The Hopi Inspiration in “Better Call Saul”

The Blog Sidebar contains links to 29 different "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul" posts.  This post describes Native-American influences on "Breaking Bad": particularly Hopi influences on the television show (last updated March 22, 2025).

Let me know if you have any problems or questions (E-Mail address: valdezmarc56@gmail.com).

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To avoid unnecessary friction, I have redacted the addresses of all single-family homes in these books. (These addresses are still available at Marc Valdez Weblog, however.)  The pictures in the print editions are black-and-white, in order to keep costs down. 

"A Guidebook To 'Breaking Bad' Filming Locations: Including 'Better Call Saul' - Albuquerque as Physical Setting and Indispensable Character" (Sixth Edition)

Purchase book at the link.

                                       This book outlines thirty-three circuits that the avid fan can travel in order to visit up to 679 different filming locations for "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul" in the Albuquerque area.  Some background is provided for each site, including other movies that might have also used the site for filming.

"‘Breaking Bad’ Signs and Symbols: Reading Meaning into Sets, Props, and Filming Locations” (Second Edition)

Purchase book at the link.


                                      “‘Breaking Bad’ Signs and Symbols,” aims to understand some of the symbolism embedded in the backgrounds of “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul,” in order to decode messages and stories Vince Gilligan and crew have hidden there.                                                                                                    A series of tables are used to isolate how certain (particularly architectural) features are used: Gentle Arches, Tin Ceilings, Five-Pointed Stars, Octagons, etc. Daylighting innovations that were either pioneered or promoted in Chicago are examined: Glass Block Windows, Luxfer Prismatic Tile Windows, and Plate Glass Windows.

Certain symbols advance the plot: foreshadowing symbols like Pueblo Deco Arches, or danger symbols like bell shapes and stagger symbols. Other features, like Glass Block Windows or Parallel Beams in the Ceiling, tell stories about the legacies and corruptions of modernity, particularly those best-displayed at Chicago’s “Century of Progress” (1933-34). 

In addition, a number of scenes in the show are modeled after Early Surrealist artworks. The traces of various artists can be tracked in both shows, including: Comte de Lautréamont, Giorgio De Chirico, Man Ray, Max Ernst, Leonora Carrington, René Magritte, Toyen, Yves Tanguy, Remedios Varo, Paul Klee, and in particular, Salvador Dalí.

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Video Presentation

Presentation for the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association (February 22, 2025).

 

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Introduction

The writers of these shows mix modern ideas with traditional religious ideas as they start writing their scripts. It’s useful to reveal these starting points. In this talk I’ll focus on Native-American ideas. 

Some Native-American ideas are broadly-held among many tribes. For example, the Thunderbird, a protective spirit, makes an excellent avatar for Jimmy McGill, a lawyer who fights to protect the little guy. Fifi is a Thunderbird (BCS 208, "Fifi"). 

“Fudge” Talbott wears a native-style blanket and a Thunderbird emblem on his jacket. Thunderbird emblems occasionally appear in show backgrounds (BCS 208, "Fifi").

Nevertheless, most of the Native American ideas used in these shows come from the Hopi, a Puebloan tribe who live on northern Arizona’s high mesas. On the left here is the village of Walpi. The Hopi religion is remarkably sophisticated and emphatically peaceful. The Hopi believe the only reason they are able to live where they do is because of the rainfall they attract through the purity of their rituals.

Since I kept bumping into Hopi references in “Breaking Bad,” I obtained an authoritative survey on Hopi religious culture, the “Book of the Hopi,” by Frank Waters, published in 1963. This was a fortuitous find. It soon became clear that Vince Gilligan and the creative team at “Breaking Bad” also relied heavily on THIS book. I’d like to share with you some of these stories, so you can see the parallels for yourself.

Let’s start with a map of eastern Arizona. We have the Hopi homeland in the north. I will also mention the Tohono O’odham tribe later in this talk. They are located south of Phoenix. Please note four locations: the city of Globe, Arizona; the pueblo of Zuni, in western New Mexico; Wénima, an ancestral village of the Zuni located just north of Springerville, AZ, and Oraibi, the religious center of the Hopi. 

The first half of “Better Call Saul” concerns itself with the quarrels between two brothers, Jimmy and Chuck. The Hopi are sadly familiar with such rivalries. One such rivalry occurred between two brothers of the Water Clan, in the days of the Hopi migration, when they were both competing to lead a village located near Globe, AZ. This rivalry is the model for Jimmy and Chuck’s rivalry. Which brother should be chief? To resolve the question, each brother planted corn, and prayed for rain. 

