INTRODUCTION

In their use of the word Katcina[2] the Hopi or Moki apply the term to supernatural beings impersonated by men wearing masks or by statuettes in imitation of the same. The dances in which the former appear are likewise called by the same name which with the orthography “Cachena” is used in descriptions of these dances in the valley of the upper Rio Grande. The present use of the term among the Tusayan Indians leads me to consider it as almost a synonym of a supernatural being of subordinate rank to the great deities. Ancestral worship plays a not inconspicuous part in the Hopi conception of a Katcina.

When we endeavor to classify the ceremonials which form the ritual practiced by the Tusayan villagers, the subject is found to be so complex that it can be adequately treated only by the help of observations extending through many years. The plan which I have followed in my work, as will be seen in previous publications, has been to gather and record data in regard to the details of individual observances as a basis for generalization.

My former publications on this subject have therefore been simply records of observations.[3] For various reasons it has seemed well to anticipate a final and general account and interpretation, with tentative efforts at a classification to serve as a stepping-stone to a more exhaustive and complete discussion of the relationship of these observances, which would naturally appear in an elaborate memoir necessitating a broader method of treatment than any yet adopted.

At the present stage of my researches it would be too early to write such an account of the ceremonial calendar of the Tusayan villagers, but it has been deemed well to put on record, with many new observations, this preliminary outline of what may be a portion of a general system, to aid other investigators in kindred fields of study. When I began my work, four years ago, the task of bringing order out of what appeared to be a hopeless confusion seemed well nigh impossible, but as one ceremony after another was studied it was found that the exactness of the ritual as exemplified in ceremonial presentations pertained even to details, and that there was a logical connection running throughout all the religious observances of the Tusayan Indians, the presentations of which were practically little influenced by white races with whom the people had been brought in contact. As these ceremonials were studied more sympathetically I discovered a unity throughout them which, whatever their origin may have been, placed them in marked contrast to those of the nomads by whom they were surrounded. They were found to belong to a type or ceremonial area in which the other Pueblos are embraced, the affinities of which carry us into different geographic regions of the American continent.

But while this type differs or differed in ancient times from those of Athapascan or Shoshonean aborigines, it bears evidence of a composite nature. It had become so by contributions from many sources, and had in turn left its impress on other areas, so that as a type the Pueblo culture was the only one of its kind in aboriginal America. With strong affinities on all sides it was unique, having nearest kinship with those of Mexico and Central America.

The geographic extension of the Pueblo type of culture was no doubt formerly much greater than it is at the present time. What its original boundaries were future investigation will no doubt help us to decide, but the problem at present before us is the determination of its characteristics as a survival in our times. When once this is satisfactorily known, and not until then, can we advance with confidence to wider generalizations as to its past distribution and offer theories regarding its affinities with other ceremonial areas of the American race.

It is doubtless true that we are not progressing beyond what can be claimed to be known when we say that all the Pueblo peoples belong to the same ceremonial type. I am sure that in prehistoric and historic times delegations from the Rio Grande country have settled among the Tusayan villagers, and that many families of the latter have migrated back to the Rio Grande again to make permanent homes in that section. The most western and the most eastern peoples of this Pueblo culture-stock have been repeatedly united in marriage, bringing about a consequent commingling of blood, and the legends of both tell of their common character. It is too early in research to inject into science the idea that the Pueblos are modified Indians of other stocks, and we outstrip our knowledge of facts if we ascribe to any one village or group of villages the implication involved in the expression, “Father of the Pueblos.” Part of the Pueblo culture is autochthonal, but its germ may have originated elsewhere, and no one existing Pueblo people is able satisfactorily to support the claim that it is ancestral outside of a very limited area.

In the present article I have tried to present a picture of one of the two great natural groups of ceremonials into which the Tusayan ritual is divided. I have sought also to lay a foundation for comparative studies of the same group as it exists in other pueblos, but have not found sufficient data in regard to these celebrations in other villages to carry this comparative research very far. Notwithstanding these dances occur in most of the pueblos, the published data about them is too meager for comparative uses. No connected description of these ceremonies in other pueblos has been published; of theoretical explanations we have more than are profitable. It is to be hoped that the ever-increasing interest in the ceremonials of the Pueblos of the southwest will lead to didactic, exoteric accounts of the rituals of all these peoples, for a great field for research in this direction is yet to be tilled.

In the use, throughout this article, of the words “gods,” “deities,” and “worship” we undoubtedly endow the subject with conceptions which do not exist in the Indian mind, but spring from philosophic ideas resulting from our higher culture. For the first two the more cumbersome term “supernatural beings”[4] is more expressive, and the word “spirit” is perhaps more convenient, except from the fact that it likewise has come to have a definite meaning unknown to the primitive mind.

Worship, as we understand it, is not a proper term to use in the description of the Indian’s methods of approaching his supernal beings. It involves much which is unknown to him, and implies the existence of that which is foreign to his conceptions. Still, until some better nomenclature, more exactly defining his methods, is suggested, these terms from their convenience will still continue in common use.

