5:40 mins.
Source: American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) film collection, where this footage is incorporated into a later compilation film, Hopi Indians of the Southwest, catalogue no. 192.
Background: Howard McCormick (1875-1943) was an artist based in New York who was engaged by the AMNH to work on dioramas of Native American life.
In June 1912, he was commissioned by the AMNH curator, Pliny Goddard, to go to the American Southwest for three months to gather data for the making of a diorama on Pueblo life. In addition to the making of sketches and even casts of Pueblo people, this involved the taking of photographs and the shooting of around 30 minutes of film.
McCormick was asked to film not just ceremonies, but also “industrial processes” such as the making of baskets, pots and blankets.
At the end of the expedition, McCormick reported that he had filmed Hopi Snake Dance ceremonies at Hotvela (roughly 10 mins.) and Supawlavi (8 mins.), basket-weaving at Orayvi and at Musagnuvi (2 mins. each), a Flute ceremony (6½ mins.) and a Navajo rug maker (2 mins.).
But the only material that seems to have survived is this Snake Dance footage from Supawlavi, possibly because it was later incorporated into the compilation film, Hopi Indians of the Southwest.
In 1913, McCormick published a number of photographs of a Snake Dance (though not the one that he filmed in Supawlavi), as well as of various katsina performances.
Content: Hopi Snake Dances represent the culmination of a nine-day ritual process aimed at encouraging the underground spirits that control the elements to release the rains that are so badly need by the Hopi’s maize crops by late August.
For this film, the camera is positioned only two or three metres from the action, behind and to the left of the kisi, the cottonwood bower where some fifty snakes, gathered in the surrounding desert plains over previous days, have been placed.
The film stock is somewhat washed out, but generally the quality of shooting is good. But there is an element of apparent contrivance and hesitation about the performance of the dance, making one wonder whether it has not been staged for the camera to some degree.
The film begins with the Antelope Society passing through shot, sprinkling cornmeal on the ground in front of the kisi, and then circling around in front of it, shaking their rattles. As they do so, they stamp on the foot drum placed in front of the kisi and beneath which, the day before, an offering would have been made to the spirits.
Eventually, they form a line in front of the kisi and the Snake Society arrives to line up in front of them. The Snakes hold feather “whips” in their hands. The Antelope chief sprinkles out two lines of cornmeal so as to a define a corridor of about a metre between the two societies. (See the frame-grab at the head of this entry). The Snakes bend forward and begin to chant, swaying and waving their whips, while the Antelopes shake their rattles.
Then, about 2 minutes into the film, the snake dancing begins. Having been passed the snakes hidden in the kisi, Snake Society members dance in pairs in a circle in front of the Antelopes, one holding a snake in his mouth, the other with a hand on his partner’s shoulder, ready to soothe the snake with his feather whip. Meanwhile, the Antelopes sway and chant, and continue to shake their rattles.
Other dancers gather up snakes as they are dropped until eventually, after a further 2 minutes, the Snake chief defines a circle on the ground in cornmeal at some distance from the kisi.
The camera is further away from the action at this point. On the houses beyond, an audience, largely of children, looks on. Compared to other Hopi villages at this time, there is very little evidence of outside spectators.
The gathered snakes are thrown into the circle and scattered with more cornmeal. As an intertitle explains, the snakes will now be released back into the ‘plains’ so that they can tell ‘the Gods’ that they have been kindly treated.
There is then a fade to black as the dancers disperse.
Texts: Voth 1903, McCormick 1913, Griffiths 2002: 287-294, 405.
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