Home > Carnegie Center > Arizona Women's Hall of Fame > Inductees > Qoyawayma, Polingazsi
Polingazsi Qoyawayma (Elizabeth Q. White)
1892 - 1990
Inducted in 1991
"Elizabeth Qoyawayma White was a spunky, intelligent, caring
lady, a fine teacher, ceramicist, poet and writer. Her courage
and her spirit were an inspiration to all who knew her. She rose
above all of her adversities and lived life fully.”
-- Edward B. Danson, former director of the Museum of
Northern Arizona
Polingaysi Qoyawayma, or Elizabeth Q. White as she was also known, was
a rebel from childhood. In her youth, she broke from the Hopi pattern of
life to learn more about the world beyond the mesas. Motivated by the desire
to help her people, she developed an innovative method of teaching Native
Americans. Her life was filled with struggles to find a place in two cultures,
and she succeeded not only as a teacher, but also as a writer, poet, potter,
and friend to many.
She was born in 1892 (by the federal government's reckoning) in the ancient
village of Oraibi, Arizona, on the Third Mesa. She belonged to her mother's
Coyote Clan and her father's Kachina Clan; her own name meant "butterfly
sitting among the flowers in the breeze." Though Polingaysi lived
a typical Hopi childhood during her first few years, change was inevitable
when the first Mennonite missionary, H.R. Voth, arrived on the mesa in
October 1893. The government soon followed, opening a school at the bottom
of the mesa about 1900.
Many of the traditional Hopis distrusted the school and the teachers. Officials
tried to catch Hopi children and take them to school, but Polingaysi’s
family hid her. She grew lonely for her friends and noticed that
many who went to school were given clothes and plenty of food. One
day she could no longer endure being left out of the excitement, and without
her mother's knowledge, walked down the trail to the school. Although
she realized her parents would be angry, she wanted the new experience. Her
mother warned her that she was moving away from her own people by going
to school and that there could be no turning back. Polingaysi faced the
first of many condemnations for committing herself to a new way of life.
The establishment of the school created tensions between the Hopi people
of Oraibi. The village split into two groups: those who supported the village
leader, who was of the Bear Clan, and the conservatives, who followed the
leader of the Spider Clan and wholeheartedly rejected the whites' ways
in an effort to preserve their own traditions. In 1906, the conflict escalated,
and the village split apart. The Bear Clan forced the Spider Clan
and its supporters to leave the mesa. The exiles founded the new
village of Hotevilla. Polingaysi and her family continued to live
on the mesa even though their hearts were with the conservative Hopis in
their settlement. Polingaysi’s father worked for Mr. Voth,
and eventually Voth convinced the Qoyawayma family to live at the foot
of the mesa. They built a stone house and selected acreage for the
family. Over the next few years, more and more of the families followed
the Qoyawaymas, creating a new village called Kiakotsmovi.
In the fall of 1906, Polingaysi learned that a group of Hopi children
were going to attend the Sherman Institute in Riverside, California. Though
only fourteen, she felt ready for a taste of life beyond the mesas, desiring
both an education and the chance to improve her living conditions.
The next four years were fruitful but lonely. Polinglysi realized that
she had willingly chosen to depart from the Hopi way. Remembering her mother's
words about not turning back, she determined that she would take the consequences
of her actions without complaining. She learned English, lived with a teacher
and her husband, and converted to Christianity during her four years at
the Sherman Institute.
When she returned to her village, she found that she had changed in many
ways. She could not tolerate the poverty and did not want to settle
down with a husband into traditional Hopi life. She tried to teach
Hopis about Christianity but found that it alienated them. Polingaysi
became unhappy, caught between two worlds. She went to live with
the new missionaries, Reverend Jacobs Frey and his family. She set
about learning to type, so she could help the Reverend to translate a Hopi
version of the Bible. Polingaysi eventually came to realize that
it would be best to keep the good things of her Hopi heritage while she
accepted the benefits of the white man’s world.
In 1911, Polingaysi traveled to attend the Mennonite Bethel Academy in
Newton, Kansas where she studied music and trained as a Mennonite
missionary. During the next several years, she worked as a missionary
and tried to convert other Hopis to the religion, but found little success. In
the fall of 1918, she accepted an invitation to be assistant teacher at
the Kayenta Indian Boarding school near the Utah border. However,
the outbreak of influenza in Tuba City delayed the opening of the school,
and Polingaysi also became ill. By early 1919, Polingaysi was able
to launch her teaching career. With encouragement from missionary friends,
she accepted a position as a substitute teacher in Tuba City. There she
started to develop an innovative curriculum with a class of thirty Navajo
pupils ranging in age from six to eighteen. They could learn best, she
realized, if their schoolwork related directly to everyday experiences.
In the fall of 1919, Polingaysi attended the Los Angeles Bible Institute
to gain more training for missionary work. However, at this time,
she was becoming more interested in teaching, and she wanted to settle
somewhere in her own home. Her father had given her a section of
his land, and in the summer of 1921, she began to purchase materials to
build on this land. Polingaysi’s brothers helped her to build
her new home.
Polingaysi resumed teaching on the Hopi Reservation in Hotevilla where
she honed her unique teaching method. Forbidden to speak Hopi in the classroom
and remembering her own unpleasant school experiences, she taught English
words through Hopi children’s songs. To her surprise, parents
objected to her methods, arguing that they had sent their children to school
to learn the white way, not the Hopi. Despite such obstacles, Polingaysi
continued her teaching career for twenty-six years. With the support of
the Hotevilla school staff and missionary friends, she passed her Indian
Service test in 1925 to become a full-fledged government employee. She
went on to teach on the Navajo Reservation before returning to teach Hopi
students.
Gradually her methods gained acceptance, and Polingaysi continued teaching
until 1954. At her retirement ceremony, she received the Department
of Interior’s Distinguished Service Award.
Polingaysi embarked on the second phase of her life, creating beautiful
pottery. She fashioned creamy pink pottery with unique shapes, such
as corn-maiden wind bells, pots with a raised ear of corn, and miniature
ollas. In the late 1970s, the Heard Museum in Phoenix held a special
exhibit of her pottery. Polingaysi also wrote stories and poetry
and published her autobiography, No Turning Back in 1964. She
worked with Dr. and Mrs. Carlton Enton to establish the Hopi Scholarship
Fund, administered by Northern Arizona University.
During the 1970s, Polingaysi received a variety of awards and honors. In
1976, the Museum of Northern Arizona unveiled a bronze sculpture of her
done by Una Hanbury. Her alma mater, Bethel College, recognized her
as an Outstanding Alumna in 1979. She also received the Arizona Indian
Living Treasure tribute, the Heard Museum’s Gold Medal in 1978, and
Bullock’s “Be Beautiful” Award in 1984.
Polingaysi died in a Phoenix nursing home on December 6, 1990 at the age
of ninety-eight.
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