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They Dance for Rain: The Hopis
| Article
# : |
12618 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1987 |
5,765 Words |
| Author
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Ronald Mc Coy
Ronald McCoy is an award-winning writer who lived among the
Hopis for three years. |
The July sun towers at the zenith of its searing power above the high desert country of northeastern Arizona. The land is always thirsty, but soon its thirst will be quenched by rain, a blessing the region's Hopi Indians believe comes through the benevolence of the Kachina supernaturals.
On this summer afternoon, in a plaza at the center of a Hopi village atop a windswept mesa, forty or more Kachinas are arrayed in a long line.
In the time of legends, some Hopis say, kachinas and people climbed a reed leading from the Underworld to Sipapu, the Place of Emergence at Arizona's Grand Canyon. Thus, they came to this, the Fourth World.
Kachinas - beings of great power and fantastic form, neither totally human nor completely animal - brought blessings to the horticultural Hopis and their crops of corn, beans, and squash. But people took the Kachinas for granted, so they returned to the Underworld after teaching certain Hopis how to make costumes like their own and transform song and dance into profound prayer. In this way was born the Kachina cult - which permeates every aspect of Hopi life - and marvelous ceremonies for bringing rain, good crops, health, and blessings upon humanity.
Some Kachinas are named for physical appearance - White Chin, Broad Face, Long Hair. Others represent plants, animals, physical objects, and natural phenomena - Cholla Cactus, Antelope, Parrot, Rattle, and Thunder. Many names derive from the Kachinas' distinctive cries - Hu, Hototo, and
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