Truth of a Hopi

Truth of a HopiThe Hopi, who occupy an area in the high desert plateaus of the Southwest, are one of the best known Native American tribes. They have a rich mythological cycle about their ascent from a world deep inside the earth. This is one of the rarest types of ethnographic documents, one actually written by a native American. The bulk of this book covers the historical legends of the Hopi. The Hopi 'theory' (Nequatewa's word) was that the 'Bahana' (the white

The Hopi, who occupy an area in the high desert plateaus of the Southwest, are one of the best known Native American tribes. They have a rich mythological cycle about their ascent from a world deep inside the earth.
This is one of the rarest types of ethnographic documents, one actually written by a native American. The bulk of this book covers the historical legends of the Hopi. The Hopi 'theory' (Nequatewa's word) was that the 'Bahana' (the white people) emerged from the under-world alongside the Hopi, and went off in search of the truth. Someday they would return and live in harmony with the Hopi, bringing wisdom and great abundance.
Throughout, Nequatewa relates incidents and characterizations of Hopis that go far beyond the 'Noble Savage' stereotypes of brave warriors and laconic wisemen. The Hopi who occupy these pages are all too human, and that alone is a drop of truth that is missing from accounts of the Hopi, even to the present day.