Chief Tuba
Encyclopedia
Tuba (c. 1810 – 1887) was a Hopi
leader in the late 19th century. Tuba was the headman of the small Hopi
village of Moencopi, roughly fifty miles west of the main villages on the Hopi mesa
s. However, he apparently was an important person in the village of Oraibi
as well. Eventually, Tuba joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and later received his endowment
in the St. George Utah Temple
. Tuba City, Arizona
was named in his honor.
Tuba related to this same missionary that during the Mexican-American War (c. 1846), the Mexicans were in full retreat from the environs of the Hopi mesa
s. However, as they left they caused considerable trouble for the Hopis, and in fact one tried to steal a beautiful girl from Oraibi
to take south with him. Apparently, Tuba's brother challenged the Mexican interloper to a kind of duel, and the pair fought with bowie knives in the village plaza. Tuba's brother was killed, but Tuba stepped in and killed the Mexican with a spear. This story seems of doubtful historical accuracy for several reasons. Among them, the story recounts that Tuba was eighteen years old when the duel occurred although he would have been in his mid-thirties at the time of the Mexican-American War. However, it is possible that Tuba, around 70 years of age when he told this story, confused some details or they were recorded incorrectly some 40 years after that. Author Frank Waters writes of a Hopi tradition concerning a Mexican slave raid on Oraibi which occurred in 1832. Apparently, this was the last such attack on the Hopi by the Spanish or their descendants. In Waters' account, several children were stolen as well as the wife of one Wickvaya, although two Castillas [Spaniards or Mexicans] were killed in the fighting. Eventually, all of the stolen Hopis were returned and their kidnappers punished after Wickvaya traveled to Santa Fe and informed the governor that the Mexicans had stolen Hopis rather than Navajos. It is entirely possible that Tuba's story refers to this event, at which time he would have been the age of his recollection, perhaps in his late teens or early twenties. But more than likely, Tuba's story mixed Hopi myth with aspects of his personal history. For instance, according to this story, it is the vanquished Mexican who curses the Hopis with the name by which they were known among non-Hopis: "Moqui," meaning "dead" or a "dying people" in their language. However, this appellation had been in place for some centuries before this fight occurred. In the story, Tuba also repeatedly refers to the Hopi as "Aztec
s," or of Hopis having "Aztec blood." This could be seen as an attempt to raise the respectability of the Hopi by connecting them to the great cities of the south. However, this claim is not so far-fetched as the Hopi speak a form of Uto-Aztecan that "hints at ancient connections with...the advanced central Mexican civilization..."
Whatever the case may be, Hopi tradition tells that at some point, Tuba became involved in an unremembered dissension at Oraibi, and left the village to "be at peace." From then on, "Woo Pah" was known among the Hopi as Tuuvi, meaning the outcast or the rejected one. However, another account has it that "Tuvi" is the name of a child's game with a small ring made of pumpkin rind.
cycle. By Tuba's time, the area was used as summer fields for the villagers at Oraibi due to its springs and streams. The Hopi say that at first, Tuba settled at Moencopi alone with his wife, living there all year long whereas before it had merely been a seasonal settlement. However, soon people of Tuba's Short Corn Clan followed him, and eventually members of other clans until a sizeable community was created.
Tuba told one Mormon that after he had settled at Moencopi, there came a time when the Hopis who lived with him "became lazy and wicked", refusing to "plant or tend the herds." Tuba was greatly distressed about this, and as he sat brooding, he saw an old man approach with a long white beard. The man claimed to have a message from God that the people must plant and take care of their herds or they would die in in a three year famine that was to come. Tuba then turned his head and the man disappeared. Tuba did as instructed and stored his own corn in a bin which was enough to last through the predicted famine. Purportedly, Tuba explained that a long time ago there were three men that had been left on the earth, and when the Hopi were in trouble, one would come to advise them. He believed that this stranger was one of them.
