The Hopis: Portrait of a Desert People

In the tiny world of their own on the Three Mesas in the Arizona desert, the Hopi Indians have created and continue to maintain one of the most interesting and striking cultures of the North American continent. They have a stable economy, a steadfast morality, and a pervading spirit that have not wavered in times of global strife or national depression.

The Hopis have known the white man for centuries, and, although they do not argue with them, they are not particularly impressed with white people’s
progress.
Ancient Hopi traditions and customs are as much alive today as they were in the centuries before Europeans reached the rugged homeland of these people. This adherence to apparently archaic beliefs and activities is rooted in the extraordinary common sense and wisdom of these desert dwellers.

Walter Collins O'Kane lived with the Hopis and earned their trust and faith. His knowledge of Hopi lifeways was matched by few white people, and in this book he provides an even more intimate view of the Hopi Indians than is presented in another popular volume written by him, Sun in the Sky. In The Hopis, the author takes his readers into the dwelling places of the Hopis, to their sun-baked fields, and to the ceremonies that symbolize in ritual the aesthetic mode of Hopi life.