Page 218 - TheHopiIndians

210 MESA FOLK OF HOPILAND
submission to the priests roused enmity; the other
Hopi said that the Awatobi were witches, and one
night they gathered to exterminate them. The Awa
tobi men were conducting a ceremony in the under
ground rooms when blazing fagots were thrown down,
followed by pepper pods, and they perished miserably.
Those who were captured in the houses were led out
to a spring and massacred. The women and children,
many of them, were taken to other Hopi towns and
their lives spared.
This massacre took place about the year 1700 and
forma the darkest page in the history of Tusayan ; it
shows also that the Peaceful People can be overzealous
at times. In times much before this, according to tra
dition, Sikyatki, the home of the Firewood people.
who were the last potters of Tusayan, was destroyed,
as were, no doubt, other pueblos of tribes of different
origin from the Hopi.
The story of Saalako, who descends from a survivor
of the Awatobi massacre, runs as follows :
The chiefs Wiki and Simo, and others, have told
you their stories, and surely their ancestors were liv
ing here at Walpi when Awatobi was occupied. It
was a large village, and many people lived there, and
the village chief was called Tapolo, but he was not at
peace with his people, and there was quarreling and
trouble. Owing to this conflict only a little rain fell,
but the land was fertile and fair harvests were still
gathered. The Awatobi men were bad [powako, sor
cerers] . Sometimes they went in small bands among