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| These are exciting times in Southwest archaeology. Mysterious "roads" and alignments stretching over vast distances are bringing awareness of broad areas of ancient culture beyond individual pueblos. Yet for the people whose ancestors left their mark in the archaeological record, these are difficult times. Traditions going back to prehistory may be dying among the Hopi, a modern-day Pueblo people. |
| A split within the Hopi between so-called Progressives and Traditionals goes back decades. 106-year-old Hopi elder Dan Evehema has found himself frequently at odds with the Hopi Tribal Council. Dan's village of Hotevilla in Arizona was originally founded when the people of Oraibi split into two irreconcilable groups. It is even theorized that factionalism was one of the causes of prehistoric migrations of the Hopi's probable Anasazi ancestors. |
| Much of today's difference of opinion can be traced to outside interference. The Oraibi split arose from a dispute over adopting Bahanna ("white") ways. But at the same time a process of "Hopification" has been going on for hundreds if not thousands of years. As described by Hartman Lomawaima, this entails the way "an idea or a thing became imbued with Hopi values ... a process by which Hopi view, test, analyze, and make decisions about the actions or impositions of alien cultures or elements." |
| Dan Evehema doesn't want to see Hotevilla "modernized", but utility lines have been installed all the same. As long as he and others still follow the ancient lifeways, the tradition lives on. It remains to be seen if this is the sunset of the Hopi way. |
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