62
five days after Neveqtsomo, although he was occupied with other ritual activities on
that date. Stephen’s description suggests that this marker is an extended region on
the horizon rather than a single point. Besides being a planting marker, Stephen
(1893b) notes that the assembly before the Snake-Antelope Festival occurs when
the Sun rises at Pülhomotaka on his return to the south. This series of curves is probably a series of mounds atop a ridge located between Neveqtsomo and Kwiitsala.
Although the group of mounds making up this marker has been located, the marker
itself spans almost 2° and the specific marker used to establish the planting date
cannot be precisely located.
4.5 Kwiitsala (Narrow Neck of a Mesa Top)/Atkya’ùyisti (Way
Down Planting Time)
The topography of Kwiitsala is complex; it is a notch in the horizon formed by the
two sides of a steep, curved valley cut into Balakai Mesa. Seen from First Mesa, the
defining edges of the notch are scarcely separated, yet along the line of sight they
are separated by about 5 km. The left edge of the notch is about 5 km farther from
Walpi Pueblo than the right edge. The ridge over which the Sun rises is even farther
up the valley, about 50 km from Walpi.
Kwiitsala is found in all the ethnographic accounts; it is one of the first planting
markers Stephen mentioned in his correspondence with Fewkes (Stephen, 1893a),
giving its magnetic azimuth, an etymology, and the fact that it marks the beginning
of general corn planting. Crow Wing and Parsons name it Atkyaö’sti, or “way down
planting time”, describing it as the first day of corn planting. The meaning of their
term can be related to the Hopi directional term atkya: below, lower, or the valley
floor,
6
and ‘ùyisti: planting time; from which we might interpret Atkya’ùyisti as time
for planting in lower fields. Agayo’s horizon drawing depicts “the lane” as a marker
for later corn planting in the washes in spring; he understands the term “the lane” as
a notch in a mesa top as he uses the same term elsewhere (Forde, 1931: 396) to
describe the gap (wala) separating the villages from the rest of First Mesa.
7
Forde
describes Kwiitsala as marking the time of main corn planting. The marker is close
to the azimuth inferred from Crow Wing’s planting dates and to Stephen’s measured
bearing to the notch; Forde’s measured bearing differs significantly, but it is uncertain where he took his measurements. Forde’s Second Mesa horizon calendar also
uses this notch, which it calls Wokwalca, the large gap or large pass. The topography
of the notch is so distinctive that there is no reason to doubt its identification.
6 Malotki (1979: 151–152) notes that the Hopi morpheme?oo- (above) can be identified with the
upper surface of the mesa and the morpheme?at- (below) with the desert unfolding beneath the
mesa plateau.
7 Compare the dictionary definition of lane: “A narrow way between hedges or banks; a narrow
road or street between houses or walls” (OED Online 2019).
S. C. McCluskey
five days after Neveqtsomo, although he was occupied with other ritual activities on
that date. Stephen’s description suggests that this marker is an extended region on
the horizon rather than a single point. Besides being a planting marker, Stephen
(1893b) notes that the assembly before the Snake-Antelope Festival occurs when
the Sun rises at Pülhomotaka on his return to the south. This series of curves is probably a series of mounds atop a ridge located between Neveqtsomo and Kwiitsala.
Although the group of mounds making up this marker has been located, the marker
itself spans almost 2° and the specific marker used to establish the planting date
cannot be precisely located.
4.5 Kwiitsala (Narrow Neck of a Mesa Top)/Atkya’ùyisti (Way
Down Planting Time)
The topography of Kwiitsala is complex; it is a notch in the horizon formed by the
two sides of a steep, curved valley cut into Balakai Mesa. Seen from First Mesa, the
defining edges of the notch are scarcely separated, yet along the line of sight they
are separated by about 5 km. The left edge of the notch is about 5 km farther from
Walpi Pueblo than the right edge. The ridge over which the Sun rises is even farther
up the valley, about 50 km from Walpi.
Kwiitsala is found in all the ethnographic accounts; it is one of the first planting
markers Stephen mentioned in his correspondence with Fewkes (Stephen, 1893a),
giving its magnetic azimuth, an etymology, and the fact that it marks the beginning
of general corn planting. Crow Wing and Parsons name it Atkyaö’sti, or “way down
planting time”, describing it as the first day of corn planting. The meaning of their
term can be related to the Hopi directional term atkya: below, lower, or the valley
floor,
6
and ‘ùyisti: planting time; from which we might interpret Atkya’ùyisti as time
for planting in lower fields. Agayo’s horizon drawing depicts “the lane” as a marker
for later corn planting in the washes in spring; he understands the term “the lane” as
a notch in a mesa top as he uses the same term elsewhere (Forde, 1931: 396) to
describe the gap (wala) separating the villages from the rest of First Mesa.
7
Forde
describes Kwiitsala as marking the time of main corn planting. The marker is close
to the azimuth inferred from Crow Wing’s planting dates and to Stephen’s measured
bearing to the notch; Forde’s measured bearing differs significantly, but it is uncertain where he took his measurements. Forde’s Second Mesa horizon calendar also
uses this notch, which it calls Wokwalca, the large gap or large pass. The topography
of the notch is so distinctive that there is no reason to doubt its identification.
6 Malotki (1979: 151–152) notes that the Hopi morpheme?oo- (above) can be identified with the
upper surface of the mesa and the morpheme?at- (below) with the desert unfolding beneath the
mesa plateau.
7 Compare the dictionary definition of lane: “A narrow way between hedges or banks; a narrow
road or street between houses or walls” (OED Online 2019).
S. C. McCluskey