Pueblo Life in the Ways of the Ancestors

In the Southwestern United States live the people of the Pueblos. Pueblo life has not changed much since the early history of around 1100 AD. Their traditional way of life depends on agriculture and trade.

The Hopi are one of many matrilineal societies among Native Americans. Although it is only the men who are allowed to participate in the sacred ceremonies and dances, the children belong to the clan of the mother.

The Hopi people of some of these pueblos maintain a more traditional way of life like their ancestors. They were called the "Traditionalists" during the times that led up to the Oraibi split in 1906, when some people preferred to follow the more modern way of life set by the missionaries and the government. These traditionalists desired to preserve ancestral Hopi ways and started their own village. They wanted to live their pueblo life in the ways of the Ancestors.

Life in the old way was simple yet very ritualistic. Except during times of the Feast Days and the many ceremonies of the Katsina, a typical day would be much like the following story.

The ways of the Ancestors

In the early morning light the women are busy at the ovens (hornos, pronounced "or-no") outside. They have been up for hours -- it is bread making day in the Pueblo. Their soft voices and laughter are barely heard by those still sleeping in the village as they work and the dough is quickly shaped into loaves. The fires in the ovens, started hours ago, have burned down to the right temperature and the loaves are put carefully into each oven. Before long the aroma of baking bread follows the sweet smell of cedar wood smoke, drifting throughout the village.

Sleepy-eyed children begin to straggle out and are given bowls of porridge and a hunk of fresh bread. Before long the children are running around the Pueblo, playing their favorite games as Grandfather Sun begins to shed his morning light upon the village, the adobe houses turning to a rosy glow from the sun. The men and Elders awaken and are given their breakfasts by the younger daughters who are not involved in the bread making chores.

One little girl is carrying her baby brother and leading her younger sister by the hand. They are going to find their mother at the hornos where she is helping with the baking. An elderly woman, with a blanket on her shoulders sits against the adobe wall of her home, waiting for Grandfather Sun to come and caress her tired bones with healing warmth. She pauses in her basket weaving to watch the little girl. She remembered that once she carried her baby brother. Her brother had grown to become a respected and courageous warrior. He was killed in battle when he was just a young man. An unexpected tear came to the old woman's eye, travelled down her cheek and fell on her blanket, shining like a diamond as the sun found it.

The children are looking forward to the parched corn that will roast overnight in the leftover heat of the ovens. The corn cobs have been husked and dried, the kernels taken off and they are now drying in the open air. Tonight, after all the bread baking is done, the corn will be placed in the ovens and allowed to roast all night long. Tomorrow there will be parched corn to snack on!

The women themselves grind all the grain for their breads and other foods. The grain is put into a mealing trough, which is long enough to be divided into several individual sections, wide enough for one woman's rolling device to roll back and forth, until the grain is of flour consistency. This is just one of the many chores Pueblo women do on a daily basis and these tasks are the same as they have been for centuries among their people.

Clothes must be washed and hung out on lines strung across the outside of the Pueblo houses to dry in the heat from Grandfather Sun. Water must be carried up to the homes from the river far below in the canyon. The mending of old clothes and the creation of new clothes are to be looked after. The babies, well fed and now sleeping in their hammocks inside the homes are checked often to make sure all is well. Fire wood must be gathered and stacked for the use of cooking the meals inside in fire pits. After the Elders are properly seen to, the women go to the fields to weed and gather any vegetables that are ready. The scritch, scritch of their tools in the dry dirt becomes a soft melody to them and they sing along as they work.

The children are running through the village, laughing and playing with dolls, or walking on stilts. Soon the younger ones will be taken in for a nap. The Elders doze in the warm sun in their favorite spots. A few of them are entertaining the children with stories of the Ancestors or tales of Brother Coyote. Some women sit in a circle and chat or sing as they weave baskets.

The hunters will be returning home late in the day, hopefully with meat for the village. The women skin the buffalo or deer, cut up the meat, feed the fire pits to begin cooking stews for their evening meal, cut some of the meat in strips to dry for storage, and then begin scraping the hides to prepare them for tanning to make clothing, moccasins, bags and robes.

