DISCUSSION OF PREVIOUS DESCRIPTIONS OF KATCINAS
Our exact knowledge of the character of the Hopi Katcinas dates back to Schoolcraft’s valuable compilation. While the existence of these dances was known previously to that time, and several references to similar dances among the other Pueblos might be quoted from the writings of Spanish visitors, our information of the Katcina celebrations in Tusayan previously to 1852 is so fragmentary that it is hardly of value in comparative studies. In the year named Dr P. S. G. Ten Broeck visited Tusayan and published a description of what was probably a Katcina dance at Sitcomovi. Although his account is so imperfect that we can not definitely say what Katcina was personated, his description was the first important contribution to our knowledge of the character of these dances among the Hopi Indians. It will be noticed in a general way that the personation differed but slightly from those of the present day. Ten Broeck noted that the male dancers, Katcinas, wore on their heads “large pasteboard towers” (náktci?), and “visors[30] made of small willows, with the bark peeled off and dyed a deep brown.” He recognized that the female dancers (Katcinamanas) were men dressed as women and that they wore yellow “visors” and dressed their hair in whorls as at the present time. He described the musical (?) accompaniment of the dance with the scapula of an animal rubbed over a “ground piece of wood.” He likewise noticed the priests who sprinkled the dancers with sacred meal, and speaks of two small boys painted black with white rings who accompanied the dance. The latter may have been personifications of the Little Fire Gods.
The Hopi clowns, Tcukúwympkiyas, were likewise seen by Ten Broeck, who described their comical actions. From his description of the byplay of their “assistants,” I find very little change has taken place since his time. In the Katcina which he observed food was distributed during the dance, as I have elsewhere described is the case today. Although much might be added to Ten Broeck’s description, his observations were the most important which had been made known up to his time, and continued for forty years the most valuable record of this group[31] of dances among the Tusayan Indians.