: ' , BANCROFT LIBRARY American &** Universi HOPI CEREMONIAL FRAMES FROM CANON DE CHELLY, ARIZONA BY Jr. WALTER FEWKES Reprinted from the AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST (N. s. ), Vol. 8, No. 4, October-December, 1906 Lancaster, Pa., U. S. A. The New Era Printing Company 1906 DEPARTMENT of MIDDLE AMERICAN RESEARCH THE TULANE UNDVEttSBTYof LOUOSDANA NEW rt Library 4? [Reprinted from the AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Vol. 8, No. 4, Oct.-Dec., 1906.] rV HOPI CEREMONIAL FRAMES FROM CANON D,> ^ CHELLY, ARIZONA & ,O ^ CO BY J. WALTER FEWKES >/ ^ On a visit to the Museum of the Brooklyn Institute in fikcember last, I became greatly interested in two ethnological specimens ob tained by Mr Stewart Culin in Canon de Chelly, 1 Arizona. These objects, to which I have briefly referred in my article on Hopi Shrines, 2 undoubtedly belong to the Pueblo culture. They are not duplicated in other collections, and have a much greater interest than attaches to their rarity, for they seem to verify a legend, cur rent in the East Mesa pueblos of the Hopi, of the former habitation and migration of one of their important clans. They consist of wooden frames with sliding appendages, handles, and symbolic at tachments. Their general appearance is shown in the accompany ing illustrations (figures 22 and 23). Mr Culin informs me that these frames were found with certain fragments of masks, a brief account of which has been published 3 in a notice that gives also a Navaho legend regarding the origin of the masks and closes with a suggestion that they once belonged to the Asa clan, a Tanoan people now domiciled in the Hopi pueblo of Sichomovi, who are known to have lived at Zuni and to have sojourned in the Canon de Chelly for several years. 4 No reference to these frames is made in Mr Culin's account, and as the evidence of Asa ownership which they furnish is corroborative and more de- 1 These objects were purchased from Mr C. L. Day by Mr Culin, curator of ethnology of the Brooklyn Institute Museum, to whom I am indebted for many kindnesses in the preparation of this notice. 2 American Anthropologist, VII, April-June, 1906. 3 " Hopi Indian Masks from a Cave in the Canon de Chelly, Arizona," Bulletin of the Brooklyn Institute, Jan. 6, 1906. * " The Kinship of a Tanoan-speaking Community in Tusayan," American Anthro pologist, 1894, vui, p. 164-165 : "It is likewise said that after they (the Asa) had lived some time with the Hopi a number of them wandered off to the Tseyi [" Chelly "] Canon and intermarried with Athapascan (Navaho) tribes." 664 665 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s., 8, 1906 cisive than that afforded by the fragments of masks, I have ventured to supplement and support by additional facts the notice referred to. An examination of one of these frames shows its general form as given in the figure, in which a, a' is a wooden bar, apparently in one piece, in which are cut two slots (b, b'). This bar has a round handle (c) midway of its length, opposite a terrace (d) symbolizing FIG. 22. Frame carried by Yaya priest. (Brooklyn Institute Museum.) a rain cloud. Two pendants (c, e f ) slide freely in the slots (b, b f ), so that if the bar be moved violently sidewise, these appendages strike the ends and the middle, making a noise and suggesting a rattle. Similar frames still used by the Hopi in ceremonies at their East Mesa villages were figured several years ago in a picture of a priest introduced in my account of "The Lesser New Fire Ceremony at Walpi," and later reproduced in a series of native drawings of Hopi kachinas. 1 These illustrations represent masked men called Sumaikoli and Kawikoli, accompanied by priests known as Yayas bearing in their hands similar frames. Apparently Mrs Stevenson refers to frames of identical shape in 1 American Anthropologist, 1901, n. s., in, 438, pi. xi ; also Twenty-first An nual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology ', pi. xxxiv, xxxv. FEWKESj HOPI CEREMONIAL FRAMES 666 her description of the Shumaakwe ceremony at Zufii. 1 as follows : She writes A charm fashioned of wood and similar to one of the bars of the suspended form above the altar is carried by a young man whenever the Shumai / koli ap pears, the bearer manipulating the bar before the god, which appears to have mystic control over the Shumai / koli. The writer has observed the same thing among the Hopi Indians. a FIG. 23. Frame carried by Yaya priest ; length 24 in. (Brooklyn Institute Mu- eum, cat. no. 5633.) The same author says also : Whenever he [the charm-bearer] waves the charm the Shumaikoli backs off a distance and then starts forward while the charm-bearer vigorously manipulates the charm to draw the god to him. And later: The charm -bearer stands south of her [the female leader] , facing east, and holds his charm above his face with his left hand and shakes a small gourd rattle with his right, while he sings a low chant, reminding one of the intoning of a Catholic priest. 2 1 Twenty-third Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 540, 543, 548-549. 2 The Saiapa who accompany the Zuni Shumaikoli correspond in some respects to the Kawikoli of the Hopi. The Zuni Shumaikoli is of course the same as the Walpi Sumaikoli. 