Hopi Indian Children Provide Delicate Insight to Deeply Rooted Culture

I was so impressed by the Hopi children. They are self-assured, poised, active, happy. The children reflect the fact that they live in small, close communities. They have this network of people, unlike our fragmented nuclear families. There is a sense of continuity with the past, even with the disruptions and incursions of the larger culture. --Malathi Sandhu, Ph.D.

Malathi Sandhu, director of MiraCosta College’s Children’s Center, spent a year’s sabbatical on a Hopi reservation in northwestern Arizona, observing Hopi children and their families in school, home, village and ceremonial settings.

While on the reservation, Sandhu, who left her native India 25 years ago, looked closely at play themes, comparing Hopi children to the culturally diverse children--Japanese, Polynesian, black, white--at the Oceanside center. “Some play themes are universal--playing Mommy and Daddy, younger sister, brother, family,” she said. “The occupational themes tended to be more restricted--doctor, nurse, police person. You don’t see the fireman’s theme. That’s not part of what they see, whereas with our kids, that’s one of the most popular.”

Sandhu, who also teaches child development courses at MiraCosta, observed sharp contrasts between Hopi children and children in the mainstream culture.

“Hopi children have a sense of place, a sense of communal belonging,” she said. “Even the younger ones know their clan affiliation, their extended family. If you are Hopi, you can go away, but you can also come back.”

Sandhu says of conventional child-rearing methods: “There is an absence of tradition. Each generation here literally creates its own future. On the one hand, it can be quite exciting, but it’s like reinventing the wheel. As a civilization, we’ve learned something. What’s the point in having forged all this ground and having to learn some of those things again?”

Another major difference is the poise of the children, Sandhu said. “Not only do Hopi children perform in front of audiences--singing, dancing, speaking--at an early age, but they engage in competitive sporting events, such as a schoolwide track and field event, as young as ages 3, 4 and 5. I don’t see our children doing this.”

Entertainment for Hopi children varies, too. “The children have many Western toys, but they tend to do more large motor activities--running, climbing, because they have more open space--and work with natural materials.”

Filling a Void

Sandhu’s emphasis on the strengths within the Hopi culture fills a void in conventional research, according to Jay Stauss, recently appointed by Gov. George Deukmejian to California’s Native American Heritage Commission (encompassing 140 California tribes and bands).

“What we’ve been plagued with in the past is study of the Indian family from a social problems standpoint--the poverty, alcoholism, maladjustment,” Stauss said. “We need to look for strengths within a subculture, both to apply them to our own learning situations and to help teachers find ways to reach the culturally different child.”

In his experience working with tribal governments, Stauss, who also is director of San Diego State University’s School of Family Studies, has encountered strong positive feelings about education among American Indian parents.

“While you can’t group all Indians together, education is very important to American Indian parents across the country,” he said. “Most Indian parents want their children to succeed in the Anglo-dominated school system, but not to lose their own culture. There’s a fine line, deeply rooted in values, but there has to be a way to teach major objectives, yet still inject culturally relevant material.”

Stauss, a rural sociologist and former chairman of Indian Studies at the University of Arizona near the Hopi reservation, added, “The Hopis are one of the more traditional tribal groups, one of the stronger ones in the Southwest. The Hopis have exceptionally well-defined ways of learning, based on their strength of traditionalism, clearly defined rites of passage, roles of family members and positive marital aspects. If you were looking for a tribe to study with strong traditional values, the Hopi would be among the top five of the 350 Indian tribes and bands in the country.”

Sandhu’s interest in the Hopi people dates to a master’s level course in anthropology at Oregon State University. (She earned her doctorate at Pennsylvania State University) when she was drawn to Hopi methods of child rearing and their unique tribal situation.

“Here was a native American group in North America (since AD 900-1200) which had never moved,” she said, “had never been disrupted in a major way--an opportunity for a glimpse into the past through contact with that culture. It was a dream that fired my imagination.”

When Sandhu’s sister was visiting her from India 3 1/2 years ago, the two women visited the Hopi reservation, making some fortuitous contacts.

During her sabbatical, which ended last August, Sandhu worked with Head Start, a federally funded preschool program. Five Hopi Head Start centers serve the roughly 8,000 Hopis, and Sandhu helped develop curriculum, train the staff and set up workshops for parents.

“Head Start works closely with the parent. Sensitivity is needed to show the child that you value the parent’s background,” she said.

On the reservation, Sandhu rented a trailer from a Hopi family in the village of Kykotsmovi. Sharing a compound with three other Hopi families, she lived inside the culture, rather than outside with other non-Hopi employees.

Her biggest physical adjustments were to meeting practical needs in the bitterly cold winter.

