Enterprising Hopi: M. W. Billingsley, Shriners, and Second Mesa Hopi

On February 23, 1928, a cowboy from Gila Bend found the remains of a body scattered in the desert. A nearby suitcase and wallet contained an identification card; a girl’s photograph; clothing (including a pair of red trousers similar to those worn by patrol members of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine); calling cards from Shrine members in Dallas, Texas, and Columbus, Ohio; and an April 1925 uncashed check signed by W. A. Bales. The body was tentatively identified as Robert Atoto, a Hopi man who had been reported missing two years earlier. Newspapers across the nation reported the find.¹

Law enforcement officials immediately contacted the appropriate people. Bales said he had a Southern Pacific grading contract in 1925 but could not remember Atoto specifically. L. Ewing Jones, former potentate of the Aladdin Temple in Columbus, said he not only met Atoto in Ohio but had also visited him in Arizona. John Kuhns, manager of the Columbus Dispatch, called Atoto a friend and tribal brother (apparently meaning Kuhns had been initiated into the Adopted Hopi Indians of Arizona). Hopi Alex Sohuh and Dr. L. H. Richards of Gila Bend both testified at an inquest held February 28. Sohuh said that he had worked with Atoto on national dance tours with Milo William Billingsley and on the railroad grading project. Richards said he found no evidence of foul play, and people speculated that Atoto may have died of illness or a poisonous reptile bite.²

Nearly thirty years later, Billingsley honored the memory of Robert Atoto by giving that name to the hero of an opera called “Hopitu.” This incident introduces all who were involved with the Adopted Hopi Indians of Arizona. This Shrine-based, and Second Mesa Hopi–supported, group was conceived by Billingsley in 1926 to encourage Shriners across the nation to back Hopi causes. However, opinions differ as to its intent and ultimate contribution to the Hopi Tribe.

The Hopi Tribe, even today, is similar to Greek city-states and is described in the Hopi Constitution and By-Laws as “a union of self-governing villages sharing common interests and working for the common welfare of all.” Villages are on three separate mesas as described by Harold Courlander in his introduction to Albert Yava’s memoirs.

Today [1978] a dozen Hopi villages are strung in an east to west direction over a distance of some seventy-five miles. Tewa Village [Hano] shares the top of First or East Mesa with Walpi and Sichomovi, and below the mesa is a growing village called Polacca. On Second Mesa to the west are Shongopovi, Mishongnovi and Shipaulovi. Old Oraibi is on Third Mesa a few miles further west, with New Oraibi, or Kikenchmovi, below the cliffside, and sharing the mesa top are Hotevilla and Bakavi. Beyond, near Tuba City, is the village of Moencopi.³

Most of the families who were associated with Billingsley were from Second Mesa. Many of the men, however, had “tewa” as part of their name, indicating ancestors who fled to the Hopi villages from New Mexico pueblos after the Zuni revolt against the Spanish in 1680. As Harry C. James has written, “the Hopi’s long tradition of offering asylum to other Indians who also sought a peaceful life made sanctuary possible for great numbers of these refugees.” These families have remained somewhat distinct, although there has been enough intermarriage that they are sometimes referred to as “Hopi-Tewa.”⁴

The men associated with Billingsley were also graduates of Indian boarding schools—for example, Sherman in Riverside in California, Haskell in Kansas, Carlisle in Pennsylvania, Phoenix in central Arizona, or Albuquerque in northern New Mexico. The removal of Hopi children for schooling became an extremely controversial practice. Not all children or all parents resisted, but the worst aspect was the arbitrary assignment of locations where the children were sent. For example, Emil Pooley was sent to Albuquerque, his brother to Phoenix, and a sister to Riverside; he reported that it was three years...