File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17972471190).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo13amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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At a signal the snake priests grab up the snakes and run with them down the trail leading from the mesa to the plains where the snakes are released. These snakes are supposed to carry a report of the ceremony and the honor bestowed upon them to the supernatural beings who control the rainfall artist the human interest for his pictures. In their daily life and many ceremonies they reflect the colors of skies, the shapes of the clouds and mesas and fill both with innumerable supernatural beings. But the Hopi are profiting by the example of the Navajo in acquiring sheep and some cattle and although modern scientific farming is a failure in their reservation they succeed in raising corn, melons and peaches. Changes due to civilization have rapidly been taking place in the ceremonial life of the people. We can but wonder how this ceremonial life has held out so long considering the pressure of the Government and the constant flow of returning students from the schools. But the few old men of the tribe retain their confidence in the primitive traditions and are not in the least shaken by the young men's statements of facts which run counter to their accepted beliefs. What answer is there to the fact that after three months of drought the participants in a dance for rain were drenched? That a repetition of the dance the following day brought more rain? And that in a circuit of the villages extending over more than one hundred miles, with one or two exceptions rain attended the visits of the dancers? The Hopi men have now adopted white man's dress in their daily life. Automobiles carry the mails to within a few miles of the Hopi villages and soon the land will be overrun with tourists. From an artistic standpoint the Indian of the Southwest is surely disappearing and it will soon be necessary for the artist to reconstruct the customs and habits which may now be seen in their final stage of dissolution. We are grateful that yet a few in Hopiland retain their beliefs based upon centuries of close contact with nature and still live in a world of their gods. 125

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