The Hopi are considered to be the oldest tribe of America’s Four Corners Region (SW States). The current Hopi Reservation a little way east from the Grand Canyon, in Northen Arizona, encompasses more than 1.5 million acres. It feels crass to describe a whole culture and belief system in a couple of throwaway lines, so to do it in their words:
“Since time immemorial the Hopi people have lived in Hopitutskwa and have maintained our sacred covenant with Maasaw, the ancient caretaker of the earth, to live as peaceful and humble farmers respectful of the land and its resources. Over the centuries we have survived as a tribe, and to this day have managed to retain our culture, language and religion despite influences from the outside world.”
The Hopi Tribe www.hopi-nsn.gov
Hopi religion is very intricate and unique. The Hopi believe they have passed through four evolutionary eras often referred to as worlds. Currently, the emergence into this present world from three preceding worlds, is currently the fourth world of Tuuwaqatsi (The Land). The Hopi continue to live by the sacred covenant made upon their arrival to this land with the deity, Maasawu, by living a life of compassion, peaceful, humble, respectful, and universal earth stewardship. The religion contains numerous important spirits and gods, including Mother Earth and Father Sky. Another part of Hopi belief are Katsinas¹ that are beings from above, they serve as a guardian spirit, for the Hopi people.
The Hopi Cultural Center hopiculturalcenter.com
The Spirits
Katsinas have three forms; the spirit, the masked dancers who play the role of the spirits in ceremonies² and the dolls, which are gifted to children during the ceremonies as educational toys. There are a great many katsinas, representing things in the real world, from corn, to weather, to ancestors.
One of these katsinas is a field mouse, a warrior, an important figure in folktale from the Second Mesa region³, called Tusan Homichi. This small mouse is a legendary hero who rid the village of the hawk who was killing their chickens.
Tusan Homichi is a character who predates cinema, so why does he look like Mickey Mouse?
To answer this we are going to head into an area that again, feels crass to discuss so briefly, so we’ll try to keep our focus on Tusan Homichi and perhaps revisit the wider issues in a future issue.
To make one detail clear right away – the katsina’s likeness to Mickey is not a coincidence and nor does it predate Mickey (created in 1928). It exists as an intentional joining of the popularity of Disney, Mickey’s personality and the Hopi folktale, where
“the disparate worlds of coloniser and Indigenous are mashed together in a single artifact.”
Liebmann, Matthew. 2015. The Mickey Mouse kachina and other “Double Objects”: The hybridity
in the material culture of colonial encounters. Journal of Social Archaeology 15 (3): 319-341.
The Colonisers
The Hopi was one of the many tribes whose first contact with Europeans was by the Spanish in 1540, during a search by the explorer Francisco Vásquez de Coronado for the fabled Seven Cities of Gold. Their location away from the Rio Grande meant that their contact with the Spanish was sporadic. The Hopi people joined Po’pay’s Rebellion against the Spanish in 1860, to drive out the colonisers who had been violently supressing their religion and ways.
Towards the end of the 1800s, the federal government forced Hopi children to attend boarding schools, giving up their names, clothing and language. They later attempted to open schools based in the villages. Many parents refused to let their children attend, culminating in the arrest and imprisonment of 19 Hopi men at Alcatraz Prison for a year in 1894.
The strength of the Hopi in resisting the erasure of their traditions makes it all the more bizarre that their hero Tusan Homichi could take the form of arguably one of the greatest figureheads of Western capitalism, Mickey Mouse.
The Tourists
To look at this from the viewpoint of an outsider, colonisation brought with it the creation of the savage. The simplification of otherness that excused the domination over the indigenous people. With explorers/colonists we see the birth of tourism – returning home from far flung lands with otherworldly objects that demonstrate the savagery or exoticism of its people.
twinrocks.com. / ‘Mickey’ katsina. c. 1930s – 1950s. Otis Dozier Collection. / Wooden katsina, c. 1950s made by Melson Harris. Available on Etsy / Wooden katsina made by Malcolm Cheromiah of the Hopi and Laguna tribes. Available on Etsy.
Note: Each of the three modern katsina are signed by the artist demonstrating their authenticity, but also their commercial purpose.
The incorporation of a beloved cartoon character can be seen as serving a useful purpose, that of softening the view of the ‘Indian’ savage. Mickey can act as a mediator between cultures. Is it helpful to see Tusan Homichi as a happy tale of the underdog winning against the odds? Does it make us realise that the Hopi values and beliefs are not so different from our own? Or is it unhelpful? Does it take hundreds of years of tradition and spirituality and allegories based upon important cultural beliefs and reduce it to said happy tale about a plucky mouse? And have the Hopi unwittingly greeted a Trojan horse? Giving the outsiders the opportunity to dismantle their culture?
“It is both a frequent tactic of subalterns and an obvious strategy of colonisers. It can be a tool of resistance and an instrument of domination.”
Ibid. Liebmann, Matthew. 2015.
It is all too easy to leap to the conclusion that the Hopi have cheapened their rich culture by letting Mickey Mouse onto their dolls and into their ceremonies⁴, but it is safe to say that they have the intelligence and foresight to know the possible consequences of their decisions and do so with the benefit of the lessons learned from many years of both battling and welcoming the world beyond their land.
The Rain Gods
A case of smart tourism comes from the Tesuque Pueblo in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The New Mexico Pueblos found themselves along the route of the Santa Fe Railroad in the late 1800s, conveniently located to make a valuable income from tourism. Anglo traders, such as the Gold brothers, sought out a constant supply of local goods for their shops. In Tesuque, they found figurines of seated males with exposed genitalia. At their suggestion, bowls were added to the laps of the figures and labelled as Tesque God of Water. Similar (standing) figures were obtained from the neighbouring Cochiti Pueblo, as Cochiti God of Rain. This marketing decision was made at a time of drought. Thousands of figures were sold as souvenirs for 15¢ each.
Although they’d quickly come to be looked at as cheap, vulgar and “a debasement of the refined and artistic wares of the ancient Pueblos”, the positive had to be that the tribe had been able to monetise their skills without selling off a genuine part of their culture. One could be reminded of the poor tourist returning home from Thailand with a “traditional” tribal tattoo that is actually the stuff of nonsense.
It isn’t known what the intention of giving Tusan Homichi Mickey’s face was. Whether it was for its appeal to outsiders, to insiders or a combination of both. But either way, it stands as an interesting example of outside influence on indigenous cultures, one that is all the more rare than the numerous examples of Disney using indigenous cultures for their own fancy.
¹ Also known as kachina, which comes from the mispronounciation of the term by American tourists.
² Much like Santa Claus, the Hopi children don’t recognise their fathers/uncles in costume, but believe them to be real.
³ The vast Hopi Reservation has 12 villages across three regions, sharing similar traditions and customs but also with their own unique ways.
⁴ Mickey’s likeness was also used by kachina dancers in the 1930s to the 1950s, in the role of the clown who entertained crowds between ceremonies.
Three photographs were used for the backgrounds in our feature and it is only right to show them in their entirety here.