missionaries to visit the Hopi came in 1858 under the leadership of Jacob Hamblin
. It is unclear if Tuba still lived in Oraibi at this point, or if he had already moved to Moencopi. However, Jacob Hamblin writes that upon their arrival a "very aged man" (presumably not Tuba) reported a prophecy that men would come to the Hopi from the west who would bring them back blessings which they had lost and that he believed that Hamblin and the Mormons were those spoken of. Hamblin soon left, but a few Mormons stayed behind to teach the Hopi. However, these left in the middle of winter to preserve the peace after a strong contention had begun in Oraibi as to whether they were in fact those spoken of by the prophecy. It might be speculated that this contention over the Mormons is the unnamed dissension that caused Tuba to leave Oraibi and settle at Moencopi. In any event, in early 1860, Tuba became acquainted with Mormon missionaries Thales Haskel and Marion Shelton in Oraibi
, and invited them to settle in Moencopi and build a wool mill. However, they returned to southern Utah. Ten years later, in November 1870, Tuba left his home with his wife, Pulaskaninki, in company with Jacob Hamblin to spend time in southern Utah
in order to learn the ways of the Mormon
s. This was apparently in contraversion of a Hopi taboo forbidding Hopis from crossing the Colorado River
until three prophets which had led the Hopi to their current home returned. Upon reaching the Colorado, Hamblin recorded:
Tuba spent nearly a year in the company of the Mormons. He was even able to meet the Mormon leader, Brigham Young
, then in St. George. Tuba was particularly impressed by a factory where yarn was being mechanically spun. In Hopi culture, it is the men who spin the yarn for blankets, and it is spun by hand. According to Jacob Hamblin
, after seeing this factory, Tuba "could never think of spinning yarn again with his fingers, to make blankets." His wife was most impressed by the Mormon grist mills, a major improvement over grinding} corn by stone.
, he apparently retained access to one of the Hopi's sacred stones. On one occasion, several Mormons were visiting Tuba in Oraibi and he took his visitors inside the village kiva
. There, he produced what appeared to be a marble slab about 15"x18" covered in "hieroglyphic" markings including clouds and stars. The later Ethnological Report No. 4 produced by the US government seems to uphold the existence of such a stone based on the testimony of John W. Young and Andrew S. Gibbons. This describes the stone as made of "red-clouded marble, entirely different from anything found in the region." This also may be the tablet which author Frank Waters claims he was shown in 1960 while at Oraibi
. He describes the stone as "approximately 10 inches long, 8 inches wide, and 1½ inches thick. The stone resembled a dull gray marble with intrusive blotches of rose." In The Book of the Hopi, Waters writes a description of the stone's markings and includes a drawing of the tablet which shows etchings of corn, moon, sun, cloud, star, etc.
s and Navajo
s. Whatever the case may be, the Mormons came and Tuba was baptized into the LDS Church in 1876. In April, 1877, Tuba and his wife attended the dedication of the Mormon temple
in St. George, Utah in company with missionary Andrew S. Gibbons and his wife. It was sometime during this period that Tuba shared his new faith with Tom Polacca, a headman at Hano
on First Mesa, who was also eventually baptized. In September 1878, Tuba helped lay out the site for a new Mormon town near Moencopi which would be called Tuba City. Both Mormons and some Hopis moved into the new town, although other Hopi leaders objected when Tuba gave the land on which the town was situated to the Mormons. In 1879, a wool factory was built in Tuba City in order to "benefit the Indians and the [LDS] Church." No doubt this edifice reminded Tuba of the factory which had so engaged his imagination in southern Utah nine years before.
Hopi
The Hopi are a federally recognized tribe of indigenous Native American people, who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. The Hopi area according to the 2000 census has a population of 6,946 people. Their Hopi language is one of the 30 of the Uto-Aztecan language...
leader in the late 19th century. Tuba was the headman of the small Hopi
Hopi
The Hopi are a federally recognized tribe of indigenous Native American people, who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. The Hopi area according to the 2000 census has a population of 6,946 people. Their Hopi language is one of the 30 of the Uto-Aztecan language...
village of Moencopi, roughly fifty miles west of the main villages on the Hopi mesa
Mesa
A mesa or table mountain is an elevated area of land with a flat top and sides that are usually steep cliffs. It takes its name from its characteristic table-top shape....
