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The discontinuity of Hopi history and tradition is reflected in the Anasazi name. Oddly, this is a Navajo, not a Hopi or Pueblo word. The Hopi resent the prominence and common usage of the word Anasazi. They find the name offensive. To them, their ancestors are the Hisat-Sinom, “the People of Long Ago.” There has been an active Hopi campaign to get the guidebooks, anthropologists, and literature to use the term Hisat-Sinom, in place of Anasazi.
The Anglo adoption of a Navajo term for the People of Long Ago may at first seem to be something of a linguistic oddity. Much of the terminology for things and peoples in the Four Corners area entered the European languages during the Spanish period. The Spaniards lived almost exclusively with the Pueblo/Hopi during the colonial era, and most of the native words which were introduced into the language during the 16th and 17th Centuries were Spanish interpretations or transliterations of Pueblo/Hopi terms. Navajo words generally had a limited impact on the early Spaniards.
Food, clothing, and general daily-living terms made their way into Spanish, and, eventually, into English, during this period. Many fields of history and native life, however, were not of interest to the Spaniards. The Spaniards had generally ignored uninhabited areas and ruins that had no potential for gold or riches or for souls to save. There was relatively little interest in anthropology or archaeology by the Spaniards. There also was little carryover of knowledge from the Spanish/Mexican governments to the new administrations when the United States took over the region of the Southwestern States.
The common usage of Anasazi, instead of Hisat-Sinom, owes its origin not only to the fact that the ancient ruins of the southern Colorado Plateau were essentially ignored by the Spaniards, but also to the fact that by the time Anglos moved in and started to really explore the remote canyons and back areas of the region, the Hopi had withdrawn from general contact with the outside world. The Hopi had chosen to maintain as much isolation as possible from the outside world ever since their experiences with Spanish soldiers and friars in the 16th and 17th centuries and the Pueblo revolt of 1680.
This meant that much of the newer exploration and scientific study of the southern Colorado Plateau in the 19th and 20th Centuries started in something of a vacuum, with no written European terminology to fall back on, and virtually no help from the most-involved peoples, the actual descendants of the People of Long Ago, the Hopi. Now, the input would come from a different source.
In the 1700's, sizable numbers of Navajo had moved into some of the older Anasazi canyon dwelling areas like Canyon de Chelly. The roaming Navajo, many of them following herds of sheep, eventually explored almost every nook and cranny of northern Arizona and New Mexico, including the ancient Kayenta Anasazi dwellings in such remote places as Betatakin and Keet Seel. When southwestern ranchers and adventurers began to rediscover and actively search for these sites in the late 1800's, they were frequently accompanied by Navajo guides who, unlike the Hopi, were willing to cooperate with the Anglo explorers. The Navajo passed on their perspective, perceptions, and names for the ruins. Thus, today, we commonly use Navajo words with reference to most of the old dwelling sites and for the Anasazi or Hisat-Sinom people, themselves.
This has left the Hopi with the impression that even the words and names of their heritage have been stolen from them, although, from our point of view, a large part of the blame should rest with the Hopi themselves and their passion for reclusiveness of the during the time period when the various Anasazi settlements and ruins were first being investigated.
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Contents, including illustrations, copyright T. K. Reeves, 1997.
on 5 April, 1997.