The younger brother prayed to a deity called Panaiyoikyasi, or Short Rainbow, and rain fell on his corn, but rain did not fall on the older brother’s corn. The angry older brother demanded that the younger brother leave, so the younger brother and his faction migrated northeast to Wénima and lived there for about a decade before finally migrating to Oraibi.

So, who is Short Rainbow? Short Rainbow has power over the fertile earth when it is wet with rain. This image on the left shows the moment when Kim Wexler is visually identified with Short Rainbow (BCS 209 “Nailed”).

Short Rainbow is actually a male deity, but for the show’s purposes gender is reassigned. Short Rainbow is closely-linked to another deity, Kuwánlelenta (To Make Beautiful Surroundings), Guardian Spirit of Sunflowers and deity of the Sunflower Clan. The same symbol, modeled on an insect pollinating a flower, is used for both deities.

Francesca’s beautiful floral blouses appear to identify her with this second deity.

In 1960, archaeologists discovered a statuette at Wénima, an example of a Típoni, a badge of religious authority; in this case, for the followers of Short Rainbow. The Hopi broke off the right arm of the statuette when they left Wénima, in order to prevent Short Rainbow’s great power from being abused in their absence.

In “Better Call Saul,” Kim’s broken right arm precipitates Kim and Jimmy’s migration away from Wexler-McGill (BCS 407 “Something Stupid”). This break comes up again in the episode ‘Plan and Execution,’ when Howard angrily berates Kim for her soulless character. The way he puts it is by saying that Kim has a piece missing. 

Now, how does a Hopi deity who calls Wénima, Arizona home go about taking human form – finding a place to live, choosing a mother, growing up, and then becoming a lawyer? It’s a daunting task. Apparently there is a constraint: Kim Wexler has to come from the same place as Short Rainbow, or at least a place with the same name. But modern Wénima, Arizona, is a wildlife refuge and is thus implausible as the home of a modern human. There is a way out, though. As it happens, Red Cloud House is a nickname given by the Hopi for Wénima, AZ. If only there was an inhabitable place also called Red Cloud.

We see young Kim Wexler waiting for her mom in the parking lot of Red Cloud Junior High School (BCS 506, “Wexler v. Goodman”). Red Cloud is a Nebraska town near the Kansas state line; named after the Oglala Sioux warrior Red Cloud. Thankfully, Red Cloud, Nebraska, exists and can provide the necessary sustenance for Short Rainbow to transform into Kim Wexler.

The Wexler-McGill law office represents Wénima; a waystation on Jimmy’s migration through life. Jimmy honors Short Rainbow, here on the left (BCS 209 “Nailed”). Indeed, anytime Jimmy puts on a colorful suit and a bright tie, he honors his deity, Short Rainbow.

 

It’s no coincidence that three important, different structures in the “Breaking Bad” universe are red in color. Each structure is a refuge, like Wénima, Red Cloud House. 

Walter White’s red New Hampshire cabin is a bitter refuge (BrBa 515 “Granite State”).

Kim’s red-brick school is a formative refuge (BCS 506, “Wexler v. Goodman”). 

Kim and Jimmy foster each other’s careers at the red refuge of Wexler-McGill (BCS 208 “Fifi”). 

Here is the jagged-line Wexler-McGill logo (BCS 306 “Off Brand”). To the Hopi, any such jagged line symbolizes water. Wexler-McGill is a symbolic home of the Water Clan. Not being born into a clan herself, Kim Wexler adopts the Water Clan as her own.

And what about the older brother? Deprived of rain, he is suffering extreme thirst and he starts ripping holes in the walls to find water (BCS 310, "Lantern").

The symbolism here comes from that most-famous of all Surrealist movies, Luis Buñuel’s 1962 film “The Exterminating Angel,” where guests at a dinner party find that they can’t leave. They still have alcohol to drink, but they yearn for water, and they rip holes in the walls in order to find it.

Just like in “Breaking Bad,” there are markers for a full year of the Hopi Ceremonial Calendar in “Better Call Saul,” starting at Fall Equinox. Note that this calendar is not the timeline of the show, but rather a completely-separate timeline. And it follows that there are four seasons in the show too.

Certain characters in the show are best understood as Kachinas. Kachinas are not deities, but rather helpful spirits that are deeply-involved in daily life. Some 300 or 400 Kachinas are recognized among the Hopi. Some Kachinas are popular, and others obscure; some fade away even as new ones appear. 

