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When the ancient, large Anasazi centers were abandoned, the residents began a great diaspora, wandering to the four corners of the Four Corners, and possibly beyond. Eventually, many of the new nomads returned to the Black Mesa area of Arizona, or to high mesas in southwestern New Mexico and the Rio Grande valley in central New Mexico. This is where they lived when they were found and initially described by the early Spanish explorers of the Southwest.
The peoples of various, originally-distinct Anasazi sub-cultures probably met and mingled with each other during this nomadic phase, mixing, blending, and stirring a number of traditions and influences while on the road. Adjacent cultures, like the previously-mentioned Hohokam, Mogollon, Salado, and Sinagua, all lived along the southern fringes of Anasazi-land. Utah, to the north was typified by an even more extreme climate than the region to the south of the San Juan River, and did not develop any independent cultures. A few scattered Anasazi outposts and “colonies” periodically were established in the region when the climate permitted.
Gradually, as weather conditions eased, soils in the new homelands wore out, disease epidemics hit the new homelands, or enemy threats receded, many of these peoples moved back to more familiar land. The peaceable residents who had maintained a meager toehold on the mesas of the traditional homeland apparently accepted the returnees, with relatively little conflict or few problems.
The era of wandering is recorded today in the mythos and folklore of the Hopi, who believe that they, the People, emerged from a period during which they dwelt in the Underworld, within the womb of Mother Earth. They came forth in a symbolic birth act, through Sipapuni, a cave in the Grand Canyon (or, variously, along the Little Colorado River, or near where the Colorado and Little Colorado meet). Upon their emergence, Másaw, the local guardian spirit, told the People to move off to the East, West, North, and South.
They were to investigate these lands, and learn about the world, then turn around, and return to the Center of the Universe, the Black Mesa. The migration outward, in all four directions, and the turn back at the end are the origin of the Native American broken cross or swastika symbol.
Many of the People forgot their instructions, lost their way, or were seduced by an apparent easy life elsewhere. these heretics settled in the lands through which they were passing. Only the True Believers made their way out and returned to the mesa. The order in which the people returned established the Hopi clan pecking order that survives today.
This odyssey fits the saga of a people who originated on the southwestern Colorado plateau, abandoned (or were forced from) their Mother-land due to famine, disease, or enemy attacks, migrated out in all directions, then were delivered, and returned home to their Promised Land.
The sophistication of the Anasazi and importance of trade and the scope of their contacts is demonstrated by the names of some of the clans in the Hopi culture. The legend of the Parrot clan states that the group owes its name to a band of Anasazi wanderers who, legend states, followed instructions to go to the South, and made their way far beyond their homelands, to a jungle region. Many of the weaker souls were seduced by the apparent potential for a life of ease in the tropics. These lazy people took advantage of this Easy Life, and built great cities of stone, which were later to crumble around them when they proved to be too indolent to maintain their apparent Paradise. The hard-working, religious members of the group returned to the Mesa to report on this sad saga of people who had abandoned their mission, and paid a price.
The remains of parrots have been found throughout Anasazi country. Their bodies were frequently buried by the Anasazi as a part of various rituals. The birds and their feathers were apparently important in many religious ceremonies. There are no parrots anywhere near the deserts of Arizona or northern Mexico. This legend of the southern treks presumably demonstrates knowledge of the great cities of Meso America, and products from the tropics, acquired through trade activity, and may even include late modifications of the legends, following the devastation wrought by the Spaniards. Rather than reporting a pointless tale of military conquest, the Hopi priest class turned the story into a moral lesson encouraging work and the maintenance of communal municipal properties.
The missing years between the abandonment of the great Anasazi structures and the earliest reports of the Spaniards on what they found at the Black Mesa will probably remain as Untold Tales. Archaeology has not been able to determine all of the reasons for the abandonment of the larger Anasazi settlements. Likewise, Archaeology will not be able to run an accurate census of population sizes at the villages around the Black Mesa for the decades between 1300 and 1600. The latter part of this period was apparently an era of reunification and amalgamation, forging a new, distinctive culture, which came to be known as “Hopi” rather than Anasazi.
While the Hopi had strong roots in a small group of highly-traditional people who may have remained at home on and around the Black Mesa since the peak of the Anasazi era, this group has been overwhelmed by repeated waves of returning cousins who had broadened views of the world, due to an experience with “international” travel. In addition, dollops of alien cultures were presumably introduced as Hohokam, Mogollon, Salado, and Sinagua refugees and influences were admitted to the villages around the mesa.
The modern Hopi legends, traditions, and religion have been forged by a blending of relatively pure, extremely ancient Anasazi beliefs, mixed with influences picked up during the nomad era, mixed with beliefs from the surrounding cultures, plus the inevitable alterations due to time and its effects upon an oral tradition. This mixing bowl approach has led to internal problems.
Modern Hopi history has been typified by conflicts and resentments between conservatives and extreme conservatives, known at different times as Hostiles or Traditionalists. These modern politico/religious splits may well be ancient, and date back to the era of the Returns, when the original traditional Anasazi religious leaders faced their first problems with “New-fangled Ideas” from the Immigrants. The tradition of the Hopi has generally been to deflect conflict, and to change the issue, rather than to bring conflict to the forefront and into the open. Threats to the Traditionalist point of view could be centuries old, and may long predate the arrival of Catholicism and the “threats” from the Potomac detailed below.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, the residents of the Black Mesa, by now referred to as the Hopituh Shi-nu-mu, underwent a hundred-year-plus, unpleasant, period of domination by the Spanish. Following the successful Pueblo revolt of 1680, the Spaniards decided that resubugation of the relatively small Hopi communities would not be worth the effort, and they were ignored for a long period.
In later decades, the Mexicans and, eventually, the Anglos in Washington thought little of, or about, the Hopi and their villages, and, up until the most recent times, the nation had limited contacts with the outside world. This prolonged period of isolation helped the Hopi to preserve their highly individualistic culture.
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Contents, including illustrations, copyright T. K. Reeves, 1997.
on 5 April, 1997.