s. However, he apparently was an important person in the village of Oraibi
Oraibi
Oraibi, also referred to as Old Oraibi, is a Hopi village in Navajo County, Arizona, United States, in the northeastern part of the state. Known as Orayvi by the native inhabitants, it is located on Third Mesa on the Hopi Reservation near Kykotsmovi Village...
as well. Eventually, Tuba joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and later received his endowment
Endowment (Latter Day Saints)
In the theology of the Latter Day Saint movement, an endowment refers to a gift of "power from on high", typically associated with Latter Day Saint temples. The purpose and meaning of the endowment varied during the life of movement founder Joseph Smith, Jr...
in the St. George Utah Temple
St. George Utah Temple
The St. George Utah Temple is the first temple completed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after the forced exodus of the body of the Church from Nauvoo, Illinois, after the death of its founder Joseph Smith, Jr.-Description:The building is located in the SW Utah city of St....
. Tuba City, Arizona
Tuba City, Arizona
Tuba City is a census-designated place in Coconino County, Arizona, United States. The population was 8,225 at the 2000 census. It is the Dine' Nation's largest community, slightly larger than Shiprock, New Mexico. The Hopi town of Moenkopi lies directly to its southeast.The name of the town...
was named in his honor.
Tuba's Youth
Tuba was born in Oraibi, Arizona as a member of the Short Corn Clan, or possibly the Pumpkin Clan. Hopi tradition does not record his birth name, but he was related to a Mormon missionary that said his Hopi name was "Woo Pah."Tuba related to this same missionary that during the Mexican-American War (c. 1846), the Mexicans were in full retreat from the environs of the Hopi mesa
Mesa
A mesa or table mountain is an elevated area of land with a flat top and sides that are usually steep cliffs. It takes its name from its characteristic table-top shape....
s. However, as they left they caused considerable trouble for the Hopis, and in fact one tried to steal a beautiful girl from Oraibi
Oraibi
Oraibi, also referred to as Old Oraibi, is a Hopi village in Navajo County, Arizona, United States, in the northeastern part of the state. Known as Orayvi by the native inhabitants, it is located on Third Mesa on the Hopi Reservation near Kykotsmovi Village...
to take south with him. Apparently, Tuba's brother challenged the Mexican interloper to a kind of duel, and the pair fought with bowie knives in the village plaza. Tuba's brother was killed, but Tuba stepped in and killed the Mexican with a spear. This story seems of doubtful historical accuracy for several reasons. Among them, the story recounts that Tuba was eighteen years old when the duel occurred although he would have been in his mid-thirties at the time of the Mexican-American War. However, it is possible that Tuba, around 70 years of age when he told this story, confused some details or they were recorded incorrectly some 40 years after that. Author Frank Waters writes of a Hopi tradition concerning a Mexican slave raid on Oraibi which occurred in 1832. Apparently, this was the last such attack on the Hopi by the Spanish or their descendants. In Waters' account, several children were stolen as well as the wife of one Wickvaya, although two Castillas [Spaniards or Mexicans] were killed in the fighting. Eventually, all of the stolen Hopis were returned and their kidnappers punished after Wickvaya traveled to Santa Fe and informed the governor that the Mexicans had stolen Hopis rather than Navajos. It is entirely possible that Tuba's story refers to this event, at which time he would have been the age of his recollection, perhaps in his late teens or early twenties. But more than likely, Tuba's story mixed Hopi myth with aspects of his personal history. For instance, according to this story, it is the vanquished Mexican who curses the Hopis with the name by which they were known among non-Hopis: "Moqui," meaning "dead" or a "dying people" in their language. However, this appellation had been in place for some centuries before this fight occurred. In the story, Tuba also repeatedly refers to the Hopi as "Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
s," or of Hopis having "Aztec blood." This could be seen as an attempt to raise the respectability of the Hopi by connecting them to the great cities of the south. However, this claim is not so far-fetched as the Hopi speak a form of Uto-Aztecan that "hints at ancient connections with...the advanced central Mexican civilization..."
