Hotevilla (Tr)
Evehema, a 105-year-old traditionalist from the village of Hotevilla, wants to share Hopi prophetic visions with the world. He has chosen Mails (The Pueblo Children of the Earth Mother, Doubleday, 1983) as his vehicle. The result is a polemic for the position of Hopi "traditionals" and against the "progressives" of the Hopi Tribal Council. This history of the Hopi people from their emergence into this world through 1994 concentrates on events subsequent to the infamous 1906 split at the village of Oraibi and the establishment of Hotevilla by the ousted traditionalists. While there are more even-handed discussions of these events (see Peter M. Whiteley's Deliberate Acts: Changing Hopi Culture Through the Oraibi Split, Univ. of Arizona, 1988), Mails does provide transcriptions of the hard-to-find Hotevilla newsletter, Techqua Ikachi (1975-86), which disseminated the traditionals' views to the world at large. Mails's books are known for their pen-and-ink drawings, but this one relies largely on poorly reproduced photographs. A disappointment.Mary B. Davis, Huntington Free Lib., Bronx, N.Y.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.