#kachinacult

Why Kokopelli is Not Kokopelli: Paiyatamu & The Four Flutes

The iconic image of Kokopelli, the flute-playing kachina spirit of the Pueblo peoples, specifically the Hopi, is easily the most recognizable figure from Native American culture in the Southwest United States but, according to traditional Native understanding, the Flute Player and Kokopelli are two different entities.

Kokopelli Petroglyph in New Mexico, USA

Carptrash (CC BY-SA)

Kokopelli (also given as Kokopolo, Kokopele, Ololowishkya, Neopkwai'i) is a kachina (spirit figure) of the Pueblo peoples, associated closely with the Hohokam and Hopi (among others) and is regarded by the Hopi as a fertility spirit (or fertility god), represented as a hump-backed man with an erect phallus, beak, and bird feathers on his head. He is understood as a separate entity from the Flute Player figure, who is known either as maahu ("the cicada") or as lelenhoya ("flute player"). Among the Zuni, the most famous Flute Player is Paiyatuma (also given as Paiyatamu) – "The God of Dew and of the Dawn" – who first gave the Zuni the gift of the flute and "new music" as related in the legend of The Four Flutes.

At some point, non-Natives conflated the image of Paiyatuma the Flute Player (or another kachina flute player) and/or the cicada flute player, with Kokopelli, agent of fertility and, like Paiyatuma, a trickster figure who can appear as a clown, or a sage, a god, or a fool. Kokopelli and Paiyatuma even appear together in some depictions of Pueblo peoples' religious ceremonies, clearly suggesting they are two separate entities: one, the hump-backed agent of fertility, the other, the flute player. Confusion of the one with the other is encouraged by petroglyphs depicting a hump-backed flute player, but, according to the traditional understanding of the Pueblo peoples, the flute player is not Kokopelli.

Pueblo Peoples

The term "Pueblo peoples" does not refer to a single Native American nation but to those nations who historically lived in pueblos, including, though not limited to the Acoma, Hohokam, Hopi, Navajo, Tewa, Zia, and Zuni. Pueblo is Spanish for "village", and the people came to be known by the Spanish as Puebloans. They were initially a hunter-gatherer society until they took up agriculture, especially the cultivation of maize (corn) at some point c. 2000 BCE, when they also initiated irrigation techniques, later mastered by the Hohokam, who created the largest irrigation system in North America. The canals built by the ancient Hohokam can still be seen in modern-day Arizona and some are still in use.

At first, the people lived in caves or built structures protruding from cliffs but eventually shifted to buildings made of wood and adobe with multiple rooms within each structure, often accessed by ladders on the sides of the building with an entrance toward or at the top, as a means of defense. The Pueblo peoples had a highly developed civilization at the time the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, at which time many were killed, died of European diseases, or were enslaved, notably after the Acoma Massacre of 1599, and their religious practices were outlawed by c. 1665. The kachina dolls, kachina masks, and prayer sticks of the people were burned, and Kachina Dances forbidden in an effort to "stamp out sorcery" by the Christian missionaries.

Zuni Kachina Doll

Brooklyn Museum (CC BY)

These abuses, as well as a drought that brought famine, and raids by Apache bands seeking food, finally led to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 (also known as Pope's Rebellion/Po'pay's Rebellion) led by the Tewa medicine man Po'pay (l. c. 1630 to c. 1692), which killed 400 Spaniards and drove the others from the region for the next twelve years. The revolt also released the Spaniards' horses, which were later taken by citizens of the Plains Indians, contributing to the so-called horse culture of the Great Plains.