Whatever the case may be, Hopi tradition tells that at some point, Tuba became involved in an unremembered dissension at Oraibi, and left the village to "be at peace." From then on, "Woo Pah" was known among the Hopi as Tuuvi, meaning the outcast or the rejected one. However, another account has it that "Tuvi" is the name of a child's game with a small ring made of pumpkin rind.
Moencopi
Tuba settled at Moencopi, or "Running Water," about fity miles west of Oraibi. Moencopi had played any important part in the Hopi's legendary migrationHopi mythology
The Hopi maintain a complex religious and mythological tradition stretching back over centuries. However, it is difficult to definitively state what all Hopis as a group believe. Like the oral traditions of many other societies, Hopi mythology is not always told consistently and each Hopi mesa, or...
cycle. By Tuba's time, the area was used as summer fields for the villagers at Oraibi due to its springs and streams. The Hopi say that at first, Tuba settled at Moencopi alone with his wife, living there all year long whereas before it had merely been a seasonal settlement. However, soon people of Tuba's Short Corn Clan followed him, and eventually members of other clans until a sizeable community was created.
Tuba told one Mormon that after he had settled at Moencopi, there came a time when the Hopis who lived with him "became lazy and wicked", refusing to "plant or tend the herds." Tuba was greatly distressed about this, and as he sat brooding, he saw an old man approach with a long white beard. The man claimed to have a message from God that the people must plant and take care of their herds or they would die in in a three year famine that was to come. Tuba then turned his head and the man disappeared. Tuba did as instructed and stored his own corn in a bin which was enough to last through the predicted famine. Purportedly, Tuba explained that a long time ago there were three men that had been left on the earth, and when the Hopi were in trouble, one would come to advise them. He believed that this stranger was one of them.
Tuba's Visit to Utah
The first MormonMormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
missionaries to visit the Hopi came in 1858 under the leadership of Jacob Hamblin
Jacob Hamblin
Jacob Vernon Hamblin was a Western pioneer, Mormon missionary, and diplomat to various Native American Tribes of the Southwest and Great Basin. During his life, he helped settle large areas of southern Utah and northern Arizona where he was seen as an honest broker between Mormon settlers and the...
. It is unclear if Tuba still lived in Oraibi at this point, or if he had already moved to Moencopi. However, Jacob Hamblin writes that upon their arrival a "very aged man" (presumably not Tuba) reported a prophecy that men would come to the Hopi from the west who would bring them back blessings which they had lost and that he believed that Hamblin and the Mormons were those spoken of. Hamblin soon left, but a few Mormons stayed behind to teach the Hopi. However, these left in the middle of winter to preserve the peace after a strong contention had begun in Oraibi as to whether they were in fact those spoken of by the prophecy. It might be speculated that this contention over the Mormons is the unnamed dissension that caused Tuba to leave Oraibi and settle at Moencopi. In any event, in early 1860, Tuba became acquainted with Mormon missionaries Thales Haskel and Marion Shelton in Oraibi
Oraibi
Oraibi, also referred to as Old Oraibi, is a Hopi village in Navajo County, Arizona, United States, in the northeastern part of the state. Known as Orayvi by the native inhabitants, it is located on Third Mesa on the Hopi Reservation near Kykotsmovi Village...
, and invited them to settle in Moencopi and build a wool mill. However, they returned to southern Utah. Ten years later, in November 1870, Tuba left his home with his wife, Pulaskaninki, in company with Jacob Hamblin to spend time in southern Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
in order to learn the ways of the Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
s. This was apparently in contraversion of a Hopi taboo forbidding Hopis from crossing the Colorado River
Colorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
until three prophets which had led the Hopi to their current home returned. Upon reaching the Colorado, Hamblin recorded:
Tuba spent nearly a year in the company of the Mormons. He was even able to meet the Mormon leader, Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...
, then in St. George. Tuba was particularly impressed by a factory where yarn was being mechanically spun. In Hopi culture, it is the men who spin the yarn for blankets, and it is spun by hand. According to Jacob Hamblin
Jacob Hamblin
Jacob Vernon Hamblin was a Western pioneer, Mormon missionary, and diplomat to various Native American Tribes of the Southwest and Great Basin. During his life, he helped settle large areas of southern Utah and northern Arizona where he was seen as an honest broker between Mormon settlers and the...
