View source for Sipapu

{{Short description|Small hole or indentation in the floor of a kiva}}
{{distinguish|Sipapu (ski area)}}
[[Image:Sipapu (small round hole) in floor of ruined kiva in Mesa Verde National Park.jpg|thumb|right|280px|The {{lang|hop|sipapu}} is the small round hole in the floor of the {{lang|hop|[[kiva]]}}. The large round hole is a fire pit. The air intake (square hole), the stones blocking air from the intake, the pit and the {{lang|hop|sipapu}} form a line: an intentional design. At Long House, [[Mesa Verde National Park|Mesa Verde]].]]

A '''{{lang|hop|sipapu}}''' (a [[Hopi language|Hopi]] word) was a small hole or indentation in the floor of a {{lang|hop|[[kiva]]}} (pithouse). Kivas were used by the [[Ancestral Puebloans]] and continue to be used by modern-day [[Pueblo people|Puebloans]]. The {{lang|hop|sipapu}} symbolizes the portal through which their ancient ancestors [[Hopi mythology#Four Worlds|first emerged]] to enter the present world.{{sfn|Wenger|1991|p={{pn|date=November 2021}}}}

[[Hopi mythology]] (and similar traditions in other Pueblo cultures such as the [[Zuni people|Zuni]] and [[Acoma Pueblo|Acoma]]) states that this is the hole from which the first peoples of this world entered. As they stepped outside of the {{lang|hop|sipapu}}, they changed from lizard-like beings into human form.{{sfn|Waters|1963|p={{pn|date=November 2021}}}}{{sfn|Courlander|1971|p={{pn|date=November 2021}}}} It is from this point that the "First Peoples" of the Earth began to divide and separate, becoming tribes. The original sipapu is said in Hopi and some other Uto-Aztecan Puebloan mythology to be located in the [[Grand Canyon]].{{cn|date=June 2023}}

==References==

===Citations===
{{Reflist}}

===Works cited===
* {{cite book |last=Courlander |first=H. |year=1971 |title=The Fourth World of the Hopis |location=Albuquerque |publisher=University of New Mexico Press}}
* {{cite book |last=Waters |first=Frank |year=1963 |title=Book of the Hopis |location=New York |publisher=Penguin Group}}
* {{cite book |last=Wenger |first=Gilbert R. |title=The Story of Mesa Verde National Park |publisher=Mesa Verde Museum Association |location=[[Mesa Verde National Park]], Colorado |year=1991 |orig-year=1980 |isbn=0-937062-15-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/storyofmesaverde00weng }}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=Sando |first=Joe S. |year=1982 |title=The Pueblo Indians |location=San Francisco |publisher=Indian Historian Press}}

{{Native american styles}}

[[Category:Native American religion]]
[[Category:Puebloan architectural elements]]
[[Category:Underworld]]
[[Category:Hopi culture]]


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