Pumpkin Seed Point: Being Within The Hopi

by Frank Waters

Frank Waters lived for three years among the Hopi people of Arizona and was quickly drawn into their culture. Pumpkin Seed Point is a beautifully written personal account of Waters’s inner and outer experiences among the Hopi.

Genres: Nonfiction

175 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Frank Waters was an American novelist, essayist, and cultural historian best known for his profound explorations of the American Southwest and Native American spirituality. Deeply influenced by his Cheyenne heritage and early experiences on the Navajo Reservation, Waters wove themes of indigenous identity, mysticism, and the clash between tradition and modernity into much of his work. His celebrated novel The Man Who Killed the Deer (1942) is considered a cornerstone of Southwestern literature, offering a powerful portrayal of a Pueblo man’s internal struggle with cultural dislocation. Over the decades, Waters produced an impressive body of work, including both fiction and non-fiction, such as Book of the Hopi, Mexico Mystique, and The Colorado, which blended mythology, history, and esoteric thought. A strong advocate for the arts, he held various editorial and academic positions and was honored with several awards. His legacy lives on through the Frank Waters Foundation, which supports writers and artists in the spirit of his creative vision.

Reviews

[Robert Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

If Pumpkin Seed Point had been written today, it might have been subtitled “The Making of the Book of the Hopi.” I wonder if back in the late sixties and early seventies, this was a rather original idea, to write a book about the writing of a book. Regardless, we are truly fortunate Frank Waters did, because so many of us Second Peoples, Third Peoples and Fourth Peoples today in the 21st century still find ourselves looking to our continent’s First Peoples for the spirituality our psyche tells us is missing from our own souls whether we espouse religious beliefs or not. All too often, we read a few books about Native Americans and consider ourselves blood brothers and scholars, confident enough in our standing to speak with authority on Native American issues and beliefs at cocktail parties and book club gatherings. Frank Waters, on the other hand, studied Native American history and beliefs all his life and lived with the Hopi for three years. He came away from the experience at Pumpkin Seed Point with the material for his book; several haunting, prophesied dreams and the brutal truth that a white guy spending three years within a First People community neither guarantees total enlightenment nor secures absolution and communion. In that sense, Pumpkin Seed Point is both a catalyst for additional study and a cautionary tale that there are limits to what we can expect.

Previous reviewers have already rightly pointed out that while Waters has more than enough progressive credentials, he is neither entirely objective nor immune from the latent racism that still infects even the most “open-minded” of us today. Waters clearly outlines what he experienced and hoped to achieve in his succinct Foreword and makes no bones about the Jungian framework in which he interprets all that occurs around him. While compelling, this approach eliminates other potential lenses through which the Hopi beliefs and traditions could be viewed with equal efficacy. Additionally, although he explicitly distances himself from Joseph Conrad, his association of Native Americans with Jung’s collective unconscious leads us down a path that veers uncomfortably close to a “Heart of Darkness” paradigm. We late comers envy First Peoples’ spiritually and geographically uninterrupted link with the primordial. For Americans raised in a Judeo-Christian tradition, the Hopi’s stories of ancient migrations on the American continent in many ways resonate more profoundly than those of a Mesopotamian Eden or Middle Eastern Moses. It is for this reason, largely, that I plan to do more reading on the ancient Americans. With that said, I will work to keep Waters’ cautionary tale front of mind lest I objectify those I still stubbornly turn to for a glimpse of the transcendent.

[Giorgio Comel · Rating 4 out of 5]

great story, very respectful of native culture but not avoid of criticism

[Gudrun Mouw · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed Pumpkin Seed Point very much. The book contained an unexpected mixture of stories and lectures, both fascinating in different ways. The transitions between the two modes were for me, on occasion, difficult.

[Jody Livingston · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good to read the background to what was taking place when Frank was putting together the Book of the Hopi. Interesting read.