The dramatic element which is ascribed to the Katcina[5] ritual is more prominent in the elaborate than in the abbreviated presentations, as would naturally be the case, but even there it is believed to be less striking than in the second group or those in which the performers are without masks.

There exists in Hopi mythology many stories of the old times which form an accompanying body of tradition explaining much of the symbolism and some of the ritual, but nowhere have I found the sequence of the ceremonials to closely correspond with the episodes of the myth. In the Snake or the Flute dramatizations this coincidence of myth and ritual is more striking, but in them it has not gone so far as to be comparable with religious dramatizations of more cultured peoples. Among the Katcinas, however, it is more obscure or even very limited. While an abbreviated Katcina may be regarded as a reproduction of the celebrations recounted in legends of times when real supernatural beings visited the pueblos, and thus dramatizes semimythic stories, I fail to see aught else in them of the dramatic element.

The characteristic symbolism is prescribed and strictly conforms to the legends. Explanations of why each Katcina is marked this or that way can be gathered from legends, but the continuous carrying out of the sequence of events in the life of any Katcina, or any story of creation or migration, did not appear in any abbreviated[6] Katcina which was studied. In this subdivision a dramatic element is present, but only in the crudest form. In the elaborate Katcinas, however, we find an advance in the amount of dramatization, or an attempt to represent a story or parts of the same. Thus we can in Soyáluña follow a dramatic presentation of the legend of the conflict of the sun with hostile deities or powers, in which both are personified.

I must plead ignorance of the esoteric aspect of the Tusayan conceptions of the Katcinas when such exists. This want of knowledge is immaterial, for the object of this article is simply to record what has been seen and goes no further. I will not say that a complete account of the Katcinas can be given by such a treatment, and do not know how much or how little of their esoterism has eluded me, but these observations are wholly exoteric records of events rather than esoteric explanations of causes. It is thought that such a treatment of the subject will be an important contribution to the appreciation of explanations which it naturally precedes.

Although it seems probable that the ritual of primitive man contains elements of a more or less perfect dramatization of his mythology, I incline to the opinion that the ritual is the least variable and from it has grown the legend as we now know it. The question, Which came first, myth or ritual? is outside the scope of this article.

Any one who has studied the ceremonial system of the Tusayan Indians will have noticed the predominance of great ceremonials in winter. From harvest time to planting there is a succession of celebrations of most complicated and varied nature, but from planting to harvesting all these rites are much curtailed. The simplest explanation of this condition would be, and probably is, necessity. There is not time enough to devote to great and elaborate ceremonials when the corn must be cared for. Time is then too precious, but when the corn is high and the crop is in sight, or during the long winter when the agriculturist is at home unemployed, then the superstitious mind has freedom to carry on elaborate rites and observances, and then naturally he takes part in the complex ceremonies. Hence the spring and early summer religious observances are abbreviated. Although the Pueblo farmer may thoroughly believe in his ceremonial system as efficacious, his human nature is too practical to consume the precious planting time with elaborate ceremonials. But when he sees that the crop is coming and harvest is at hand, then he begins the series of, to him, magnificent pageants which extend from the latter part of August until March of the following year.

It has been proven by repeated observations of the same ceremonials that there is great constancy in the way successive presentations of the ritual are carried out year after year. The inevitable modifications resulting from the death of old priests undoubtedly in course of time affect individual observances, but their ritual is never voluntarily changed. The ceremonials which I have here and elsewhere described were not invented by them to show to me, nor will any religious society of the Hopi at the present day get up a ceremony to please the white man. Each observance is traditional and prescribed for a certain time of the year.

TABULAR VIEW OF THE SEQUENCE OF TUSAYAN CELEBRATIONS[7]

The following tabular view of the sequence of ceremonials may aid in the study of the Hopi calendar, and indicate the ceremonials presented to us for classification:

A[8] Katcina’s return.
Powámû.
Pálülükoñti.

The abbreviated Katcinas commonly come in the interval, and vary somewhat from year to year.

B Nimán (Katcina’s departure).
Snake or Flute (alternating).
Lálakoñti.
Mamzraúti.
Wüwütcímti[9] (sometimes Naácnaiya).
Soyáluña.
DecemberJanuaryFebruaryMarchApril–JuneJuly
Soyáluña.Pa.Powámû.Pálülükoñti.Variable abbreviated Katcinas.Nimán.
AugustSeptemberOctoberNovember
Snake or Flute.Lálakoñti.Mamzraúti.Wüwütcímti or Naácnaiya.

The Katcina chief, Íntiwa, erects his altar every year in the Móñkiva, but different kivas by rotation or otherwise celebrate the dance of the Nimán by their appropriate presentation, thus: The men of the Wikwáliobikiva celebrated the dance in 1891; those of Nacábkiva in 1892; those of the Álkiva in 1893, and probably in 1894 the men of the Tcivatokiva will personate the last Katcina of the summer. It thus will appear that the special supernatural personage represented varies from year to year within certain limits, and the variations mean nothing more than that the members of the different kivas participate in rotation.