{"id":"BOURKE1892-001","label":"Tusayan Walpi snake-dance rhombus","people_or_site":"Tusayan / Walpi / Hopi","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"Walpi, Tusayan / Hopi mesas, Arizona","macroregion":"North America","local_name":"tovokìnpi","source_term":"tovokìnpi","source_language":"Hopi (Third Mesa dialect)","object_description":"Flat wooden Walpi bullroarer on a long cord. Bourke gives the Tusayan form as a long narrow parallelogram capped with an equilateral triangle, with a snake or lightning traced in blue or yellow down the length of the blade and ending in the small triangle, \"which did duty as the snake's head\". Fewkes saw the pair on the Walpi Antelope altar as flat slats of wood with rain-cloud terraces cut in the end. Sounded by a newly initiated boy and by the Bow-priesthood warrior in the Snake Dance.","function_summary":"Twirled by the kalektaka, or Bow-priesthood warrior, trailing the Antelope priests in the Walpi Snake dance, imitating rain-laden wind and the thunder that accompanies the rain, to compel wind and rain to aid the crops","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"bourke1892apache","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42616/42616-0.txt","page_or_plate":"Bourke 1892:476-478; Fewkes 1897:298, 302-304; Andrus 1901:10","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"representative coordinate for named people, place, or broad region in Bourke","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"The Walpi Snake Dance re-enacts Tiyo’s journey to the underworld, where Spider Woman guided him into the kiva of the Snake people and he learned the songs and prayers that bring corn and rain. In 1901 a newly initiated boy no more than five stopped in the procession and sounded a flat wooden bullroarer; its “miniature thunder clap” mingled with the Antelope priests’ rain-like rattles. At critical moments a Bow-priesthood warrior sounded the same thunder, calling wind and rain to the crops. The blade itself carried the snake: Bourke saw the Walpi rhombus painted in blue or yellow with a serpent running down its length, the triangular tip serving as the snake's head.","pull_quote":"The medicine-men twirled it rapidly, and with a uniform motion, about the head and from front to rear, and succeeded in faithfully imitating the sound of a gust of rain-laden wind. As explained to me by one of the medicine-men, by making this sound they compelled the wind and rain to come to the aid of the crops.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Bourke 1892, The Medicine-Men of the Apache, Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 476","term_gloss":"bull-roarer","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","snake","initiation","agriculture","weather"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":true,"sources":[{"citation":"Bourke, 'The Medicine-Men of the Apache,' 9th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (1892), pp. 476-478; Fewkes, 'Tusayan Snake Ceremonies,' 16th Annual Report (1897), pp. 298, 302-304, and 'Tusayan Flute and Snake Ceremonies,' 19th Annual Report, pt. 2 (1900), pp. 983, 1011; Andrus, 'The Snake Dance at Walpi,' San Francisco Call, 15 Sept. 1901, p. 10","url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42616/42616-0.txt","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260924165105/https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42616/42616-0.txt"}],"source_citations":"Bourke, 'The Medicine-Men of the Apache,' 9th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (1892), pp. 476-478; Fewkes, 'Tusayan Snake Ceremonies,' 16th Annual Report (1897), pp. 298, 302-304, and 'Tusayan Flute and Snake Ceremonies,' 19th Annual Report, pt. 2 (1900), pp. 983, 1011; Andrus, 'The Snake Dance at Walpi,' San Francisco Call, 15 Sept. 1901, p. 10","source_display":"Bourke, 'The Medicine-Men of the Apache,' 9th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (1892), pp. 476-478; Fewkes, 'Tusayan Snake Ceremonies,' 16th Annual Report (1897), pp. 298, 302-304, and 'Tusayan Flute and Snake Ceremonies,' 19th Annual Report, pt. 2 (1900), pp. 983, 1011; Andrus, 'The Snake Dance at Walpi,' San Francisco Call, 15 Sept. 1901, p. 10","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Flat wooden Walpi bullroarer on a long cord. Bourke gives the Tusayan form as a long narrow parallelogram capped with an equilateral triangle, with a snake or lightning traced in blue or yellow down the length of the blade and ending in the small triangle, \"which did duty as the snake's head\". Fewkes saw the pair on the Walpi Antelope altar as flat slats of wood with rain-cloud terraces cut in the end. Sounded by a newly initiated boy and by the Bow-priesthood warrior in the Snake Dance.","function_display":"Twirled by the kalektaka, or Bow-priesthood warrior, trailing the Antelope priests in the Walpi Snake dance, imitating rain-laden wind and the thunder that accompanies the rain, to compel wind and rain to aid the crops","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"tusayan","display_name":"Tusayan Walpi snake-dance rhombus","image":{"full":"assets/objects/BOURKE1892-001.