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ART on view 62 rough to help keep us humble and modest and would be designed to help us pay attention to our surroundings. We were given the gift of corn upon our arrival here and would be known as farmers. This would allow us the opportunity to heed the environment, geography, and weather and to appreciate all forms of moisture. The Hopi today are still known as corn farmers and have developed a system known as dry farming, which is the production of corn based on non-irrigation of water. The aspect of corn farming is rich and tied most adamantly to the religious beliefs and cycles of the Hopi. The Katsina society is rich and directly relevant to agriculture, Hopi values of environment, the land, and our behavior as people of this earth. The exhibition strives to present aspects of Hopi culture from their own perspective. Throughout the installation, visitors hear first-person narratives from Hopi people regarding their lives as dry farmers and their interactions with the Katsinam. Girls and women discuss the significance of receiving their tithu. Whenever possible, the exhibition uses the Hopi language—including the word Katsina instead of Kachina, which is the Anglicized version of the Hopi spelling. As visitors enter the gallery, they are introduced to the Hopi ceremonial calendar and the Hopi oral tradition of the covenant with Maasaw. When the Hopi people first arrived in their ancestral homeland, they encountered Maasaw, a spiritual guardian who told them they could stay on the land if they adhered to conditions of modesty and humility. He gave them corn seeds, a planting stick, and a gourd of water, explaining that the Hopi would sustain themselves as farmers. Today, Hopi people continue to uphold the covenant with Maasaw in part by continuing to practice dry farming. Despite the arid nature of the Hopi homeland, farmers rely only on the natural moisture received through rain, snow, or groundwater to nourish the large fields. Because of this, they have a strong understanding of the FIG. 4 (below): Edward S. Curtis, Hopi Bride, Hopi Reservation, Arizona, 1900. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Dr. Samuel Trueblood. Braun Research Library Collection, Autry National Center, Los Angeles; P.37643. FIG. 5 (left): Kòoninkatsina, Katsina doll, Hopi. C. 1900. John L. Nelson Collection, purchased by the Hopi Fund. Southwest Museum of the American Indian Collection, Autry National Center, Los Angeles; 640.G.198. FIG. 6 (right): Harry C. James, A Hopi Man in His Cornfield, Hopi Reservation, Arizona, 1930s–1940s. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Harry C. James. Braun Research Library Collection, Autry National Center; P.5938. The Hopi believe that we are living in the “fourth world.” Each world before was destroyed because we as a mortal people were not living according to a right way; thus these worlds were destroyed and we were purified. We went on to live in another place and today we believe that this is the fourth world that we are in. In this fourth world we were purposefully placed to live at the place that we do today. The environment is an arid desert, which is meant to make our life difficult, so we would not easily forget our past deviations from the right way of life. This life would be


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