Kachinas in the show can be best-recognized after-the-fact, by the way they disappear at Summer Solstice in the Hopi Ceremonial Calendar. Sometimes there are other indicators too, such as superhuman strength. Lalo too is a Kachina, and he makes his first appearance at Spring Equinox. The Veterinarian, Howard, Lalo and Mike all vanish at Summer Solstice, just like Kachinas do.

Mike Ehrmantraut exhibits unusual strength with his throat punches and thug fighting. Mike makes his first appearance in “Breaking Bad” after Jane’s death, at Winter Solstice in the Hopi Ceremonial Calendar. Mike is the first Kachina of the New Year, just like the Hopi’s Soyál Kachina is first (BrBa 213, "ABQ"). 

Lalo (Kachina) Salamanca (BCS 408, "Coushatta").

Howard (Kachina) Hamlin (BCS 605, "Black and Blue").

The Veterinarian (and Kachina), Dr. Caldera (BCS 606, "Axe and Grind").

  

So, returning to the two quarreling brothers, how is it that they both found themselves near Globe, AZ, anyway? The brothers were among Hopi refugees fleeing the collapse of a great southern city, a place called Palátkwapi, or Red House. Where was Red House located? No one knows for sure. Hopi legends state that their migrations spanned vast distances, so who knows? 

“The Book of the Hopi” describes a dawning realization, among the Hopi and archaeologists alike, that the physical properties of Red-House legend – a city with no kivas divided into three districts – can be found at Paquimé, at Casas Grandes in Northern Chihuahua, in Mexico.

Here is a map showing southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and northern Mexico. Here is Globe, AZ, in the upper left, Silver City, NM, in the upper right, and Paquimé, in the lower right. Not far from Paquimé is Galeana, where Nacho says his mother’s family is from. North and east of Paquimé is the forbidding Chihuahuan Desert. 

According to legend, Red House was besieged and sacked by the Spider Clan. The Hopi were forced to flee. Archaeologists say Paquimé was burned around the year 1350. It is likely these are hazily-remembered events that occurred about 675 years ago. 

Welcome these fine gentlemen, waiting to grill Mike Ehrmantraut in front of a mural of the ruins of Paquimé (BCS 206 “Bali Ha'i”)

This mural completes a tableau of power and intimidation. These guys, likely of the Spider Clan, can ruin your life. Their forbears have done it before; they can do it again.

On another level, Paquimé represents Chicago, a city under duress from capitalism run amok; particularly the drug trade, administered from afar by Mexican cartels. Jimmy and Chuck are refugees from Chicago.

Are there other indications the Salamancas belong to the Spider Clan? In “Breaking Bad,” the wagon wheel is associated with the Salamanca family; for example, here on the left, foreshadowing how Hector ends up in a wheelchair(BrBa 307 “One Minute”).

A wagon wheel, or indeed, any kind of wheel with spokes, is an abstracted spider web (BrBa 413, “Face Off”). 

For example, when Hank gets shot and ends up in a wheelchair, it’s as if he’s been caught in a web. Wheelchairs equate with spider webs.

In this image, Lalo is about to jump onto Jimmy’s overturned Subaru Esteem (BCS 509, “Bad Choice Road”). Lalo definitely has that superhuman strength characteristic of a Spider Clan Kachina, and he is able to jump like Spider Man. 

Some artistic inspirations for “Better Call Saul” appear to come from the kiva murals at Kuaua Pueblo, located just a few miles north of Albuquerque, at the Coronado Historic Site, across the Rio Grande River from Bernalillo, and next to the Tamaya Resort. An interpretation of the murals can be found in the “Book of the Hopi.” 

Among the refugees from Paquimé were twin children, a boy and a girl, who fled unprepared across the desert. With a bow and arrow the boy finally shot a deer for food. Before it died, the deer gave them detailed instructions about what to do with its body: specifically, to make an awl – an A-W-L – in the traditional manner from the bone in its rear leg. The deer also instructed them to make clothes from its skin. 

 At night, the spirit of the deer carried them north. Ultimately, the twins passed across the future site of Albuquerque and arrived at the Coronado Historic Site.

Young Kim Wexler’s theft of the Starlite brand of awl-shaped earrings appears to be her way of honoring her hero, that plucky little girl who founded the Awl clan of the Hopi (BCS 606, "Axe and Grind").