This is what a typical day may have been like for the women of the Pueblos. Many other chores were included in the daily routine, like making Pemmican to store for the winter months or for journeys. From before Grandfather Sun was up till long after he completes his journey across the sky, the women work constantly. After the evening meal it is now their time to relax as they gather with their individual families. Grandmothers and Grandfathers begin the storytelling, sometimes dramatically giving life to the characters with funny or scary expressions and changes of voice. Then the softness of their voices in prayer or song sooth the sleepy children and babes as they drift off in slumber.
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PEMMICAN RECIPE

Pemmican was a valuable food staple for the Puebloans. The women made it themselves when hunting had been good and meat was plentiful. Sometimes the pemmican was obtained by trade with other tribes. It is lightweight and easy to carry in packs when on long journeys, easy to cook by throwing a handful in hot water in a pot over the fire, and very nutritious. When put in water, the mixture swells to three or four times it's size. Adding fresh or dried herbs and other flavors makes a good meal for hungry travelers.

To make pemmican in the traditional way, before modern conveniences, one needs a stone maul to pound the dried buffalo meat strips into powder. It is then packed into a buffalo hide bag, and then hot liquid marrow fat, when poured in the bag seeps throughout to cover the meat in a film. The bag is then sewn shut and sealed with tallow. Preparing the mixture in this traditional way provides a nutritious snack or meal that lasts for years. Other dried food items, like berries or other flavors can be added, but it does not last as long as when it is only meat.
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BUILD A LITTLE HORNOS

Each family, or village, may have their own unique way of building hornos by using sandstone, lava rocks or adobe bricks. The basic method is to lay down two layers of brick right on the ground in a circle. This is the middle area of the oven and is left empty. When the oven is ready to be used, this empty space is filled with small rocks. Around the outside edge of this circle is where you begin carefully laying the bricks that are to become the wall and roof. This requires precise placement, one brick at a time with mortar being used to fill in spaces between bricks.

The outdoor ovens in the pueblos are huge and the villages often have several -- all the bread baking is done on one day. A fun project for your whole family is to try making just a small oven that will allow you to make just enough bread for the week for your own family.

The placement of bricks is done in such a way that eventually you will be forming a beehive shape. The open space for the doorway should be at the bottom and a 1' X 1' space. A small vent should be placed near the top of the oven. After the oven is of the desired size and shape, the inside floor and the outside wall are covered with layers of adobe plaster. It will require re-plastering each year in order for your oven to last for several years.


When your oven is ready to be fired up to bake bread, gather some cedar wood, build the fire inside the hornos and watch it closely to make sure it lasts for 45 minutes to an hour and a half. When the fire dies down remove the charcoal with a shovel. A clean, damp mop can be used to take out the ash residue. Keep this mop just for this purpose. Toss in a small sheet of newspaper or corn husk. If this burns up quickly the oven is too hot, so use the damp mop again to help it cool down. If it is still too hot, leave the oven to cool down by itself, with heat escaping through the door. When the temperature is right for baking, put your loaves in the back first then work forward with the rest of the loaves. A long handled paddle, like what is used for pizza ovens, will be very handy for putting the loaves in and taking them out.

Place a cover over the door. In thirty minutes to one hour, you should have some wonderful bread. There is nothing like the smell that drifts through the pueblo (or your own backyard) on bread baking days! The loaves can be placed in pie pans or on cookie sheets before putting them in the oven.
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BREAD RECIPE FOR YOUR OUTDOOR OVEN

1 package dry yeast
½ cup shortening
¼ cup honey or sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup warm water
4 cups all purpose flour

Dissolve yeast in ¼ cup of warm water; add a little sugar to help those little granules grow. Mix and set aside (there should be a layer of bubbles on top when this is ready). In a large bowl, mix the shortening, honey (or sugar) and salt. Stir in one cup very warm water. Set this aside till it is room temperature.

Mix in the yeast mixture. Add one cup of flour at a time, stirring well, until you have 4 cups of flour in mix. Stir well after each cup is added. Sprinkle the fifth cup of flour on your breadboard or counter and knead until it is smooth and elastic after about 15 minutes of kneading.

Put dough in a large lightly greased bowl, turning to grease all sides. Cover bowl with a cotton towel, put it in a warm spot out of drafts until double in size. Punch down and knead for about five minutes. Cut dough in half with sharp knife. Shape each half into a loaf and place on a cookie sheet. Cover with the towel and let them rise again till doubled in that same warm spot. Make sure your oven temperature is 400 degrees.

Place a shallow pan of water on the oven floor. Place loaves in oven, starting from the back and work forward. Bake in 400 degree oven until lightly browned - 50 to 60 minutes.
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