Two Spirit Myths: Origin Stories – The Hopi
Seventy miles east of the Grand Canyon are the pueblos of the Hopi, who through myth and history have clung to their faith in the sacredness of the Canyon. Called the Hisatsinom, or “people of long ago,” the Hopi are a testament to their spiritual journey and their walk through the generations.
Rising from the bottom of the Grand Canyon, the Hopi journeyed through levels and left “footprints at stopping places along the way”… sites where they were given the knowledge of rituals that eventually allowed them to reside at their final home on the Hopi Mesas.
The Little Colorado River in the Grand Canyon
In the ceremonial kivas are the Sipapuni, the navel from which they believe their ancestors emerged from a previous world. In this private part of the Canyon is a travertine dome of rock in the Little Colorado River section of the Grand Canyon National Park. To this day Sipapuni is a revered Hopi sacred site that is off-limits to visitors. It is here and to nearby salt-bearing ledges that generations of Hopi males have returned to complete their transition to manhood.
The Hopi also believe that the spirits of some Hopi clan members return to the Grand Canyon after death, traveling through the sipapuni to the underworld, and then on to their next life. From there they may return to the land of the living Hopi as “…billowy clouds…to drop rain upon our parched land.”
Hopi artist Fred Kabotie painting of Hemis & Hemis Mana Kachinas
Henry E. Hooper 