The Alósaka cult of the Hopi Indians

by Jesse Walter Fewkes

Conclusions

1. There survives in the Hopi ritual a worship of horned beings called Alósakas, which once existed at the now ruined pueblo of Awatobi.

2. The purpose of the rites performed in this cult is to cause seeds, especially corn, to germinate and grow, and to bring rain to water the farms.

3. The Aaltû priesthood at Walpi, who personate Alósakas, perform duties suggestive of those of warriors.

4. The intimate relationship of Alósaka rites with those of the Rain-cloud clans supports legends that they were at one time associated and brought from southern Arizona by the Squash people who formerly lived with or near the Rain-cloud people along Little Colorado river.

5. The Alósaka cult is a highly modified form of animal totemism, and the Alósaka represents the mountain sheep.

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

FOOTNOTES:

[1] These studies were made under the auspices of the Bureau of American Ethnology.

[2] The author has been told that they were deposited among the foothills of the coffin-shaped mesa southwest of Awatobi.