Education beyond the Mesas: Hopi Students at Sherman Institute, 1902-1929

Introduction

Hopi oral history recalls that long ago, the Hopi people came into this “fourth way of life” from a series of three underworlds.1 Following a time of unhappiness and discontent, the people emerged through an opening in their sky that brought them to present-day northeastern Arizona. When they arrived in this land the people made their way to three mesas where they met Ma’saw, creator and ruler of the “fourth way of life.” Ma’saw told the people that they could live on the mesas, but they first needed to migrate to distant lands to learn ways to be useful to Hopi society. Following Ma’saw’s instructions, the men, women, and children divided themselves into clans and each migrated in one of the four cardinal directions.2 According to Hopi belief, the clans traveled to the Pacific Ocean, Central America, and occupied lands in present-day New Mexico and Colorado. During their migrations, the Hopi people experienced different climates and terrain and learned to survive by hunting, gathering, and planting. Life for the clans included great hardships, but they believed that their pain and suffering strengthened and preserved their culture for future generations of Hopi people. The clans were not alone when they migrated to distant lands. Butterflies, other insects, birds, and many animals existed in the “fourth way of life.” During their migrations, Hopi clans came across bears, badgers, eagles, and even parrots, and identified Introduction Introduction xviii themselves with the animals they met on their journeys. In addition to seeing animals and insects, the clans encountered indigenous peoples from various cultures, which expanded their understandingoftheworld.Thesepeoplespokemanylanguages, and they introduced the clans to new practices, skills, ways of thinking, and religious customs. Although the clans learned many things during their migrations, they also shared their Hopi knowledge with the people they met and welcomed the opportunity to teach others about their culture and philosophies of life. When the Hopi clans traveled back to their ancestral lands in northeastern Arizona, they brought new ideas and traditions with them to the Hopi mesas. Each clan experienced a different way of living and was required to contribute something useful to Hopi society.3 The Sun Forehead clan returned to the Hopi mesas as warriors and protectors, while the Katsina clan hosted the katsina dances and prayed for rain.4 The clans held vital roles in Hopi society and formed the foundation of Hopi identity. But Hopi migration did not cease when the clans returned to their original lands. Many years after the clans established their rolesinHopisociety,asecondwaveofmigrationdevelopedwhen government officials sent Hopis to attend off-reservation Indian boarding schools in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century . Although Hopis were required to attend these schools, the movement of Hopi pupils to U.S. government institutions once again brought Hopis to new environments where they interacted with people from unique cultures, and shared their knowledge and abilities with those they encountered. Similar to the way the ancient Hopi clans migrated in the four cardinal directions, Hopi pupils attended Indian boarding schools throughout the U.S and furthered the tradition of migration among the Hopi people. Beginning in the 1890s, as more railroads were built Introduction xix and used to transport Indian people to off-reservation Indian schools, government officials sent Hopis to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, the Phoenix Indian School in Arizona, and schools in Oklahoma, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and California.5 In the 1890s, the Hopi people did not consider the U.S. government ’s insistence that Hopis adopt Western ways and values as a new requirement. Many years before, Europeans arrived uninvited on Hopi lands and attempted to civilize and educate the Hopis with Christianity and European ideals and practices. In 1540, Spanish explorer Don Pedro de Tovar led a small expeditionary force on Hopi lands. They were the first group of nonindigenous people the Hopi encountered. De Tovar had expected to uncover cities of gold on the Hopi mesas, but instead he found rock homes, small cornfields, and a people entirely committed to their spiritual ways and customs. By drawing on the ground with sticks and using different objects to convey their message, the Hopi people told de Tovar and his men about a nearby river that flowed through a very large canyon. Upon hearing about this majestic and grand canyon, the Spanish expedition...