Book Review: The Hopi

The Hopi: Native American Nations by Liz Sonneborn, consultant Tim Topper, Blastoff Discovery, Bellwether Media, Minneapolis, MN, 2024.

The Hopi are a people from Northeast Arizona.  Their history dates back at least until 1150 when the city Oraibi was established, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the United States.  They live in a harsh arid desert environment with springs and rain water to sustain them.  The developed a unique culture to deal with the hardship based on balance, community and peace.  They raise corn and cotton.  They weave baskets.  They gather nuts and berries and wild fruit and raise turkeys.  They built pueblos of stone and mud.  They also built kivas for religious ceremonies.  

In 1540 the Spaniars arrived looking for gold.  The Spaniards held them in subjugation for the next 140 years until Po'pay lead them in revolt in 1680.  In 1821 they became part f Mexico and in 1848 part of the United States.  In 1882 their reservation was established.  In 1894 Hope elders were imprisoned because they refused to send their children to boarding schools.  They struggled to keep their culture alive.  Children were forced by the government to Indian schools.  The Hopi peo0ple have insisted on keeping their cultre and language and have been able to do so.

Famous people of the Hopi include Po'Pay, Nampeyo who is known for pottery and Tsökahovi (Lewis) Tewanima who is a long distance runner and won a silver medal in the 1912 Olympics.

The tribe is facing problems with the left overs of now abandoned coal kines, and with the lack of water.

C.D. Navajo Songs

 Navajo Songs, recorded by Laura Boulton, 1933, 1940, including Ben Hudson Begay, Joe Lee and Pablo and Frank Huerito, Smithsonian Folkways, 1992.

Driving to Las Vegas early in the morning the only radio station that would come in was from Window Rock New Mexico.  They would play country music but they would also play Navajo songs which I enjoyed, even though I did not understand a thing.

This C.D. includes ceremonial songs as well as game songs.  In includes a section from the Yeibichei which is a sacred curing song.  They first call and talking god.  The ceremony includes masked dancers, sand paintings, chanting and high energy dancing.  The goal is to restore balance, harmony and health.  These six songs had the same kind of feel. Also included are corn grinding songs, sway songs, circle dance songs, and moccasin game songs.  Circle dance songs are used for the round dance which can be very powerful.

Documentary Review: The War #7: A World Without War by Ken Burns

 The seventh of the series by Ken Burns tells several different stories:  The Battle of Okinawa and the kamikaze planes that inflicted heavy loses on the Navy.  The death of President Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman takes over.  The Soviets begin the final assault on Berlin and the suicide of Adolph Hitler.  The concentration camps are liberated with the Holocaust is made known to the world.  Victory Europe Day is celebrated, but the war against Japan goes on.  USS Indianapolis is sunk after delivering atomic bomb; only 300 of 1100 survive.  800 went into the water but sharks and hyperthermia claimed many.  The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The Japanese surrender and victory Japan Day.  The return of the service men to civilian life.  Some do better than others and shell shock leaves permanent scars.  African Americans return to a segregated world.  Japanese are freed from the holding centers.  Civilian prisoners are freed in the Phillipines but many starve before the liberation.  Prisoners in Japan are freed.  Some were thought dead.

The War #1 A Necessary War

The War #2 When Things Get Tough

The War #3 A Deadly Calling

The War #4 Pride of Our Nation

The War #5 FUBAR

The War #6 The Ghost Front

The War #7 A World Without War

Native American Book Review: Navajo

Navajo: Native Americans by Sarah Tieck, Big Buddy Books and imprint of Abdo Books, North Mankato, Minnesota, 2015.

This book indicates that the Navajo originally lived in Canada and moved south to the four corners area of the southwest.  The lived in hogans which are circular homes, or octogan or hexagon.  They were formers who raised corn, squash and beans and also fruit such as peaches.  They also would eat small game, prarie dogs, deer, rabbits and mountain goats.  They also raised sheep and goats for meat and milk.  Children learned by watching adults.  Navajo are experts at making jewelry, rugs, baskets and pottery.  Spirit life is very important to them.  Medicine men will make sand art drawings as part of healing.  Story telling is an important part of their culture.  Men and women both tell stories.  A common story is of the windwalker but some Navajo feel it is bad luck to talk of them.

