HOPI CEREMONY AFTER MOVING NORTH FROM PHOENIX

We stopped of at Prescott on our way north but were not impressed, lots of plaques describing empty sites which had been occupied by wooden structure long since burnt down. The shops were expensive and there was little innovation.

However our next stop at Jerome was much more interesting, this is an old mountain mining area and the modern day inhabitants are some what off the beaten track of mediocre America. We liked it, the shops were quirky, the shopkeepers friendly without being pushy and much of the merchandise interesting.

Sedona is a sort of US Burton on the Water, touristy and much visited. It has many art galleries and although we had done the rounds on our last visit we trawled the shops for anything eyecatching. We both bought Arizona Dirt shirts dyed with genuine local dirt.

Before we left Sedona we had to deal with the output from the heron nursery above the Trek. Boy o Boy these birds are real sh***hawks. I was scrubbing for an hour.






Our next stop was Flagstaff but on the way we stopped at a recently developed state park based on a 1908 homestead set up in Oak Creek Canyon. He used the river water to irrigate his fruit trees and had a successful business. The orchards are still there with one original tree still producing fruit. One of the main attractions in the park is a narrow chute between two pools in the canyon. As the rocks have been worn smooth it is an natural easy water slide, hence the parks name, Slide River. The toe test soon established why nobody was sliding today; too cold as we are in snow melt country.

As we get close to Flagstaff we start seeing piles of snow in corners where the ploughs had piled it up and our campsite was full of banks of snow.

HOPI INDIAN RESERVATION

North of Flagstaff we went looking for a Hopi indian experience. We knew that unlike the Navajo, who like to live separate from each other, the Hopi crowd together on a few mesas. I had the expectation of huddled pueblo style buildings but the reality was double wide trailers, cinder block shacks and a few buildings that might include some original pueblo walls all on dirt roads. So we were disappointed but it was what we had come to expect 'On the Res'.

However we pressed on. One of the things I knew I wanted to see if at all possible was the ceremonial dances that form part of their complex religious rites and I had looked at the schedule and one was on this weekend. We got lucky, the ceremony was on and e could enter the village to watch even though we were not Hopis. No cameras, sound recorders or even sketching is allowed but we could join the spectators. While we were waiting for the dancers it was good to see lots of healthy looking kids running around playing with what they had from their surroundings and not a game boy in sight even though there were satellite dishes on many of the houses.

The dancers appeared and it was obvious why this was the Cow dance. 32 dancers wearing similar masks with cow horns took their place in the dance arena. Another dancer wore a mask without horns but the muzzle and teeth of a wolf. He final dancer carried a bow and had a another kind of mask. They were all adorned with much turquoise jewelery. The only odd note was the man controlling the dance and sprinkling something, possibly corn pollen, over the dancers at regular intervals; he wore a plain shirt and slacks and of the dancers he was the only one not masked. The sole drummer called the cadence of the dance and the drumbeats were echoed by the turtle rattle each dancer wore strapped to his right leg.

The drum beats and the sense of antiquity attached to the rituals made me think of the years and years of dances that had taken place. For these are the oldest continuously inhabited town sites in the USA. The kivas have housed the masks, the shaman have lead the dances and the rituals have come down to the present day through 800 years. Have they changed? Who knows, but the sense of times past was really strong as the old men in the the ritual lead the the young boys in the same costumes through the steps that may have been heard in this place for 800 years.

Oh yes, the dancers also bought laundry baskets full of food which was handed out to the watchers at half time. Why I do not know. This was a dance for the village. There were us and another couple amongst hundreds of Hopis. We were offered food and accepted but felt a little uneasy about this. For there can not be much money on the res. Still to have refused would have been wrong, we are sure of this.


Carol is not sure if we should eat it or keep it. We both felt honored to be a small part of their ceremony

Looking for information on the internet did not turn up much. Well we were not expecting much as this is part of a religion that goes back a long way and is still alive today with a lot of secrecy sourrounding parts of the ceremonies especially in the Kivas. Still we think that the dancers were Wakaskatsina an animal Spirit that is a cow Kachina and is one of the Rain Gods Messengers.


Another special moment on our trip round North America.



CANYON de CHELLY

Our next step was the Canyon De Chelly. This is jointly administered by the Navajo and the Parks Service. We drove up to the overlook at the White House.



Here we saw why this site has been inhabited for thousands of years. Running water and flat fertile flood plains.

We also saw the local ravens putting on a show for the tourists - or maybe just flying for fun. An old argument amongst stiffie flyers.





We could walk down to the canyon floor from the White House overlook but as it was steep we decided to wimp out after coming through the tunnel at the cliff top.

The Navajo run jeep trips down to the Pueblo but as we have seen similar and got closer than we would be allowed to do here we skipped that as well.



We are now in Dolores still chasing our mail and John is looking forward to getting back on the boards at Telluride where the snow is still deep.