The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-23
RATTLESNAkE DANCE NJ
is misunderstood

Irrigation and not government edu-
cation at Carlisle is what the famous
Hopi Indians Of northeast Arizona
need, IN the opinion of Edward ii.
Kemp, the famous San Francisco
ethnologist and photographer, who
gives his illustrated lecture at the
Orpheum this week. Mr.. Kemp. has
made five trips among the Hops OF
who assists him in his lecture, three,
for the purpose of studying this
strangest Of all the Indian tribes, and
has grown to admire and take an IN.
terest in the future of these Z 200 OF
the government s wards.
The Hopis, who. have come to at
tract the greatest interest OF all In
dian tribes because of their peculiar
religious ceremony known as the rat,
tlesnake dance, are called Mokls.
meaning foolish persons by their de-
risive Navajo neighbors,'' says Mr..
Kemp, but they"arer far from that.
They are an unwarlile people,, indus
trious, clever and persistent in trading
and given to agriculture when oppor-
tunitv permits. >. e'~
"They are an intensely religious
people, virtuous ito a degree not often
met with among communities of eau
casins, be eli I. profoundly in the
sacredness Of the family, and alto
gether a people to be admired. The
Hopis will grow corn, melons and
squashes where "a white man could grow
nothing. They will sink kernal of
| corn two feet into the sand in order
to get the snbmoisture and. they will
carefully conserve every drop of water
and guide it into the lower levels.
eff the government, instead Of send
| ing the young men of this tribe to Car
Isle, there to be accustomed to con-
ditions and luxuries which they can not
subsequently earn. for themselves, and
a longing for which they bring with
them when the yare forced back among
their own people, would spend the
money on irrigation from a system OF
reservoirs, these Hopis would wax pros
porous and doubly happy. They dom
need more religion,. neither do they
gotten from the schools on the reser
walton. They are about the only In
dams who do not depend on govern
ment rations for support and each Of
their seven villages could offer an ex
cellent example. to the average mum
cipality. = t.,
"Contrary to. what appears to b.
general superstition, the rattlesnak'
dance, which is held every year, eithe
at Walpi, Oriaba, Mashougoive, Chip
aulovi, Chichomovi> OF Shimpavie, i
entirely a religious ceremony, who's
participants are as devout as Catholics
1t is essentially a prayer for rain an
their belief is something like this:
"The rattlesnakes come out of tn
ground, where their Indian brother
have been laid to rest. The Hopis tel
the rattlesnakes Of their need for rain
the rattlesnakes tell the Hopis VIII
have gone before, and they interced
with the Great Spirit for the coming 0
the rains without: which the Indian
can not raise their humble crops. ::
"Of course, to%the outsider there
the additional element of myster
, about the ceremony, arising from tn
> fact that the Inlians possess some, SET
. ret anidote, which, scientists have: neve
been able to discover, and which make
the snake priests immune from !: til
z bites they frequently receive Will
= carrying the snakes in their mouth
but this is only#an outsider IS point {
view. The Hops are. entirely sabsorbe
i in the sipnifcanee of, the ceremony an