August 27, 2016
Two Months Later
I celebrated my 55th birthday on Friday, July 22, 2016, and Ahote reached out several weeks later and asked if I could return to Hopi on Saturday, August 27, 2016, to take some photographs for him. And so, without hesitation, I set out for Hopi that Saturday around 11:00 AM. I brought one of the rattles he had gifted me during my previous visits. Tuwa had informed me that one of the villages was having its biennial Snake Dance. Non-natives were not allowed to attend, but I brought the rattle to try and connect with the ceremony during my 4-hour drive to Hopi.
I arrived in Flagstaff around 12:30 PM. After a quick pit-stop to fuel my car and purchase a few items for Ahote and Tuwa, I continued east on Interstate 40 towards Winslow, Arizona. During this portion of my drive, I played my rattle and some music stored on my smartphone. As soon as I started shaking the rattle, something came over me. Suddenly, I could feel an intuitive connection to the ceremonies that were going on at Hopi; I was singing, playing my rattle, and doing all sorts of bizarre motions with my hands.
I stopped in Winslow briefly to grab a snack, and that’s when I texted Tuwa to let her know I was about to turn on Highway 87 to head up to Hopi. She quickly replied and instructed me to drive straight to their home in their village instead of first checking in at the Cultural Center. She and Ahote wanted to take me to a social dance at First Mesa.
I arrived at their home approximately an hour later, and after a quick visit, the three of us headed to First Mesa to attend the dance. Over the next several hours, we witnessed two different performances of the same dance, both put on by different families.
As I began to watch the first dance, a few things left a significant impression on me right from the start. But the one thing that stuck out the most was the motions the lead singer made with his hands. They were almost a replica of the movements I made with my hands several hours earlier during my drive from Flagstaff to Winslow. I observed as he made very gentle, circular motions in a counter-clockwise direction. Occasionally, he would abruptly change course and then suddenly lift both hands towards the sky simultaneously. In ways that I couldn’t explain, I knew what he was doing and what it meant. Even so, I continued to be entranced by his spellbinding ceremony.
Once the dance was complete, Ahote told me that the rattles were used to symbolize rain, the staffs with the Eagle feathers were used to signify lightning, the drums were thunder, and the baskets the women carried symbolized the Sun, the wind, and their crops. He told me that the primary purpose of the dance was to bring rain and to promote an energy of sharing with the Creator. The Hopi-Tewa had performed this same dance for hundreds, if not thousands, years.
As the second dance began, I made a concentrated effort to pay very close attention to every single detail, from the moment the dancers exited the Kiva and stepped out onto the plaza until they disappeared back into the Kiva. There was a lot to take in.
Once the second dance was complete, Ahote, Tuwa, and I returned to their Second Mesa home around 6:00 PM. I brought both of them back to their house in their village, thanked them for sharing the dance with me, and then headed to the Cultural Center to check into my hotel room for the night.
I spent the entire evening dissecting every moment of the dance as it played repeatedly in my head. I finally drifted off to sleep around midnight.
The following video is from 2012. It is a completely different dance than I observed on this day in 2016.