“I was living in a tin can with no insulation and drafts through the floor,” she said. “There were times when I had no heat,” even at 15 degrees below zero.

With only four gas stations on the reservation, traversing the wedge of Hopi land (about 100 miles by 75 miles) meant watching the gas gauge.

“You never let the gauge get less than a quarter because the distances are just too great,” she said. “I always carried my down sleeping bag, an extra jacket, my CB radio, a flashlight and a lantern. It was a good lesson in survival, something you don’t think about in our urban environment.”

Quiet Country

Still, Sandhu was captivated by her flat, arid, sand-hued environment and the beauty of the bronze-colored Hopi people, with their colorful dress and traditions.

“I absolutely fell in love with it. I woke up this morning listening to the traffic noises, and I remembered how quiet it was there. It was almost as if you could hear the land,” she said.

“The villages without electricity and running water are incredibly quiet. Here we have all of the man-made noises . . . our children don’t experience quiet like that.

“There’s a sense of expansiveness--you can see to far, far horizons. I used to walk five miles a day. I’d take off from where I lived and never meet another soul. I’d see animals, and sometimes the dogs in the compound would come with me. I miss that terribly.”

Sensitive to her position as an outsider, Sandhu moved respectfully into the Hopi culture. Of her non-invasive approach, she said, “Maybe I knew that, experientially, having come from another culture . . . (I acted) intuitively, based on experience.”

“I sat on the fence,” said Sandhu, who with her glossy, long black hair and dark skin blended easily into the Hopi community. “Being a person of color probably helped in that the obvious differences didn’t confront them over and over. . . . I read prodigiously. I tried not to ask questions, except of certain people.

“My connection was with Hopi Head Start. Once they ascertained that my interest was genuine, and that I had a lot to offer, they made me feel welcome.

“There are so many different groups of people. You have to be willing to watch, which doesn’t mean walking in and asking ‘Why do you do this?’ I knew it would take time. I wanted to see the whole year’s cycle.

“The issue of role models is also a significant one. Ever since we’ve talked about integration in the schools, we’ve known that on an intellectual level. I experienced it myself when I attended a conference for Native American Head Start programs in Arizona. It was incredible to be a brown-skinned person in a sea of brown-skinned people. Since I’d left home in India 25 years ago, I had not been in such a situation.

“How must children feel if they are the only two children of color or vice versa? Children of color should see other adults to whom they can relate, because they do notice those differences. They may not make sense of them at age 3, but we have to find a way to make them feel comfortable.”

While photographs of the rituals are prohibited, Sandhu was allowed to take pictures of the children when they were in the Head Start centers.

“The poise of these children and the encouragement the community gives them to perform the social dances is remarkable,” she said.

“The fathers, brothers, uncles, and other adults will get together and come to school for practices and drum and sing for the children, as if it were the real thing.

“That’s part of the adult role--to participate in ceremonies, to provide the traditional dresses the children wear, and to watch them perform. They don’t perform the ceremonies for an audience, but to preserve the balance with nature--to bring the rain so that the corn will continue to grow rather than dry up. It’s serious stuff, not for entertainment at all.”

According to Sandhu, Hopi children compare well with other children in terms of gross motor, self-help, fine motor and conceptual capabilities, as well as social awareness. “They really are competent children,” she said.

Part of that competency comes from the extended family. “The extended family is alive and well at Hopi--a major source of support in a culture that is eroding,” Sandhu said. “It provides the older people significant roles. Everybody has a niche and a place.”

Despite the strength of the Hopi culture, outside influences carve inroads into the traditional ways through television, the media, visits to “town,” tourists and other outsiders.

Sandhu found parents of preschoolers were concerned with apathy (which turns off some bright-eyed youngsters by second grade) and how to help their children learn more effectively.

“Parents weren’t concerned with some of the things we emphasize here, such as discipline,” she said. “Discipline is built into Hopi culture. The maternal uncles discipline children, and there are disciplinary Kachinas (ceremonial figures) who come at certain times of the year. But the trends are shifting. Discipline is becoming more and more the responsibility of both parents.”

Like the area in India--North Kerala--where Sandhu was raised, Hopi culture is matriarchal and matrilineal. “North Kerala is one of the few areas in India which is matriarchal and matrilineal--the rest of India is patriarchal,” she said. “All the ancient cultures were matriarchal and matrilineal, especially those agriculturally based.”

Will Sandhu write about her experience?

“I think it would be very presumptuous of me to write about Hopi culture after only one year,” she said. “It takes a lifetime of living. I was there to learn. I would like to go back and continue my participation there. I’m one of those people who thrives on starting new things.”