Hopi Snake Dance
Hopi Snake Dance The Hopi Indians amazed the American society of their time. The ritual snake dance that they performed yearly drew the attention of Americans throughout the United States. The snake dance is a dance like no other. Americans had witnessed the ballet, modern dance and ballroom dancing, but never had they witnessed a dance that incorporated the use of venomous snakes. The snake dance had aspects similar to dances Americans had seen within their own culture, and also within the culture of the African Americans. The snake dance also possessed many exciting and new aspects that American society had never witnessed in the past. The Hopi Indians held four ceremonies throughout the course of an entire year. Out of the four ceremonies, the most revered and sacred among the Hopi is the snake dance. There is not an anthropologist, or even a Hopi Indian that can tell you when it originated, only that it has always been. The origin of the snake dance has its roots in ancient Hopi folklore. Tiyo was a Hopi youth who was intelligent and above all curious. A great river passed through the Hopi land. ... Tiyo ventured down into the Kiva and was met by the snake people. The snake people wrapped themselves in snakeskins and became actual snakes themselves. ... When the snake people had finished educating Tiyo, they gave him costumes and a snake maiden to take back with him to his people. ... They were proud to have him back and his snake maiden wife. ... The Hopi people had enough of this, and banned the rattlesnakes and the snake maiden from the tribe. ... Realizing there mistake in abonishing the snake maiden and rattlesnakes, the Hopis went to Tiyo to find a way to appease the gods. Taking Tiyo’s word as law, the Hopis set out at once on a quest that every year since that day has become a ritual in the Hopi community. The snake dance ceremony is a ceremony that takes place over a nine-day period. The first day Hopi priests enter their Kiva. ... It is during the first day that the men prepare for the snake hunt. ... In Hopi legend the underworld is the place in which they came, and is now the location of their heaven. The ninth day is the day that the snake dance takes place in the snake ceremony. The dance starts with a snake priest emerging from the Kiva with a buckskin bag full of snakes. ... A few minutes later nine priests in full dance costume exit the hole from the Kiva. ... “As each man passed the Kisi, he stomps on the board covering the entrance to the underworld to inform the gods that the Hopi were about to start their dance and would soon be sending massagers with prayers, asking that rain to be sent to their parched land (Forrest 55).