THE CHEMAWA AMERICAN
H. E. WADSWORTH, Superintendent
VOLUME Id
JANUARY, 19J4
NUMBER 4
THE HOPI SNAKE DANCE
R E M A R K A B L E A R T IC L E 1IY T H E O D O R E R O O S E V E L T
[The following interesting article was written for T he O utlook and appeared in the number of
that magazine published on October 18, 1J13. By special permission of the publishers we are allowed
to publish it. a courtesy for which we are very grateful. It relates to Col. Roosevelt’s visit in Arizona
last Summer.—Ed.]
C A N N O T so m uch as touch ou the absorbingly in te r
esting questions of th e H o p is’ spiritual and religious
life, and the am ount of deference th a t can probably
be paid to one side of his life. T h e snake dance and
antelope dance, w hich we had come to see, are not
only in terestin g as relics of an alm ost inconceivably
rem ote and savage past— analogous to the past w here
in ou r own ancestors once d e lt—b u t also represent a m ystic symbolism
w hich has in it elem ents th a t are enobling and not debasing. T hese
dances are prayers of invocation for rain , th e crow ning blessing in this
dry land. T h e rain is adored and invoked both as m ale and female;
the gentle steady dow npour is th e fem ale, the storm w ith lig h tn in g the
male. T h e lig h tn in g stick is “ stro n g m edicine,” and is used in all the
religious cerem onies. T h e snakes, the brothers of men, as are all liv
ing th in g s in th e H opi creed, are liesought to tell th e beings of the u n
derw orld m en ’s need of w ater.
As a form er great chief at W ashington I was adm ited to the sacred ro o m ,
or one-room ed house, the kiva, in w hich the chosen snake priests had
for a fortn ig h t been g ettin g ready for a sacred dance. Very few w hite
men have been th u s adm itted and never unless it is know n th a t they will
tre a t w ith courtesy and respect w hat the In d ian s revere. E n tran ce to
the house, w hich was sunk in th e rock, was th ro u g h a hole in the roof,
down a ladder across whose top h u n g a cord from w hich fluttered three
eagle plum es and dangled three small animal skins. Below was a room
perhaps fifteen by tw enty-five. O ne end of it occupying perhaps a third
of its len g th , was raised a foot above the rest, and th e ladder led down
to this raised p art. A gainst the rear wall of this raised part or dais lay
thirty-od d rattlesnakes, m ost o f them in a tw ined heap in one corner, but