Awl-shaped earrings

Mural image of the girl who founded the Awl clan of the Hopi. Also note the rectangle found at the girl’s feet. This rectangle is a sipápuni, a symbolic orifice between worlds. Sipápunis are represented several times in these murals.

I visited Coronado Historic Site on February 19, 2025, in hopes of seeing the mural above.  I was not able to do so - the building in which the mural is housed is still under repair.  Still, the guides there looked at the illustration I had in "The Book of the Hopi" and said, "Oh yes, the girl with the red shoes."  I thought this was remarkable.  They explained that the illustration in the book didn't look exactly like the real mural, where the girl has red shoes.  It opens up the question of whether the concept of red-bottomed shoes in the TV series might come from TWO different independent sources!

Lydia's shoes (BrBa 510, "Buried").  Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dali experimented with red-bottom women's shoes in the late 1930s.  Christian Louboutin picked up this experiment again in 1993 with his famous shoes.  In “Breaking Bad,” Lydia is presented in Hopi terms as a young Máraw woman, looking for the husband of her dreams (see post on the Hopi Influence in "Breaking Bad").   Would Lydia have adopted the red-bottom shoes from the Awl-clan girl instead of, or in addition to, Christian Louboutin?  It's all quite amazing!  Synchronicity!

 

The vertigo-inspiring doormat in the HHM lobby, a seemingly infinitely-deep rectangle, represents a sipápuni (BCS 109 “Pimento”).

Marco’s ring-of-power is a sipápuni too. The ring’s jet-black onyx suggests infinite depth.

There are many other sipápunis in the shows too. The grave that Walt and Jesse use to threaten Saul, and the grave where Lalo and Howard are both buried represent more sipápunis. The murals at the Coronado Historic Site may inspire other props, costume pieces, and set pieces in the show. 

Palm Coast Sprinkler is ultimately a Hopi idea. Magic water jars – inexhaustible canteens - are very desirable to have in the desert. There were many refugees from the sack of Red House, all of whom desperately needed water as they scattered (BCS 612 “Waterworks”).

Under the guidance of colorful Kachina Áholi, who’s holding a magic water jar here in his left hand, Water Clan refugees from Red House settled for a time near Silver City, NM, but then migrated eastwards; according to legend, all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.

This mural shows water sprinkling from a girl’s water jar. This mural appears to be Kim’s inspiration. Like her Water Clan forbears, Kim moves to Florida’s Space Coast, where she focuses her energies on sprinklers.

 

What are some of the religious ideas behind Saul Goodman’s life in Omaha as a fugitive? “El Camino,” which means the road in Spanish, means specifically “The Road of Life” of the Hopi, which is identical to the path of the sun.

The sun travels westward across the sky in the Land of the Living. When the sun sets in the west, it rises in the west of the Underworld, the Land of the Dead, and then travels eastward across their sky. When the sun sets in the Underworld’s east, it rises again in the east of the world above. When the sun passes between these two worlds it passes through a sipápuni, a tunnel, at a place called the House of the Sun. When it’s summer in the world above, it’s winter in the world below, and vice versa. Of particular importance is Winter Solstice, when the Kachinas begin returning to the world above, and Summer Solstice, when the Kachinas return to the Underworld, celebrated in a ceremony called Niman Kachina.

Summer Solstice Sunrise Azimuth at Oraibi.  I stumbled across an interesting astronomical curiosity. The azimuth of Summer Solstice sunrise at Oraibi, the religious center of the Hopi, passes directly across Omaha, Nebraska. On this important day, Omaha is truly the House of the Sun. This same sunrise azimuth also passes across the northern tip of New Hampshire, where Walter White takes refuge in “Breaking Bad.

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After “Breaking Bad,” Saul finds himself in Omaha, Nebraska, living in the Diamonds Apartments under the alias Gene Takavic and working as the manager of a Cinnabon eatery. The place swarms with round spirals, particularly the Cinnabon rolls themselves (BCS 101 “Uno”). 

To the Hopi, a round spiral represents the Sun, so this place must be the House of the Sun, likely very close to that tunnel from where Summer Solstice sunrise occurs. But this implies that much of Omaha must be in the Land of the Dead. 

So, the Vacuum Cleaner man has done his work well. He has squirreled Saul away just inside the Land of the Dead. It’s the perfect hiding place. 

I think the creative team initially chose black-and-white cinematography to distinguish the Land of the Dead from the Land of the Living, but later realized they had a problem if they also wanted to show Jeff the cab driver under arrest in the Land of the Living. So, black-and-white cinematography is instead used to distinguish the post-Breaking-Bad world from what came before. 