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/BOURKE1892-001_thumb.jpg","alt":"Mishongnovi Hopi bullroarer: a white-painted wooden blade with a yellow-green zigzag snake outlined in black running along its length, and a hole near one rounded end.","credit":"© The Trustees of the British Museum, Am1891,0612.21","license":"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0","source_page":"https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Am1891-0612-21","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"A Mishongnovi cousin of the Walpi snake-dance blade, painted white with a green zigzag snake.","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/review_2026_07_15/BOURKE1892-001_maa_p8955_ach1.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/review_2026_07_15/BOURKE1892-001_maa_p8955_ach1.jpg","alt":"Burbank’s 1898 portrait of Wick-Ah-Te-Wah in Hopi Snake Dance dress, holding a bow and arrows with a short dark zigzag bullroarer hanging at his side.","credit":"Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge (P.8955.ACH1); E. A. Burbank, 1898","license":"CC BY-NC-ND 4.0","source_page":"https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/photographs/302227/","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Burbank’s 1898 painting of Wick-Ah-Te-Wah in Snake Dance dress; the zigzag roarer hangs at his side."},{"full":"assets/objects/pd_plates/wittick1897_walpi_snake_dance.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/pd_plates/wittick1897_walpi_snake_dance_thumb.jpg","alt":"Antelope priests in ceremonial dress enter Walpi’s plaza as spectators watch from the ground and rooftops.","credit":"Ben Wittick, ‘Snake dance at Hualpi, Moqui Indian Village, Arizona, Aug. 21st 1897’ (Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-113099)","license":"Public domain; Library of Congress: no known restrictions","source_page":"https://www.loc.gov/item/95505778/","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Antelope priests entering Walpi’s plaza on August 21, 1897."},{"full":"assets/objects/pd_plates/walpi1905_snake_priests_entering.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/pd_plates/walpi1905_snake_priests_entering_thumb.jpg","alt":"Snake Dance participants move around the brush-covered kisi at Walpi in 1905, with spectators on rooftops and terrace walls.","credit":"‘The snake dance. The snake priests entering,’ Walpi, 1905 (Library of Congress, LC-DIG-stereo-1s51060)","license":"Public domain; Library of Congress: no known restrictions","source_page":"https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002708714/","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Snake priests gathered around the kisi at Walpi in 1905."},{"full":"assets/objects/pd_plates/arizona_republican_1921_walpi_snake_dance_montage.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/pd_plates/arizona_republican_1921_walpi_snake_dance_montage_thumb.jpg","alt":"1921 newspaper montage of Walpi Snake Dance scenes: a group ceremony, a snake priest, a rattlesnake and dancers, with a central oval photograph of the Snake Chief’s bust.","credit":"The Arizona Republican, August 21, 1921, p. 7; photographs supplied by Emery Kopta","license":"Public domain","source_page":"https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84020558/1921-08-21/ed-1/?sp=7","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A 1921 newspaper montage of Walpi Snake Dance photographs and a chief’s bust."},{"full":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/bm_E_Am1891-0612-22.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/thumbs/bm_E_Am1891-0612-22_thumb.jpg","alt":"Hopi wooden blade painted with a red zigzag, British Museum.","credit":"© The Trustees of the British Museum (Am1891,0612.22)","license":"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0","source_page":"https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Am1891-0612-22","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"A second Hopi blade from the 1891 exchange, a red serpent winding to its tip, inked 'Whirling Stick — To Scare the Devil.'"},{"full":"assets/objects/pd_plates/buschan1922_tafel7.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/pd_plates/thumbs/buschan1922_tafel7_thumb.jpg","alt":"Buschan’s numbered plate of Pueblo cult gear, including a looped cord and slat at no. 2.","credit":"Georg Buschan, Illustrierte Völkerkunde I (1922), Tafel VII","license":"Public domain (published 1922)","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/illustriertev01busc","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Buschan's plate of Pueblo cult gear: all but no. 1 are Hopi; no. 2 is the Snake Dance's artificial thunder (Tafel VII, 1922)."}]},"slug":"bourke1892-001-tusayan-walpi-hopi"}