Thanks for an excellent report, Ed. Yet to be explained to most observers, however, is why the Hopi eagle & redtail ritual has persisted, even when the weight & ferocity of the Spanish Inquisition was applied to try to stop it nearly 500 years ago, soon after the arrival of Spanish conquistadores from Mexico. In gist, eagles are the sacred totems of the Navajo; redtails are the totems of the Apache. For approximately 1,000 years the ancestors of the modern-day Navajo and Apache, invading the American Southwest from the north, treated the Pueblo civilization built by the Hopi and related tribes like a larder. During droughts between roughly 1080 and 1580, archaeologists have learned, Navajo and Apache raiders often stole Pueblo corn, massacred Pueblo adults, and cannibalized the children. Cannibalism faded out as the drought cycle eased, but that more-or-less coincided with the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores, followed by ranchers and priests. The Spanish subjugated what remained of the Pueblo civilization and converted the survivors—nominally––to Catholicism. The Navajo and Apache meanwhile captured runaway Spanish horses, sometimes traded for stolen horses with the Hopi; stole horses themselves, both from the Spanish and each other; and relatively rapidly developed formidable cavalry cultures. The Hopi mostly did not become a mounted people, tending to accept Spanish conquest and conversion to Catholicism in hopes of gaining military protection from the Navajo and Apache. Sometimes that strategy succeeded. However, often unable to distinguish one tribe from another, Spanish garrisons at times retaliated for Apache mayhem inflicted on remote missions by killing any Hopi or Navajo people they found nearby, often at least as gruesomely as the Apache had killed Spanish victims. The Spanish enslaved many Hopi and set them to work herding sheep; the Navajo mostly fled into rugged habitat where the Spanish had difficulty maintaining pursuit. Hopi revolts between 1680 and 1700 drove the Spanish out, never to return. This appears to have been the one Hopi manifestation of military might ever, & succeeded mainly because the Hopi knew the terrain; the Spanish didn’t. The Navajo and Apache, meanwhile, had acquired sheep and goats much as they had acquired horses, through the combination of trading and theft, stealing most often from the Hopi. Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821, including nominal title to all of what is now the U.S. Southwest, but showed little interest in governing either Hopi, Navajo, or Apache-occupied territory. When the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican War of 1846-1848, bringing the Southwest into the United States, the Hopi almost immediately appealed to the U.S. government for defense against the Navajo and the Apache. Eventually, in 1861-1864, the U.S. Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel Kit Carson, destroyed the Navajo and Apache raiding culture, heightening the ancient enmities among the Hopi, Navajo, and Apache. Carson ended the last Navajo resistance by poisoning and shooting all of the Navajo sheep his troops could find, also cutting and burning thousands of wild peach trees to starve the remnant Navajo into submission. Forced marches of Navajo survivors to concentration camps followed. After the U.S. Civil War ended, several years later, the Navajo were given new sheep, and were moved to the fringes of Hopi land in the dry and desolate Four Corners area, where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah meet. There––with Navajos surrounding the much less numerous Hopi––the tribes have uneasily coexisted ever since. Unable for most of a millennium to mount effective armed responses to Navajo and Apache raiders, retreating instead into their almost inaccessible cliff dwelling strongholds to avoid attack, the Hopi had evolved & continued a religious ritual which defied the Navajo and Apache by mocking their totems. Over time, the eaglet-and-hawk-killing ritual has been explained in various other ways, for instance as a substitute for child sacrifice. A more popular explanation in recent years is that the eaglets and young redtails are “spoiled” as if they were privileged children, then dispatched to tell the gods of Hopi kindness and generosity. Yet the simplest, most obvious explanation is simply that the ferocity of the Navajo and Apache totems is overcome by the corn meal, symbolic of Hopi agricultural productivity, which enabled the Hopi to survive the centuries of drought even as the Apache and Navajo resorted to cannibalism. The Hopi eagle & redtail ritual has continued, even when Spanish invaders burned some who practiced it at the stake for alleged devil worship, because many Hopi have long equated it with the survival of their people, & to an extent still do.
"because many Hopi have long equated it with the survival of their people, & to an extent still do."
This is probably THE most critical point from your comment. As one who lived in NM and had the privilege to work with the Isleta Pueblo where I listened hard and learned much about Native American Culture. And tho I absolutely recognize and understand why the Hopi would wish to continue this tradition, I do wonder if it's time and if it's possible for them to still maintain the significance of this tradition without sacrificing these sentient beings? Just a thought. Thank you for your very detailed explanation.
Animal cruelty in the guise of "tradition and religion" is still animal cruelty. They can try cloaking it any way they want, but these practices (like Santeria and Kaporos and the overseas killing rituals) are animal abuse. We need to stop tiptoeing around cultures and religious denominations and address these travesties once and for all.
I agree! We have a tradition in my family (and many others) of serving a roasted turkey corpse for Thanksgiving or a grisly pig leg for Christmas. I choose not to participate in this tradition. It is hard to get humans to change their behavior. I've given up eating animals and animal products for fifteen years. I am healthy and haven't died of a protein deficiency yet.
Animal cruelty in the guise of "tradition and religion" is still animal cruelty. They can try cloaking it any way they want, but these practices (like Santeria and Kaporos and the overseas killing rituals) are animal abuse. We need to stop tiptoeing around cultures and religious denominations and address these travesties once and for all.
I agree with Balenquah: ..let the eagles fly.
