Responsibility

Being a Hopi woman comes with huge amounts of responsibility and things which need to be completed in order for things to work smoothly and in harmony with all that is happening throughout the villages. The men have their own responsibilities and so they are seldom around to help with the preparation for the home front. With my family there has never been enough men to do a lot of the hauling of the water or the chopping of the wood or gathering of the coal. Growing up I was always taught both the women and the men role of what needed to be completed so that everything was ready for when the time came. The most important chores which needed to be completed was the water, wood, coal, and butane. I am lucky that I live here in the valley so I have water delivered to my home here and we have numerous amounts of the five gallon water bottles so I occasionally take these water containers out to the reservation where they come in handy. We have a more contemporary home located at the foot of the mesa where we do have running water and electricity and it is here where these five gallon containers are filled and the loaded into the back of the truck. We also have humongous piles of wood which are used for various reasons. The dominate reason being that for heating the home. This wood of course always needs to be split as we have one of those old fashion pot bellied stoves which heats our home on the mesa. So the splitting of the wood takes place and is usually loaded into milk crate containers because they are studier than boxes and usually fill about six of these containers, which then goes into the truck. The next portion is the gathering of the coal, which are broken into smaller pieces and put into about six five pound buckets. Which are then loaded into the truck. Because of the space issue and the location of our home on the mesa we are very limited to the size of propane container we are able to use. We are only able to have a five or seven gallon container. This we have a local store which sells propane to those in need. So these containers also go into the back of the truck to be taken to Polacca Circle M to be filled. Once they are filled then we are able to make the trip to the mesa. Once on the mesa top the roads are so used that there are huge pot holes which we all try to avoid but never quite accomplish because of all the things in the back of the truck which could tip over and would make more work for us. We finally make it to the village of Walpi where there is very limited time to unload when another family will be coming in with their load. All these things are then transported from the truck to the house and placed in their perspective locations hoping that what you brought will be enough to make it through the upcoming ceremony. Then it is time to return to house on the bottom to gather all the cooking supplies, these kinds of trips happen three or four times before everything is there that is needed. After all this is completed then begins the tedious job of making the bread, pastries, hominy stew and all other traditional foods which are to be served during this time. The life of a Hopi woman is one that never seems to be completed but one that I enjoy because everything has its purpose and is a time for us to all come together once again.