In 1864 the government foced the Navajo to a reservation in New Mexico, Bosque Redondo.  In the march south, and in the heat in New Mexico, about 2000 Navajo died.  Manuelito had to negotiate to get their land back.  They now have a reservation of 24,000 square miles.  Manuelito stress education as important for the Navajo future and there are many educated Navajo.   

Magazine Article Review: The Haunting of Young George Washington.

 The Haunting of Young George Washington; Celebrating America at 250 by David L. Preston, photographs by Sally Maxson, Smithsonian, January/February 2026 pp 30-39, 110-111.

George Washington had a very close call when he was serving as a colonel during the French and Indian War.  November 12, 1758 Washington was leading his men in support of a group of men that the general had already sent to route a group of French with Native American support.  Because the sound of battle was so loud, General John Forbes sent Washington and his men forward in support.  However when the two units approached each other, the men became confused, thinking they were approaching the enemy.  A fire fight ensued.  When Washington noticed what was happening he came forward trying to intervene.  He ordered his men to stop shooting and was batting his men's guns upward with his sword.  Before the melee ended 16 soldiers had been killed and over 20 more were wounded.  

This was at Fort Ligonier aka Fort Loyalhana.  The result of the battle was a route of the French and Indians with prisoners taken.  The fort has been restored and studies ongoing to determine where exactly the friendly fire skirmish took pace.  Washington himself was in the line of fire, and this event had a profound effect on him.  

Native American Book Review: The Wampanoag

 The Wampanoag: A True Book by Kevin Cunningham and Peter Benoit, Children's Press and imprint of Scholastic, New York, 2011.

This is a good introduction to the Wampanoag.  I have often wondered where the Wampanoag ended up and I find out they are still there, they are just not so many.  There were as many as 30,000 Wampanoag before they were introduced to Europeans and in 1616 an epidemic resulted in the death of 90 percent of the total.  When the pilgrims arrived the Wampanoag population had been depleted so they were willing to enter an alliance with the newcomers.  Massasoit was the head Sachem at the time and negotiated this peace.  Squanto helped with translation and with teaching the Pilgrims how to live in the new world, raising corn, squash and beans (the three sisters).  This resulted in the first harvest feast which later became Thanksgiving.

The good relations did not laugh.  After Massasoit died, his son became sachem.  However he died after having visited with the settlers.  His brother Metacomet/Prince Phillip then became angry thinking the settlers had killed his brother.  This started what is known as Prince Phillip's war.  Metacomet was eventually captured and killed and his head hung on a stake outside the city wall.  His brother's widow, Weetamoo also  became a sachem and waged war with her people until they were ambushed and she drowned in a river trying to get away.  Her body was found and her head too was displayed outside the city wall.  In the war 2000 Native Americans were killed from several different groups.  Over 600 settlers were killed.  Most every white settlement had been attacked.  There are now about 2000 Wampanoag in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.  

Traditional housing was a wetu also known as a wigwam.  Over a frame of saplings layers of mats were placed which created a warm, dry home.  A fire was kept in the middle.  The sachem does not control the people but enters contracts with outside entities.  The Wampanoag language was almost lost but efforts are ow being made to bring it back.  There are now Wampanoag language classes available.  

Gun Fight at the OK Corral, Reenactment

 On October 16, 1981 a long standing feud finally boiled over in Tombstone, Arizona.  The feud was between the cowboys (rustlers) and lawmen.  One of the cowboys was talking about hurting people and making threats.  Consequently Virgil Earp, town Marshal decided to enforce a city ordinance saying all guns must be handed in.  The cowboys refused and the gun battle ensued.  Although the actual gun battle only lasted thirty seconds, it included lots of shooting, including with a shotgun.  Doc Holliday carried the shot gun.  30 shots were fired in that 30 seconds.  It left three people dead, all cowboys, Frank and Tom McLaury and Billy Clanton.  Two other cowboys fled, Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne.  Of the four lawmen, three were injured, Doc Holliday, Virgil Earp and Morgan Earp.  Wyatt Earp was unscathed.  

The reenactment at Tombstone is very good, and very violent. It builds up to the point of conflict very well with on of the McLaury boys making lots of threats, and drinking too much.  The guns are loud, especially the shot gun.  And it is all over in 30 seconds.

Doc Holliday

The stage is set up next to the actual printing shop by which the gun battle took place.  Fat Nose Kate who was thre common law wife of Doc Holliday witnessed the gunfight from her boarding room.