667 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s., 8, 1906 It appears that the main purpose of the ceremony of the Sumai- koli of the Hopi and its equivalent, the Shumaikoli at Zuni, is the same. Both are fire rites ; both were derived from Rio Grande pueblos. The true significance of these frames is unknown, but the respect paid to them seems to indicate that they are something more than rattles of unusual shape. In her representations of the Shumaakwe altar Mrs Stevenson figures a cross hanging above it, made of two l of these frames united, a symbol that the Hopi would interpret as a sky, star, or four-world-quarter symbol. Of the nature of the rites that are performed when these objects are employed we may judge in part from a study of both Hopi and Zuni variants of the Sumaikoli ceremony. The ceremony recalls in several particulars the Fire dance of the Navaho. The Yaya priesthood claim wonderful magic powers in control ling fire 2 and say they are able to cure certain bodily ailments with its products heat, ashes, and smoke. Their patroness is the Spider- woman, but they worship also the Sky-god, symbolized by the Sun, and Masauu, the God of Death. They call upon ancestral beings, known as Sumaikoli, distributed in the four cardinal directions, to bring rain, and in the course of their rites they make prayer-offerings to all these supernaturals. The important point to be considered regarding these frames is their clan ownership. We know that their modern representatives belong to the Yaya priesthood, hence it is desirable to discover the clan kinships or affiliations of this fraternity. The Yaya were intro- 1 Note that two of these frames were found together in the Canon de Chelly cave. This would imply that they were sometimes fastened together in the form of a cross, as at Zuni ; but their handles show that they were carried in the hand as seen in Hopi pic tures of the Yaya priests. They were apparently rattles, suggesting the matracns used for bells in Latin American countries on Good Friday. These matracas are commonly carried in the hands and are used during the tenebraty but sometimes, as at Jalapa, Mexico, the matraca is placed in the church belfry. It is a large wheel with a clapper, and when turned can be heard all over the city. 2 1 need not here relate the many stories of handling fire, with accompanying necro mancy, that the Yaya ascribe to their ancients. They even claim to be able to eat fire, or to put live coals into their mouths, which may well be doubted. Their claim to cure bodily ailments with fire reminds one of the principle " similia simi Hints curantur." Burning sensations of the skin supposed to be due to fire are, they hold, cured by fire and its products. FEWKES] HOPI CEREMONIAL FRAMES 668 duced into Walpi by either Keresan or Tanoan clans, either directly or by way of Zufii, and thl? 'm^qjjuqtjoti is commonly said to have taken place in comparative!^ moidf/iK $rnes. The Asa clan, who claim that their ancestors Ijvep! in, ,the , Canon, ie, Chelly, are of Tanoan origin ati'd arc s!iiid tr> haV^, b^en related to the Tewa of 1 rfano ana of the Rio Grande pueblos. The presumption is reasonable that these frames were Asa property. If such be the case the exact site of the habitation of this clan in the Canon de Chelly may be determined by the situation of the cave in which the Sumaikoli paraphernalia were found. But the fact must not be overlooked that the present Sumaikoli chief is a member of the Badger clan l who are closely associated with the other Tanoan peoples. Moreover, there are two sets of Sumaikoli paraphernalia on the East mesa : one at Walpi, the other at Hano. The latter, formerly owned by the Sun clan, may have been brought by the ancestors of the Hano clans directly from the Rio Grande. According to Museum Notes (the article above cited), there were other ceremonial paraphernalia found in a bag with these fragments. What light do they throw on the clan ownership of the specimens here considered ? One of these objects is a peculiarly fer- ruled stick (figure 24) the use of which is problem atical. This stick is, I believe, a Sumaikoli standard, which was placed at the entrance to the room where the altar of this ceremony was erected, for a similar standard is still used at Walpi when the Sumaikoli is celebrated. The modern representative consists of two ferruled sticks with facets at the ends. One of In these is like the above-mentioned specimen, the other stitute Muse- has a hollow gourd attached at one end. When the um, cat. no. secret rites are in progress these sticks are stuck in the straw covering of the kiva to indicate that such 1 The Badger clan is sometimes called a Hanumnyamu, or Tewa people, akin to the Asa and Hano clans. It was associated with the former in founding Sichomovi after the return from the Canon de Chelly. la FIG. 24. Sumaikoli standard ; 34 in. 669 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIS7" [N. s., 8, 1906 rites are taking place in the room below. The Canon de Chelly stick is much more dabcr-a^te >Jian, |:hestandard now used at Walpi and may have served fo? ^netfyeir piirp^qse. 1 The evidence. tfra,wn from. ( tfye fragments of masks found with their frames 'tpiiiactes ;,wj,ih tl^ai ,-of ;