Jeff once lived in Albuquerque, but upon his death had joined his deceased mother Marion in the Land of the Dead. Jeff blows Gene’s cover. What should Gene do (BCS 501 “Magic Man”)?  

Gene senses an opportunity. According to the Hopi, if someone adheres to rigid ritual purity, after death they can go directly to the next universe as a Kachina. That’s immortality! So, Gene starts campaigning to become a Kachina. Gene needs followers; people who are willing to collect precious things on his behalf for his annual return to the Land of the Living. 

For his part, Jeff is more than willing to fall for Gene’s con. From various clues, like the Lady-Liberty Típoni visible on Saul’s desk in his TV ads, Jeff knows that Gene must be a powerful priest.  

Gene entices Jeff with a promise to reveal secrets of “The Game,” and brings both Jeff and his friend Buddy under his tight control in a conspiracy that amounts to a religious cult.

Gene instructs his new followers in the art of burglary. Jeff runs in a Hopi ceremonial manner in order to honor his new boss (BCS 610 “Nippy”).

Instead of running along a long linear path, though, Jeff runs in a mazelike rectangular grid, and collects precious things on the way (BCS 610 “Nippy”).

In the store, Jeff trips, but recovers (BCS 610 “Nippy”).

Jeff and Buddy succeed in their criminal enterprise, under Gene’s direction (BCS 610 “Nippy”).

One interesting detail is that Jeff detaches magnetic security tags from the stolen goods (BCS 610 “Nippy”).

For Summer Solstice, the Hopi gather magnetic objects for the Kachinas to take to the Land of the Dead. “Better Call Saul” suggests the Hopi Dead do the exact opposite, by gathering non-magnetic objects for the Kachinas to take to the Land of the Living.

Gene’s Kachina campaign fails, because he is not pure of heart. Dodging the police, Gene frantically searches for the Sun’s tunnel into the Land of the Living (BCS 613, “Saul Gone”).

Then Gene jumps into a dumpster and spills his diamonds across his body (BCS 613, “Saul Gone”). 

The Chinese religious reference here is the Taoist quest for spiritual enlightenment, which is called the perfection of the ‘Diamond Body.' Spilling diamonds doesn’t make a diamond body. Gene gets hauled back to Albuquerque (BCS 613, “Saul Gone”).

“Better Call Saul” then returns to a symbol previously used in “Breaking Bad,” the “Man in the Maze” symbol of the Tohono O’odham tribe. For example, one of the participants in Jesse’s self-help group bears two tattoos on his arm. The upper tattoo is the Hopi Tawa symbol and the lower tattoo is the “Man in the Maze” symbol, which, in recent years, has become popular in Hollywood (BrBa 407 “Problem Dog”).

At birth, a person enters a maze. It takes a lifetime to reach the center of the maze. Looking back, a person can see the many turns that got them to this point. Looking forward, the person suddenly meets the Sun God. In an instant, the person spontaneously combusts.

At the end of “Better Call Saul,” Kim Wexler visits Jimmy in the maze of ADX Montrose federal prison. The colored flame of the lighter alludes to a time, coming soon, when Jimmy will face the Sun God in all his majesty (BCS 613, “Saul Gone”).

Kim Wexler, Goddess.

In conclusion, “Better Call Saul” mixes modern and ancient ideas, with Hopi religious ideas featuring prominently. In particular, Kim Wexler is a deity in human form. Here, in this painting by Joseph Michael Oland, Kim contemplates joining Younger Brother’s Water Clan.

 

References

• “Book of the Hopi,” Frank Waters, 1963. 
• “Chaco Astronomy: An Ancient American Cosmology,” Anna Sofaer and others, 2008. 
• “The Chaco Meridian: Centers of Political Power in the Ancient Southwest,” Stephen H. Lekson, 1999. 
• “Hopi Kachinas: The Complete Guide to Collecting Kachina Dolls,” Barton Wright, 1977. 
• “Jung and Eastern Thought: A Dialogue with the Orient,” J.J. Clarke, 1994. 
• “Sam Shepard – Four Two-Act Plays,” Sam Shepard, 1980. 
• "Space, time and the Calendar in the Traditional Cultures of America," by Stephen C. McCluskey, Chapter 3 in "Archaeoastronomy in the 1990s," Papers derived from the third ‘Oxford’ International Symposium on Archaeoastronomy, St. Andrews, U.K, September 1990, Edited by Clive L. N. Ruggles, 2014, Ocarina Books, Ltd.