Coming Home: A Hopi Resistance Story

In this intergenerational telling, Hopi woodcarver Honyouti relays some of his grandfather’s childhood experiences at a residential boarding school. Beginning with a portrait of the narrator in his youth working with his kwa’a in a cornfield, the extended narrative, conveyed side-by-side in English and Hopilavayi, lingers on the way kwa’a cares for “each individual stalk.” The story then shifts to kwa’a’s childhood, during which he was taken, with other kids from the village, to a residential boarding school, despite his parents’ efforts to hide him. At Keams Canyon, the children were forced to cut their hair and take new names, and were punished for speaking Hopilavayi. Kwa’a, who “decided he would never let anyone take his language and love for his culture,” tries repeatedly to run away, only to be disciplined each time. When he returns home at last, he chooses a farmer’s life, taking “great care for his plants, just like he took great care of his family.” Acrylic-painted relief carvings portray stylized landscapes and rooms alongside decorative elements, a fitting medium for this reflective narrative about community-taught knowledge and care. Contextualizing notes conclude. Ages 4–8. (Nov.)