Material Culture
The prehistoric ancestors of the Hopi are known for their yellow ware pottery. This type of pottery, which began to be produced at about A.D. 1300 and continues to be produced today, was fired using coal that the ancestral Hopi mined from below the mesa tops. (The Hopi Indians are the only Native Americans to have used coal in prehistoric times; see textbook for more discussion).
At about this same time, as also see piki stones in the archaeological record, used then (as today) to make piki bread. Piki is a wafer thin "bread" made from a thin corn meal; it is cooked on griddles known as piki stones. Today, the Hopi are known for their basketry, pottery, jewelry making, and kachina dolls. Traditionally, kachina dolls (known as tihu or tithu to the Hopi) were given to Hopi girls, but beginning in the Great Depression the Hopi began to sell them to tourists for extra income. Today, the manufacture and sell of kachina dolls is a major source of income for the Hopi.
Drawing of kachina dolls, made in 1894
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