Native American Religious Leader. Native American religion has persisted best in the American Southwest among Pueblo groups like the Hopi. Kopeli is considered by many to embrace the essence of Pueblo religious leaders who insured that traditional religion did not disappear. Kopeli was Chief of snake priests at the biennial Hopi Snake-Antelope Dance Ceremony at the Hopi pueblo of Walpi, Arizona. He inherited this position from his maternal uncle. The ceremony included participants putting live venomous and non-venomous snakes in their mouths and wrapping them around their necks as they danced. At the end of the rite, snakes were released in the four directions to seek rain. The Snake-Antelope Ceremony alternated every other year with the Flute Ceremony. Both ceremonies happened in the month of August. Kopeli also assisted archaeologists in the Bureau of American Ethnology expedition of 1895 led by Dr. Jesse Walter Fewkes. Kopeli was widely respected both among his own people and the Anglo-Americans with whom he was brought in contact. Hopi religion has persisted because of Kopeli. His obituary appeared in the American Anthropologist.
Native American Religious Leader. Native American religion has persisted best in the American Southwest among Pueblo groups like the Hopi. Kopeli is considered by many to embrace the essence of Pueblo religious leaders who insured that traditional religion did not disappear. Kopeli was Chief of snake priests at the biennial Hopi Snake-Antelope Dance Ceremony at the Hopi pueblo of Walpi, Arizona. He inherited this position from his maternal uncle. The ceremony included participants putting live venomous and non-venomous snakes in their mouths and wrapping them around their necks as they danced. At the end of the rite, snakes were released in the four directions to seek rain. The Snake-Antelope Ceremony alternated every other year with the Flute Ceremony. Both ceremonies happened in the month of August. Kopeli also assisted archaeologists in the Bureau of American Ethnology expedition of 1895 led by Dr. Jesse Walter Fewkes. Kopeli was widely respected both among his own people and the Anglo-Americans with whom he was brought in contact. Hopi religion has persisted because of Kopeli. His obituary appeared in the American Anthropologist.
Bio by: Sharlotte Neely Donnelly
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