A series of 11 films, of variable lengths, but totalling approx. 2 hours. Originally shot in 35mm b&w stock. Silent, English intertitles. [Not viewed]
Production: These films were made as part of the Museum of the American Indian (MAI)/ Heye Foundation expedition to Hawikku, New Mexico, a prehistoric Zuni settlement. This project ran from 1917 to 1923, and although its principal objectives were archeological, it also involved ethnographic research, and in the last year of the project, ethnographic film-making.
Sources: National Museum of the American Indian/Smithsonian; the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center (AAMHC), in Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico.
Background: These films were made by what was then the Museum of the American Indian (MAI), funded by the Gustav Heye Foundation. As director of the Hawikku project, Frederick W. Hodge (1864-1956) is often credited with the direction of these films also. But the practical film-making was actually carried out by Owen Cattell, assisted by Donald A. Cadzow (1894-1960), an MAI archeologist, and a Zuni man, Lorenzo Chávez.
In addition to the 11 films listed below, Cattell also shot another film, also in 1923, Shalako Ceremonial, which at 29 minutes is much longer than any of the films in this Land and Community Work series, and appears to have been an autonomous venture.
The Museum was very pleased with the work of Cattell and his colleagues and in an announcement in 1924 in its new journal Indian Notes, it foresaw the widespread use of the films for educational purposes.
While Shalako Ceremonial has caused great controversy among the Zuni, both at the time of its making and now, most the Land and Community Work series is freely exhibited at the AAMHC, the museum set up in Zuni pueblo by members of the A:shiwi (Zuni) community in 1992.
Content: These films were not viewed for the Silent Time Machine project but their titles and running times are listed by the Smithsonian Museum as follows:
- Land of the Zuni and Community Work – 16:52 mins. (at 16fps). This film is evidently intended as an overview of the other films in the series.
- Deerskin Tanning and Wrapping the Leggings – 9:39 mins. (at 18fps).
- Hairwashing – 3:48 mins. (at 18fps).
- Making Adobe Bricks and House Building – 8:43 mins. (at 18fps).
- Oven Building and Bread Baking -14:58 mins. (at 18fps).
- Paper Bread (Hewe) Making and Corn Grinding – 11:53 mins. (at 18fps).
- Pottery Making – Parts I & II, total duration 26:23 mins. (at 18fps).
- Rain Ceremony, The – Parts I & II, total duration 19:20 mins. (at 18fps).
- Salt Lake Ceremony, The – 14:13 mins. (at 18fps).
- Santo Ceremony, The – 5:37 mins. (at 18fps).
- Weaving a Blanket – 7:30 mins. (at 18fps).
The AAMHC gives a similar listing, though it gives a different title to the film covering the Salt Lake, i.e. Gathering Salt from Zuni Salt Lake and expands on the title of the Santo Ceremony film, adding: (Dancing for the Santo Niño). It also offers an additional film, Hawikku/Kechiba:wa Excavation (Stick Races), though this may not be part of the MAI series.
In the Smithsonian catalogue, the three ceremonial films are identified as ‘restricted’, but in the AAMHC, the only film from this list that is restricted isThe Rain Ceremony. Lyon reports that this film shows the pilgrimage and summer ceremonies of the rain priests, including the dancing of the ‘longhair’ katsinas. The AAMHC restricts the viewing of this film to A:shwi (Zuni) people only.