The Coconino sun., 1916-05-05

O~ his lectures on Prehistoric Arizona. His subject for the evening was the religious and social organization and practices of the Hopi Indians. Be- fore beginning his lecture he said that as the Hopis were undoubtedly the most closely related to the Cave and Cliff People of any Indians now in existence, a good idea of the social and religious practices of these peo- pie could be obtained by studying those of the Hopis. Stereoptican views of the different Hopi villages around Tucson and of the Snake and Flute dance added much to the in- terest of his lecture. A complete cos tune, such as is worn by the priests in the snake dance, as we'll as several other specimens of the handiwork of the Hopi Indians were also shown by Prof. Cummings.
 In his lecture Prof. Cummings said:
 "The Hopis are very interesting people. Their religious and social ceremonies are unusual and interest ing in the extreme, mostly because of the fact that they are still practised as they were many, many years ago by their ancestors, The oldest tradi- tions of the Hopis say that this tribe came into their fifth plane of exist ence onto the earth in the northern part of Arizona and none of them know of any other traditions or le- gends contrary to this; so it is safe to say that they have inhabited this re- zion for a great many years. At present. the Hopis inhabit eight villa ges. At the time when Coronado found these people they had only six villages, but now only one of the vil- lages, Oraibi, is on the site on which these villages stood when Coronado saw them.
 "As a whole, the Hopis are an in dustrious, agricultural people, but at present are slowly acquiring flocks of sheep and goats and herds of cattle, horses, and mules. They depend for subsistence upon the corn, squashes, melons, pumpkins, etc., which they raise in their fields. They have many acres of land under cultivation and usually obtain good crops because of the intensive farming methods prac- ticed.
 "The Hopi women usually do the work around the house. Contrary to general belief, however, they are not obliged to do all or even the hardest part of the work. They do the house. work and are even often assisted in this by their husbands before they go to their fields or to their other work. They are essentially not the burden bearers, in fact, thev are the most important members of the household. The children take their mothers clan name, and therefore belong to her clan, and, further than that. the women have the right to tell the husband to leave at any time that they think he is not behaving himself properly.
 "The newly married couples live with the girls mother, and so there are usually some three generations living on one household, which con sists of from one to four rooms. Yet, there are surprisingly few domestic troubles. The oldest member of the household is the most important, and he or she rules the household justly and disinterestedly. Each household has storeroom where the provisions of the different families are kept in individual parts of the room. Thus individual property rights are recogn- ized. However, each family of the household will see that the other families do not want, and in like manner one household will not let an- other starve. In this way community interests are well cared for, serving to bring the individual members of the clan closer together and uniting them all with bond of brotherhood which is so evident in all Hopi villa ges.
 "The social organization of vil- lage is under the control of council composed of the oldest individuals of a clan. This council elects govern or, who has mediate control of the interests of the village and looks after the general welfare of all the inhabitants of the village. Although we find laws governing the Hopis, we seldom find punishment assigned to the breaking of any of these laws. In fact, punishment is extremely rare. When an individual breaks law he is in disgrace with his clan, and this is usually the most severe punish
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