligence reported to the tribal elders on his advance toward the Black Mesa. De Tovar eventually reached the foot of the mesa, thinking that he had come in stealth. He moved up to the base of the cliff well after dark. The elders of Oraibi finally decided that the site that de Tovar had chosen for his camp came so close to the predicted traditional return of Pahána, assuming that he was twenty years late, that they would give the potential Pahána a chance.
The inner workings of the Tribal Council cannot be known in detail, but some informed guesses can be made as to what happened in the crucial meetings as de Tovar arrived. The legends prescribed very specific rituals and acts that would be performed by both the Hopi, and by the Pahána. The traditionalists gained an agreement that they would be allowed to fulfill their religious duties. As dawn broke, the religious elders descended from the mesa, performed a ritual drawing of a line in the dust with corn, and advanced toward Pahána with their hands extended, palms up.
The ritual reply of the true Pahána would have been to come up to the elders with his hands extended, palms down. The reunion would have been completed by a grasping of the hands in a gesture of unity. The Spaniards failed the test. They took one look at the Hopi, with their hands out, and were disgusted that these new natives were such beggars, asking for a handout before anything else. To put it mildly, things went rapidly downhill.
As the Spanish failed to perform the prescribed ritual, the cautious Hopi became agitated. As so often happens in history, ancient, as well as modern, there are two versions as to what happened next. The Spaniards reported that the Hopi attacked them, using clubs and bows and arrows, with no provocation from the Spaniards. The Hopi tradition says that the armored, mounted soldiers watched the obviously unarmed elders advance with their hands open, palms up, in a totally non-threatening manner. Following a pause, while the elders waited for Pahána to perform his ritual gestures, the Spaniards suddenly charged the elderly religious leaders and the Hopi band around them, with no provocation from the Hopi. In either case, the ceremony broke up into a minor skirmish, with the Hopi coming off in a very distant second. The Hopi skeptics quickly confirmed, to their sorrow, that de Tovar was a false Pahána, and not to be trusted.
This is an example of an event where we shouldn't care if we think the Spaniards were, or were not, provoked into attacking the Hopi by some perceived threat. For our working purposes around the Black Mesa, we should be aware that the “facts,” in Hopi eyes, are that they were attacked, almost immediately upon contact, by the very first Europeans that they had ever met, and that this attack came in the middle of a sacred religious ceremony. Even worse, many of the people attacked were their greatest religious leaders, who were unarmed and vulnerable, and many of whom were elderly. Our role is not to judge the accuracy of Hopi impressions, but to understand their oral traditions and list of outrages.
By the end of the day, the Hopi were calmed down, and their leaders were meeting again with de Tovar, this time with no religious delusions or rituals. The Spaniards inquired about the Seven Cities of Cibola and the wealth of Oraibi, but quickly realized that they would get little more than turquoise from these subsistence farmers. De Tovar heard reports of another group of Native Americans living near a large river, nearby, to the west, but felt that his orders didn't allow him to continue on past the villages he had already encountered. De Tovar turned around and went back to report to Coronado.
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Contents, including illustrations, copyright T. K. Reeves, 1997.
on 5 April, 1997.
