Hopi Land

This past Saturday I was invited to go to the Snake Dance Ceremony on Second Mesa of the Hopi Reservation. What a wild time! I was informed that it has been years since a non-native was able to see this dance, so I am incredible lucky to have been a part of it.

There were hundreds of Hopis gathered all around, sitting on the rooftops of the pueblos, peering over the edge into the plaza where the dancers of the antelope and snake clans were. The dancers were all dressed up and painted, singing in Hopi and circling around, stomping on the foot drum and dropping corn meal on the ground. Eventually the snakes were passed out and men would take them in their mouths for a little while until releasing them on the ground,where other members of the clan would keep them in check. Near the end of the ceremony they gather the snakes in a pile and grab them by the handfuls to take them outside the village and disperse them to the four directions.

Of course I do not have any photographs, as they were not permitted. The dance centers of course around the snakes, which the Hopi believe are their brothers and will be able to carry their message and plea for rain. The snakes take their message back to mother earth, the ground from which the Hopis emerged.

Seeing this ceremony and the villages of the reservation made me better understand the ruins at Hovenweep and how a village might have looked and operated. The magical thing about this...is that it did begin to rain about halfway through the ceremony. Who is to say that prayers don't work?

I was also able to visit some of the other Hopi villages, learn some Hopi words, eat some Hopi food and view Prophecy rock. It was a very good time!