Polingaysi Qöyawayma
| Polingaysi Qöyawayma | |
|---|---|
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c. 1970
|
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| Born | 1892 Oraibi, Hopi Reservation, Arizona |
| Died |
(aged 98) Phoenix, Arizona |
| Other names | Elizabeth Q. White |
| Alma mater | Bethel College |
| Occupation | Educator, writer, potter |
| Notable work | The Sun Girl, No Turning Back |
| Spouse(s) | Lloyd White (1931 – c. 1933) |
| Relatives | Al Qöyawayma (nephew) |
Polingaysi Qöyawayma (1892 – December 6, 1990), also known as Elizabeth Q. White, was a Hopi educator, writer, and potter.
Born to parents Fred (of the Kachina Clan) and Sevenka (of the Coyote Clan), Polingaysi Qöyawayma grew up in Oraibi, a village on Arizona's Hopi Reservation. Her given name means "butterfly sitting among the flowers in the breeze".
Qöyawayma's father worked for Mennonite missionary Henry Voth, who built a school in Oraibi and attempted to win converts to Christianity. Many in the village saw Voth's efforts to enforce attendance as heavy-handed, and this caused a rift between Hopis who opposed and supported the school.
In 1906, Qöyawayma joined a group of students traveling to study at the Sherman Institute in Riverside, California. In her four years at the school, she lived with a teacher's family, learning English and converting to Christianity. After returning home to Oraibi, she had difficulty readjusting to traditional Hopi life. Villagers saw her as having adopted white people's ways, and were unreceptive to her Christian teachings.
She left to live with a Mennonite family in Newton, Kansas, and to receive missionary training at Bethel College. In 1919 she worked as a substitute teacher in Tuba City and attended the Los Angeles Bible Institute. She had second thoughts about missionary life, however, when she continued to be unsuccessful in converting any Oraibi residents, while attempting "to blend the best of Hopi tradition with the best of the white culture, retaining the essence of good, whatever the source."
In 1924 Qöyawayma began working at the Indian school in Hotevilla, first as a housekeeper and later as a teacher. Unusually for the time, she taught bilingually, introducing subjects to students in their native Hopi and then transitioning to English. This caused friction with her fellow teachers, and with parents who preferred that their children be taught white language and customs exclusively, in order to be more successful in American society. She persisted, believing that Native American students were more receptive to concepts which were related in terms of traditional stories and legends. She became a government employee after passing the Indian Service test in 1925, and continued to teach in Hopi and Navajo schools until 1954. She later articulated her teaching philosophy:
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