1990 -- 100 Hopi protest: "Smoki thieves of religion," and "they are just mocking us, that they have the attitudes of people at the turn of the century when Indians were nothing and Anglos were everything.”

      100 Hopi  Protest       

'Indian' Dance 

1990, Aug 12  The Arizona Republic

          More than 100 Hopis brought their protest against the Smoki Snake Dance to the steps of the
          Yavapai County Courthouse.. but a spokesman for the mostly Anglo dance group said the demonstrators represented a "minority: point of view among Hopis.
          The Hopis, led by tribal Chairman Vernon Masayesva and Vice Chairman Patrick Dallas, consisted of tribal-government workers, members of Hopi snake societies and other religious groups and teachers and college students.
          They picketed the Smoki ticket booth at a park in front of the courthouse in downtown Prescott as hundreds of curious tourists milled about, asking the Indians why they were demonstrating.          The mostly quiet protest later moved to the Yavapai County Fairgrounds, where 3000 spectators were expected to watch the group, the Smoki People, perform what the Hopis say os one of their most sacred ceremonies.
          "Smoki thieves of religion," one protest sign red, "Free the snakes," read another, while others read, "Hopi religion is not for sale," and, "Each man has his own religion: The Snake Dance is Hopi religion."

          The Smoki People, a 200-member, mostly Anglo group of middle-class men and women from Prescott, have been re-enacting Indian ceremonies for decades. Indians periodically have protested that the activities are sacrilegious.
          Tribal Spokeswoman Kim Secakuku said she believes that the demonstration was the first ever sanctioned by the tribe.
          The tribe has had a dispute since the 1930’s with the Smokis, who have been performing their version of the Snake Dance – a Hopi appeal for rain and a bountiful harvest – for 70 years. The Hopi Tribal Council voted unanimously Thursday to urge tribal members to join the demonstration.
          On Friday (August 10^th), New Mexico’s Zuni Tribe said it would send 11 observers to the Smoki dances to decide whether it should join the Hopi protest. The 19-member All-Indian Pueblo Council of Albuquerque also announced last week that it would send the Smokis a letter urging them to stop copying pueblo dances.
          City Councilman Perry Haddon, a second-generation Smoki, defended his group’s point of view, while Hopis passed out leaflets urging Prescott residents and tourists not to attend the Smoki dances.
          “We have flown up to the mesas and visited with the Tribal Council several times,” Haddon said, speaking of an ongoing dialogue between the Smokis and the Hopis over whether the white man’s staging of the Snake Dance is sacrilegious. We know that a few think it is a desecration.”
          During the dance, 40 or so Smokis strip almost naked, paint their bodies dark brown, don homemade costumes and grasp 6-foot-long bull snakes in their mouths in what they say is a careful and accurate attempt to portray a dying Indian tradition.
          “I think this is only a minority trying to stop us,” Haddon said of the protesters. “In the past, Hopis have helped us with the dance and with our costumes. We will continue with our traditions.”
          He invited the Hopis to view the Snake Dance. The Smoki ceremonial’s are Prescott’s biggest tourist draw of the year.
          “We extend an invitation to come as our guests, to see it firsthand, to see it is done in a peaceful and respectful way,” Haddon told Hopi Councilman Ferrell Sekakulu, who represents Sipaulovi village.        
“We know what we will see,” Sekakula replied grimly. “We don’t like it.” 

          Passers-by, many of them seeking relief from the heat in Phoenix, stopped to talk with groups of Hopis and received pamphlets explaining the tribal government’s position.
          Last year, tribal political and religious leaders videotaped the Smoki dances, then showed the tape to members of the 10,000-strong tribe, and asked viewers to fill out questionnaires describing their reaction.    

       It was the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the Smoki Snake Dance that promoted the Tribal Council to go beyond just talking with the Smokis to staging a protest.
          “It is very unusual for Hopis to demonstrate,” Kim Secakuku said, “but this has been going on too long.” 
          Ferrell Sekakuku said the Hopi Snake Dance “is probably the oldest religious ceremony in the United States.”
          “It was one of the first ceremonies our tribe performed after its great migration to this part of the world,” he said.
          “These Smokis say our Hopi culture is in danger of dying out – that’s why they do their dance, they say, to preserve it.
          “I believe they are just mocking us, that they have the attitudes of people at the turn of the century when Indians were nothing and Anglos were everything.”

Aug 19th, 1990
The clashed over development of the land (one modernizing it - also called 'Road Builders' and the other traditionalists. Both, though, are against non-Hopi (especially the Smoki's) performing their sacred Snake Dance.

1990, Aug 19  The Daily Spectrum 

1990, Aug 12  Arizona Republic