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HOPI BASKETRY AND THE HOPI BELIEFS
The basketry in the collections of the Orma J. Smith Museum of Natural History at The College of Idaho are important remnants of the past and part of the Gates Lewis Collections. The Hopi Indians felt a closeness to the earth as many tribes have in the past. Their art forms represent this sentiment, whether in clay or natural fibers. Clay to the potter is what fibers are to a weaver. Hopi, Navajo, Paiute, Apache and Tohono O'odam produced hand-woven baskets and are the American Indian tribes who live in the Southwest and some who still actively weave fine baskets.
Farming was essential to life for the Hopi culture. Agriculture was introduced about 1,500 BC. Hopi were influenced by beliefs developing from corn, specifically the short blue ear corn. It produced traits of humility, respect and cooperation and earth conservation by the Hopi. Agriculture and corn were important parts of their lives. The people lived on a dry desert and they adapted methods of farming in washes and valleys and terraces along mesa walls below villages. Dry farming depended on natural precipitation of snows or rains. Modern and traditional implements were used including hoes, digging sticks, tractors. At high risk not only from weather, there were threats of rabbits, coyotes, ravens, worms.
They used several methods to grow crops. One used today and in prehistoric times was to plant crops at the mouth of a gulley called an arroyo. Hence flood waters spread out at the mouth. Planted in fields, snow melt would water as did summer cloudbursts (corn, squash melons). Planting in stepped rock wall terraces was successful by gravity fed ditches. Men and women had different roles in the farming. The women cared for the seeds and distribution of the product, whereas the men cleared, planted and harvested mostly. Plants and fibers were gathered from canyons and creek bottoms, some close to homes and some far away. A process of preparation and dying followed, then methods of coiling, plaits, weaving began. Colors of basketry are in bright reds, greens, yellows, black and whites. In the women’s basket dance, the woven plaque honors the Earth and perpetuation of life ongoing. The Hopis have made the mesas of Arizona their home and have a long tradition of weaving baskets and plaques passed down from mother to daughter. Learning this art from ones ancestor created strong bond of sharing an art form. The Orma J. Smith Museum of Natural History's collection includes plaques and baskets of many sizes, colors and designs of the culture.
The “Hopi Way” is a life philosophy.
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