Sacred Texts Native American Hopi Index Previous Next
LONG before this time the Crow Clan had made a little settlement at what is called the first Mishongnovi, on the west side of Quang-oufovi Mesa, or Bald Mesa. The leader of this clan was called Mishong, or Black Man, on account of his dark color. They lived there for awhile, but they were much troubled, for there was some sort of a great reptile that lived there, which seemed as if it had no end to it, and sometimes in the morning he would be all over the place, the great coils of him going round and round the little houses on the steep terraced mesa. He had one little pair of wings and Tok-chi-i, he was called. On account of that snake they were having great trouble. It was rather harmless, but they were afraid of it. When this great snake gathered himself together he formed a shape like a plaque and then he would take off into the air and was gone for a long time, and it might be months before he returned again, but when he did return he piled himself up on that little village again. On account of him the people left the place and went to Shung-opovi and settled down about three-fourths of the way to the top of the Mesa. When the Shung-opovi people found out that there were only seven families of them there they called their place the Seventh Point--Chung-ait-tuika.
While living at this place they were constantly asking the Shung-opovi chief if they could join with his people, but he refused them every time, because they were a dark colored people. Of course, they didn't have any land to farm and what little gardening they did was on the bench where there was only a few inches of dirt on top of the rocks. Finally the Mishongnovi leader went to the Shung-opovi chief again.
Now about this time Walpi was established, and when the Shung-opovi people heard about it they decided they would let the Mishongnovi people go to guard the Corn Rock which was a very important shrine.
So the chief of Shung-opovi said, "If you want to become a part of my people, I have a shrine by the Corn Rock and I need someone to take care of it. If you wish to be a part of my people you must settle there."
The chief of Shung-opovi continued, "The eastern star
has come up so that we are expecting the Bahana, our savior, a white man. We want to know him when he comes, so I delegate the Crow Clan to look for the Bahana. The Bahana, our savior, will do away with all evil people. But if the Bahana is not the true Bahana it will be your duty to make away with him." So Mishong and his people settled by the Corn Rock, founding Mishongnovi, and the Crow Clan has handed down the idea that they are the ones to look for the Bahana. Other clans joined this pueblo so the Crow Clan became the royal family of Mishongnovi. When Mishong's people were settled there they were given some land to the southeast.
Now the chief of Walpi thought they were taking some of his land, so the Chief of the Shung-opovi went to Walpi and told the Chief that he had the right to give the people that much land as he was the first one to serve them. So then they made a boundary line from one of the points on the North Mesa to the South Mesa. The North Mesa is called Po-noteu-we (shrine that looks like a fat person). The South Mesa is called Aku-haivi (meaning "a little pool or deep rock tank" and here they could easily dip water with a ladle (aku) which always hung there.) This seemed to be satisfactory to both sides, so they settled on that question of the boundary line.
About this time all the other villages were just beginning to be established, like Awatovi, and the others on the Jeddito, and it was found that the Awatovi people were speaking the same dialect as the Mishongnovi people. 18 Of course at that time there was nobody at Shipaulovi.