Thanks for an excellent report, Ed. Yet to be explained to most observers, however, is why the Hopi eagle & redtail ritual has persisted, even when the weight & ferocity of the Spanish Inquisition was applied to try to stop it nearly 500 years ago, soon after the arrival of Spanish conquistadores from Mexico. In gist, eagles are the sacred totems of the Navajo; redtails are the totems of the Apache. For approximately 1,000 years the ancestors of the modern-day Navajo and Apache, invading the American Southwest from the north, treated the Pueblo civilization built by the Hopi and related tribes like a larder. During droughts between roughly 1080 and 1580, archaeologists have learned, Navajo and Apache raiders often stole Pueblo corn, massacred Pueblo adults, and cannibalized the children. Cannibalism faded out as the drought cycle eased, but that more-or-less coincided with the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores, followed by ranchers and priests. The Spanish subjugated what remained of the Pueblo civilization and converted the survivors—nominally––to Catholicism. The Navajo and Apache meanwhile captured runaway Spanish horses, sometimes traded for stolen horses with the Hopi; stole horses themselves, both from the Spanish and each other; and relatively rapidly developed formidable cavalry cultures. The Hopi mostly did not become a mounted people, tending to accept Spanish conquest and conversion to Catholicism in hopes of gaining military protection from the Navajo and Apache. Sometimes that strategy succeeded. However, often unable to distinguish one tribe from another, Spanish garrisons at times retaliated for Apache mayhem inflicted on remote missions by killing any Hopi or Navajo people they found nearby, often at least as gruesomely as the Apache had killed Spanish victims. The Spanish enslaved many Hopi and set them to work herding sheep; the Navajo mostly fled into rugged habitat where the Spanish had difficulty maintaining pursuit. Hopi revolts between 1680 and 1700 drove the Spanish out, never to return. This appears to have been the one Hopi manifestation of military might ever, & succeeded mainly because the Hopi knew the terrain; the Spanish didn’t. The Navajo and Apache, meanwhile, had acquired sheep and goats much as they had acquired horses, through the combination of trading and theft, stealing most often from the Hopi. Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821, including nominal title to all of what is now the U.S. Southwest, but showed little interest in governing either Hopi, Navajo, or Apache-occupied territory. When the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican War of 1846-1848, bringing the Southwest into the United States, the Hopi almost immediately appealed to the U.S. government for defense against the Navajo and the Apache. Eventually, in 1861-1864, the U.S. Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel Kit Carson, destroyed the Navajo and Apache raiding culture, heightening the ancient enmities among the Hopi, Navajo, and Apache. Carson ended the last Navajo resistance by poisoning and shooting all of the Navajo sheep his troops could find, also cutting and burning thousands of wild peach trees to starve the remnant Navajo into submission. Forced marches of Navajo survivors to concentration camps followed. After the U.S. Civil War ended, several years later, the Navajo were given new sheep, and were moved to the fringes of Hopi land in the dry and desolate Four Corners area, where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah meet. There––with Navajos surrounding the much less numerous Hopi––the tribes have uneasily coexisted ever since. Unable for most of a millennium to mount effective armed responses to Navajo and Apache raiders, retreating instead into their almost inaccessible cliff dwelling strongholds to avoid attack, the Hopi had evolved & continued a religious ritual which defied the Navajo and Apache by mocking their totems. Over time, the eaglet-and-hawk-killing ritual has been explained in various other ways, for instance as a substitute for child sacrifice. A more popular explanation in recent years is that the eaglets and young redtails are “spoiled” as if they were privileged children, then dispatched to tell the gods of Hopi kindness and generosity. Yet the simplest, most obvious explanation is simply that the ferocity of the Navajo and Apache totems is overcome by the corn meal, symbolic of Hopi agricultural productivity, which enabled the Hopi to survive the centuries of drought even as the Apache and Navajo resorted to cannibalism. The Hopi eagle & redtail ritual has continued, even when Spanish invaders burned some who practiced it at the stake for alleged devil worship, because many Hopi have long equated it with the survival of their people, & to an extent still do.
"because many Hopi have long equated it with the survival of their people, & to an extent still do."
This is probably THE most critical point from your comment. As one who lived in NM and had the privilege to work with the Isleta Pueblo where I listened hard and learned much about Native American Culture. And tho I absolutely recognize and understand why the Hopi would wish to continue this tradition, I do wonder if it's time and if it's possible for them to still maintain the significance of this tradition without sacrificing these sentient beings? Just a thought. Thank you for your very detailed explanation.
Animal cruelty in the guise of "tradition and religion" is still animal cruelty. They can try cloaking it any way they want, but these practices (like Santeria and Kaporos and the overseas killing rituals) are animal abuse. We need to stop tiptoeing around cultures and religious denominations and address these travesties once and for all.
I agree! We have a tradition in my family (and many others) of serving a roasted turkey corpse for Thanksgiving or a grisly pig leg for Christmas. I choose not to participate in this tradition. It is hard to get humans to change their behavior. I've given up eating animals and animal products for fifteen years. I am healthy and haven't died of a protein deficiency yet.
Animal cruelty in the guise of "tradition and religion" is still animal cruelty. They can try cloaking it any way they want, but these practices (like Santeria and Kaporos and the overseas killing rituals) are animal abuse. We need to stop tiptoeing around cultures and religious denominations and address these travesties once and for all.
This is why I cringe whenever someone says that slavery was our original sin.