, after seeing this factory, Tuba "could never think of spinning yarn again with his fingers, to make blankets." His wife was most impressed by the Mormon grist mills, a major improvement over grinding} corn by stone.
The Sacred Hopi Stone
Although Tuba seems to have had various disagreements with village leaders in OraibiOraibi
Oraibi, also referred to as Old Oraibi, is a Hopi village in Navajo County, Arizona, United States, in the northeastern part of the state. Known as Orayvi by the native inhabitants, it is located on Third Mesa on the Hopi Reservation near Kykotsmovi Village...
, he apparently retained access to one of the Hopi's sacred stones. On one occasion, several Mormons were visiting Tuba in Oraibi and he took his visitors inside the village kiva
Kiva
A kiva is a room used by modern Puebloans for religious rituals, many of them associated with the kachina belief system. Among the modern Hopi and most other Pueblo peoples, kivas are square-walled and underground, and are used for spiritual ceremonies....
. There, he produced what appeared to be a marble slab about 15"x18" covered in "hieroglyphic" markings including clouds and stars. The later Ethnological Report No. 4 produced by the US government seems to uphold the existence of such a stone based on the testimony of John W. Young and Andrew S. Gibbons. This describes the stone as made of "red-clouded marble, entirely different from anything found in the region." This also may be the tablet which author Frank Waters claims he was shown in 1960 while at Oraibi
Oraibi
Oraibi, also referred to as Old Oraibi, is a Hopi village in Navajo County, Arizona, United States, in the northeastern part of the state. Known as Orayvi by the native inhabitants, it is located on Third Mesa on the Hopi Reservation near Kykotsmovi Village...
. He describes the stone as "approximately 10 inches long, 8 inches wide, and 1½ inches thick. The stone resembled a dull gray marble with intrusive blotches of rose." In The Book of the Hopi, Waters writes a description of the stone's markings and includes a drawing of the tablet which shows etchings of corn, moon, sun, cloud, star, etc.
Tuba City and Baptism
In 1873, Tuba again invited the Mormons to come and live by his village of Moencopi. This time, the offer was accepted, although a permanent Latter-day Saint presence did not become a reality until 1875. But the resultant community became the first Mormon settlement in Arizona. Hopi tradition has it that Tuba invited the Mormons to settle near his village in order to gain protection from marauding PaiutePaiute
Paiute refers to three closely related groups of Native Americans — the Northern Paiute of California, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon; the Owens Valley Paiute of California and Nevada; and the Southern Paiute of Arizona, southeastern California and Nevada, and Utah.-Origin of name:The origin of...
s and Navajo
Navajo people
The Navajo of the Southwestern United States are the largest single federally recognized tribe of the United States of America. The Navajo Nation has 300,048 enrolled tribal members. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the...
s. Whatever the case may be, the Mormons came and Tuba was baptized into the LDS Church in 1876. In April, 1877, Tuba and his wife attended the dedication of the Mormon temple
St. George Utah Temple
The St. George Utah Temple is the first temple completed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after the forced exodus of the body of the Church from Nauvoo, Illinois, after the death of its founder Joseph Smith, Jr.-Description:The building is located in the SW Utah city of St....
in St. George, Utah in company with missionary Andrew S. Gibbons and his wife. It was sometime during this period that Tuba shared his new faith with Tom Polacca, a headman at Hano
Hano
Hano can refer to:*Hanö, an island off Listerlandet peninsula, western Blekinge, Sweden.*Arizona Tewa, a Tewa Pueblo group.*Hano , a song in the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest by Nino Pršeš.*Housing Authority of New Orleans....
on First Mesa, who was also eventually baptized. In September 1878, Tuba helped lay out the site for a new Mormon town near Moencopi which would be called Tuba City. Both Mormons and some Hopis moved into the new town, although other Hopi leaders objected when Tuba gave the land on which the town was situated to the Mormons. In 1879, a wool factory was built in Tuba City in order to "benefit the Indians and the [LDS] Church." No doubt this edifice reminded Tuba of the factory which had so engaged his imagination in southern Utah nine years before.