After our Utah helicopter exploration of August-September 1997, we wrote at home our general field report about our Colorado and Suan Juan Rivers investigation, and about our good contacts with Professor Orozco, Tom and Terry Hoffs, and Alex Patterson. Especially in regard to the Colorado and San Juan Rivers, we remembered our most interesting talks with Alex Patterson (Greenwich, CT USA), a very good rock art specialist. He had told us of his good friendship with the Hopi Shaman Martin. The Shaman told Alex that the Hopi tribe once belonged to the Aztec group, but that they separated from the other groups migrating to the south, to Mexico. We could agree easily with this explanation for following reason.
As a matter of fact, we know that already from our previous study of Codex Boturini 3. On that page is pictured the separation of one group of the eight Nahuatlaca: the Cuillahuaca or Colhua (Ancestors). For one reason or another, they decided to stay in the north (Canyon de Chelly?) and left the other seven tribes migrating to the south. The chiefs are represented on page 3 with tears in their eyes. Is this Colhua group in fact the ancient Hopi (Moqui) tribe? Yes indeed. By the way, both tribe names mean "ancestor", like so many other Indian tribe names do (Anasazi, etc.).
A ranger told Alex Patterson that there are petroglyphs, and that he found there the pre-Columbian body of a girl who had died from starvation. We know not only that there are at least three Anasazi ruins on the north side of Moqui Canyon, but also that Moki, or Moqui, is an archaic name for Hopi or Hopitu.
If the canyon name was given by the Indians what we believe, then we could say that we have here the ancient home of the Hopi tribe, or in other words, the (A)Colhua group. But we have to check the origin of the namegiving of the canyon, before jumping to conclusions. There is however a very interesting point to study: the name glyph for the tribe.
The fifth glyph is the most interesting one of the eight ethnoglyphs of the migrating Nahuatlaca. It is the tribe glyph of the Cuillahuaca, or Ancestral People. As we see, the tribe glyph (ethnonym) represents without any doubt water running, first over a square surface, and then finally falling down. This clearly indicates a waterfall or a rapid. Therefore we must call this Nahuatlaca tribe more correctly 'People of the Rapids' after their ethnonym. They are called Cuillahuaca or Colhua, but it should be better to designate them by the correct name of A(tl)colhua, or 'Water.Colhua', an aztecan tribe of the Nahuatlaca, who came much later to the region of Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico.
It is a fact that there are many small waterfalls during the rainy season in the Lake Powell area, but more impressive and famous are the many cataracts or rapids of the Colorado River in Cataract Canyon. This canyon starts just below the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers. This canyon is famous for the actual 25 rapids above the high water mark (HWM) at 1128 m. The first cataract is situated south of Spanish Bottom, which is in the heart of Canyonsland National Park, and the last one is located just north of Imperial Canyon. But, pay attention, before the building of the Glenn Canyon Dam, there were in fact 62 rapids in Cataract Canyon as we can read in Dellenbaugh's Diary (Kelsey 1989:74) for September 29, 1871:
South of Cataract Canyon we have: Imperial, Calf (Waterhole), Gypsum, and Palmer Canyons. We may assume that there were indeed 62 rapids or cataracts in pre-Columbian times by a lower water relief in Cataract Canyon to Sheep Canyon. In fact there were rapids till Bullfrog Creek, just down Moqui Canyon and north above Hall's Crossing:
Therefore we may assume that the Cuillahuaca (= Acolhua/Hopi/Moqui), lived in the region of the rapids from south of the junction of the Green and Colorado rivers to Moqui Canyon, just north of Hall's Crossing, in fact just north above Wilson Mesa, what we consider as the hearthland of AZTLAN.
That was our conclusion early 1998.. But now comes the good news!
We found two days before Christmas 1998 a very strong confirmation of our Aztlan-hypothesis in one of the chief Hopi legends described in George Wharton James "Indian Basketry" (1909/Dover Publ. 1972:28-30). We quote :
His father helped prepare a dry cottonwood tree, hollow it out and
thus make a closed boat in which he could sail down the river to the discovery
of its secret. To keep him from starving his mother and sister each gave him a
po-o-ta, or basket trade made of yucca, (see
figure) heaped up with food. It was a dangerous trip but he finally reached the end of the journey. Here he described a small
round hole in the ground, and, hearing a sound, he advanced and was saluted
with the cordial greeting "Umpi-tuh, my heart is
glad; I have long been expecting you; come down into my house". Under the
direction of Spider Woman, Tiyo visited the underworld and learned all the
secret songs, prayers, dances and other ceremonials that are now performed by
the snake-antelope fraternity. Four days later Spider Woman made a beautiful hoapuh, around which she fastened a cotton cord, and on the fifth morning she placed Tiyo in it, with a maiden on each side. She then ascended through the hatch and disappeared, but soon a filament descended and attached itself to the cord, and the basket was drawn up to the white clouds, which sailed away to To--ko-na-bi, and there Spider Woman again spun out her filament and lowered the basket to the ground. Tiyo took the maidens to his mother's house, and no stranger saw them for four days, and the two brothers prepared the bridal presents. Tiyo and his brother and the two Snake maidens thus became the progenitors of the Snake and Antelope Clans of the Hopi, who alone perform the thrilling ceremony which I have elsewhere fully described (*).
No one can yet deny that the Hopi once lived in the Aztlán area from Moqui Canyon to Wilson Mesa The Hopi legend is indeed very interesting and most convincing for our previous conclusions, not only for the fact that the Hopi "lived on a mountain near the junction of the San Juan and Colorado rivers", where we have situated since 1991 the hearth land of the eight Nahuatlaca, but also for all information around Spider Woman and the Snake-Antelope Clans. We find a Spider Woman back in Canyon de Chelly where the Hopi apparently lived after their separation of the Nahuatlaca group in 1064 (see Codex Boturini 3). We shall discuss this matter later.
Because Tiyo was heading south on the Colorado river he could probably have end at Antelope Island and Antelope Canyon. Maybe one of the Snake maids came from the Antelope region. In Antelope Canyon there are holes in the ground and there is a curious passage where you can take beautiful photographs of the small and colored stratigraphed canyon walls. It is very likely that this underground passage could have served as an ideal shelter for a small community. This could correspond well with the legend. One question : "Were there investigations before the construction of the dam?"
Back to Moqui Canyon. In the Moqui region there are found many Anasazi ruins, potsherds, and petroglyphs. All the Mesa Verde and Kayenta potsherds belong to the period 1000-1300. In this period falls the first migration (1064) of the Aztec tribes to the south.
In the 1940's, a team of archaeologists from the Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh explored the upper parts of Palmer Canyon from the rim. They found three different Anasazi ruins. One site was said to be in a crack in the Navajo Sandstone. The other two sites were only 150 m above the elevation of the river, and about 1 1/2 km from the Colorado River. The sites were called the Andrew Delaney, Henrys, and Sandy Camp sites. At all three ruins, many Mesa Verde style potsherds were found. One of them was dated between 1026 and 1127, and another was dated between 1070 to 1164.
There are four springs near the extremity of the canyon, were are also 4 small Anasazi structures in very bad condition. One was a living quarter, and the other three were for storage use. All these facts support our Aztlán hypothesis.
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