I took the day off from clinical work to help out with a camp run by the Health Promotion and Diabetes Prevention office of the health care center. It's a two day program that serves the double purpose of getting kids active, and teaching them about their cultural history. Today's activity was a hike through a protected ruins site. It's normally pretty difficult to get a permit to explore them (since the Hopi are justifiably tired of people pilfering their artifacts), but an exception was made for the camp. Needless to say, I'm one of the lucky few bahanas (Hopi for gringo) to get to see them.
The former village that we vistited was known as Awatovi, and has a pretty interesting history. It was one of the original Hopi towns (circa 1000 AD, pop. 5000), and had distinct trade, defense, and farming advantages. Because of that, it was also one of the first villages that the Spanish took over in the 1500s. It regained its independence during the Pueblo revolt in 1680, but re-swore it's allegiance to the king in 1692. This decision did not come easily, but the Hopi are a very peaceful people, and they didn't want a fight. However, the people that did not want to see Awatovi suffer another long period of oppresive Spanish rule left the town to live in other nearby villages.
These Awatovi ex-pats fomented enough antipathy against their Spanish-obeying, Christianity-converting former home that the other villages teamed up to burn it to the ground. In a particularly heinous attack, the other Hopi villagers killed most of the men, and sent the women and children to live in other towns. This is a particularly dark episode in Hopi history, and one that stands out as an extreme anomaly. Again, the Hopi have normally proven themselves to be an extremely peaceful people. My best guess is that the relentless attacks from the Spanish (both militarily and culturally) finally pushed them to snap.
Here's all that remains.
On a much lighter note, the kids spent the rest of the day exploring nearby mesas and gathering various items in a scavenger hunt. As an interesting cultural side note, there was no "winner" in this scavenger hunt. Every group that completed the hunt got a pat on the back, regardless of whether they were first or twenty first.
Can you tell which one is me?
I also swung by the radio station today to say hi. It's a tiny operation, and everyone was very friendly. They even let me hang out in the booth for a bit to get a feel for things. I'll probably go on the air next Thursday.
-M
