Evening star., 1936-08-24
Hopi Organization Sought
'Men of Peace" Long Suffering in Upholding
Pacifst Principle-Rennain;ng 1900
in Nine Villages.
il, Nine Villages.

been due to skillful yielding. In the
beginning their farms were below the
mesas, where there was q good water
level. Along came the Navajos and
the Spaniards and rendered such sites
untenable. The Hopis simply moved
to the poorer land on top of the mesas
and built themselves houses ap-
preached only by narrow paths and
invisible a few hundred feet away.
In their dealings with the whites they
almsot never have put up an argu--
ment, but have simply listened,
agreed and did what they pleased.
It Is the same way with the individ-
ual villages in their relationships with
each other.
Indian Clih Dwellers.
These are the cliff dwellers." In
many of their customs and their
crafts they are undistinguishable from
the agricultural Pueblo Indians to the
East and South. The one departure
they have taken from their principles
was when they took the field during
the Pueblo rebellion against the Span
iards early in the eighteenth century.
Their participation was half-hearted,
and it Is related that when village
decided to 60 to war 1t took the pre-
caution Of setting up half its popula-
ton in a new village. hidden from the
enemy, where, regardless Of what hap
pened to the fighters, the culture
could be preserved and the tradition
of peace carried on.
The present proposal is to estab-
lish a Federal council, composed OF
representatives of all the villages,
which shall make laws for the Hopi
subject only to the Indian office. To
make any headway it has been nee
essary for Mr.. Lafarge to enter deeply
into the governmental set-up Of the
villages themselves. The actual
leader in each town IS the kikmonguri
literally "house leader"-a man
functions both as religious and
civic Official. The social organization
Of a village is built up around its
clans-the bears, the snakes, the
flutes, the deer, the sand, the grasses,
the tobaccos, the suns. the foxes, the
spiders, the fires. The same clan
organization runs through all the vii
lagos and forms one cohesive ele-
ment. A clan Is entirely maternal.
ones membership together with ones
name being inherited from the mother
and not the father, in contrast to the
white family.
The clan functions, rather than
the individuals fact which makes
organization extremely difficult. Arabic
land, for example, is the property OF
the clans, who assign it to the indi-
vidual members on basis Of need
and use. When he is through with
it the property reverts to the clan
again, or 1t can be taken away from
him if he fails to cultivate it prop
erly or does not need it to support
his family. The farming land avail
able to the Hopis for centuries has
been so limited that the existence Of
the race has depended on allowing
| no waste or misuse Of it-above all.
any concentration Of it in the hands
of any few individuals.
Representative Of Clans.
The leaders have always been
chosen as representatives of their
clans in o defined order. The XIX
monguri Of any village always must
be q member Of the Bear clan, the
royal line among the Hopis. although
he need not necessarily be the nephew
Of the last holder Of the office. He
could not possibly be his son, because