Hopi Snake Dance
Just as spectators, including Theodore Roosevelt (below), watched the Hopi Snake Dance in the early twentieth century, patrons must visit the archives in person to learn more. Cultural respect, donor requests, privacy laws, copyright, and/or contractual obligations restrict archivists' ability to display images of the ceremony, as well as similar culturally sensitive material from other collections.
George W.P. Hunt and Theodore Roosevelt at the Hopi Snake Dance, 1916.
Such restrictions mark yet another obstacle in the balancing act between preservation and access. Patrons, however, can at least get a taste of the Hopi Snake Dance from afar through images of crowds observing the event.
Hopi tribal members watching the Hopi Snake Dance, 1913 (Snake Dance not visible).
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"Indigenous cultures create, organize and maintain information very differently than Western society. We need to be able to balance the Western approach with a Native American approach."
� Karen Underhill, Coordinator for Special Collections and Archives, Northern Arizona University.
Additional Images
Digitized Collections
Emery Kolb Collection
George Hochderffer Collection
Billie Williams Yost Collection