Walpi Six Directions Altar
THE KATCINA ALTARS IN HOPI WORSHIP
By J. Walter Fewkes, Chief, Bureau of American Ethnology
[With 3 plates]
INTRODUCTION
The present article is the fifth of a series published in the annual reports of the Smithsonian Institution on the composition of Hopi worship. The Hopi, the name meaning peaceful, belong to the Pueblo stock and are agricultural Indians. They are descendants of the Arizona cliff dwellers and have preserved to the present many survivals of their ancient worship. The object of the series of five papers above referred to is to record a few of their rites in sun, fire, and ancestor ceremonies that have survived to the present time. The Pueblos performed their secret ceremonies in subterranean rooms called kivas that were entered from the roof.
It is customary for the priest in the course of the ceremonies to erect an altar, so called, on which is placed their tiponi, or sacred badge of office, surrounded by various fetishes, idols, and wooden objects bearing symbols. Here are placed all sacred objects possessed by the fraternity of priests who celebrate the rite. There are four Hopi villages or pueblos that perform the rituals independently, the sacred paraphernalia differing in each. From a study of these altars it is possible for us to learn the aim of their various ceremonies. The present paper compares the four Katcina altars for this purpose.