Bacavi: Journey to Reed Springs

by Peter Whiteley

Book by Whiteley, Peter

166 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1988

Reviews

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

History of Hopi settlement of Bacavi after the split in Oraibi between the Hostiles and the Friendlies as written by Peter Whiteley, an anthropologist who lived with the Hopi for a year.

[Jeffrey St. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating inside look at one of the most secretive communities in North America, the Hopi Village of Bacavi, near the Reed Springs at the western foot of Third Mesa. Peter Whiteley, a British anthropologists who spent nearly a decade on the Hopi Reservation, recounts the strange history of this village, which was founded in 1909 after a nasty split between the elders in the village of Oraibi, one of the oldest continuously occupied communities in the US. The split arose over whether the Hopi village should be opened to outside cultural and religious influences. The group known as the Hostiles were opposed to such intrusive relations with white settlers, traders and missionaries and split from Oraibi to found two new villages: Hotevilla and Bacavi. The so-called Hostile included many of the spiritual leaders in Oraibi, men who took their vast knowledge of Hopi ceremonies, oral history and dances with them. This hidden modern history of the Hopi mesas is an informative if somewhat creepy read, as if we are being made privy to secret knowledge that the Hopi elders had desperately tried to conceal from prying whites.