THE PUEBLO HERITAGE

[Music] oh [Music] [Music] the gods of the hopi are old gods and great they are unseen but ever present in the life of the land ties but a tool with which they were fashioning the face of space according to their eternal design [Music] they have carved the canyon they have called forth the cactus in the desert empowering silence the bliss of their work [Music] old gods and great they have painted the deserts and with the wind a chisel and a hammering sculptured this and the gods of the hopi have created life in the land life is the masterpiece in their desire carefully learning of its behavior through their chosen creatures the swift and subtle snake the keen observant eagle these are the messengers of the gods in the painted hopi people placed their villages here centuries before the white man came and on the towering mesas of arizona the hopi lives today these are about an ancient people whom tradition is a living force in life they have purchased implements from the white man's world but they have not paid with the price of their dignity and self-respect gods stand as a constant reminder as a call of conscience in their households [Music] for the people the day begins with a discerning look at the land [Music] for hundreds of years they have raised their corn in this earth planting the seeds carefully at measured distances and planting them deep while the earth is cooler and richer thereafter they dedicate 15 hours a day every day to the cultivation of this crop which is their means of survival the hazards are heartbreaking there is the dryness of the earth the savagery of the wind [Music] there are the crows and the worms who would feed on the young plant if the ingenious hopi did not girdle it with armor until strong enough to stand alone [Music] the hopi can contend with the hazards of the earth but his corn needs moisture and here he must depend on the gods thus he looks for a sign in the heavens a sign that they will soften and cause the miracle of rain to fall upon the people even is a mantle of mercy [Music] john overyama's family raises sheep as well as corn and so each morning with their sure-footed burrow they descend from the mesa to their ranch six miles away [Music] the ranch is but a slice of desert dry barren and wearing a sparse stubble of sagebrush grease wood and cactus [Music] the hopi families the father does the foreign it is water that makes the slice of desert deep ranch water the scarcest and most precious thing in the hopi country to the hopi as to his flock water is life [Music] there is peace of mind and contentment for the hopi only when the roots of his corn have drunk of the gift of the gods [Music] only when his sheep have had their fill [Music] but each summer there is little peace of mind for john obayama and his tribe the sky is glittering the sun relentless the soil hot and powder-like and the water holes grow spoiled with silt each summer he turns his eyes constantly upward and there is an unspoken prayer in his heart [Music] even as the sun fixed heavens the way of life of these people traditionally fixed and spiritually motivated they lived as their gods would have them live and it has always been so the women make pottery [Music] they work with the clay found on their own mesas and moistening it proceed to mold it with firm and knowing hands they use no potter's wheel fashioning their remarkably accurate and beautiful shapes by eye and hand alone [Music] after baking the pottery they decorate it drawing their designs instinctively perfect designs always based not on sketches but on the genius of their race every piece of pottery has been made to be useful and many have the exquisite form and lyrical grace of poetry [Music] yes life goes on in the hopi villages today as it has for seven centuries the pattern is unchanging and in some respects it is grim beyond belief [Music] the women each day climb down from the mesa to the spring in the rush of water where they live they go down to draw water for their families down the sheer face of the rock 600 below only to climb the mesa again with a heavy load [Music] the gift of the gods is awaited here for only the rain can return to this sun's scalded water its pure cool taste on the opposite or west side of the cliff the women come to draw water from another spring for their laundering [Music] they use a special weed to provide themselves with suds it is only when the rain fills the crevices on the mesa that they can wash their clothes without the long climb [Music] the government day school also lies 600 feet below and each day the children climb down to school and climb home when school is out [Music] educators have discovered that the hopi people are highly gifted recent intelligence testings have revealed that hopi children have a higher intelligence rating than the average american child elsewhere in the country and despite the difficulty of getting to and from school truancy here is virtually unheard of [Music] in the critical days of summer when all hearts beat for rain hands are busy grinding corn on special stones called matatis the far-sighted hopi lives this year on last year's crop keeping his corn in store rooms through the winter months [Music] they raise a rich variety of corn each type having a particular use most of it is ground into meal on the matty stones and later is used in making the peaky or hopi bread [Music] there is an air of solemnity about these women as they make the peaky there is devotion in their movements a prayer in their fingers into the bread go into faith buds are good faith that more corn will grow and life go on in the critical days of summer the religious life of the people is heightened and the tribe dances to express itself to the god the appeal to the gods has been made and the messenger has heard one day in mid-summer john ovayama rode out on a mission on his way he passed field after field and the corn seemed to cry to him it was scorched feeble stunted he saw the springs dried up and there was fear in his heart he saw the heralds of drought and the first of its victims [Music] john rode on toward keem's canyon the headquarters of the hopi indian agency [Music] it was here that the government employees lived with their families [Music] it was from here that the reservation of 12 hopi villages was administered where there was a higher school than a hospital for the welfare of the tribe and here john obayama came to meet with the chief of his mesa and with the superintendent of the agency [Music] john was a member of the committee which was drafting a plan for a water development a plan that might one day become a real hopey reservation [Music] john was a good rancher and both the chief and the indian his opinion the superintendent called for the document they had drawn together [Music] they began their meeting by reviewing the work that had been accomplished thus far each of them conscious above all else of the desperate need of the tribe for a controlled source of water it was a moment for concentration close cooperation the blending of minds together for the great good of the people [Music] but as they worked other forces too were at work for the great good of the people on the mesa they were dancing dancing day and night every sound had its meaning every act its secret gleaning and together they rose up to the hardened sky like the above of the drum their hearts throbbed as one praying for the skies to soften for miracle to come on the mesa and in the valleys the people looked and listened as their ancestors had done before them with the same fear the same faith [Music] the gods of the hopi speak with thunder and all things on earth tremble at the sound [Applause] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] and thus do the gods of the hopi sing to their people with the welcome voice of rain [Music] [Applause] in the morning there is a mirror at the foot of the mesa and it reflects the glory of the gods in the morning there is life and the promise of life there is an answer to the labors of yesterday a reason for faith and tomorrow [Music] the gods of the hopi are old gods and great they cause even the cactus to bloom in the desert [Music] you