Hopi

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Hopi

Name

Hopi is the shortened form of the tribe’s original name Hopituh- Shi-nu-mu. Its most commonly given meaning is “peaceful people.” The Hopi are sometimes referred to as the Moqui, a name given to them by the Spanish, who misunderstood and thought the Hopi word, móki, meaning “death”, was the tribe’s name.

Location

The 2.5 million-acre Hopi federal reservation is located in northeast Arizona, just east of the Grand Canyon, in the Four Corners area, where Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico meet. The Hopi inhabit 14 villages, most of them situated atop three rocky mesas (called First Mesa, Second Mesa, and Third Mesa) that rise 600 feet (183 meters) up from the desert floor. A mesa (the Spanish word for table) is a large hill with steep sides and a flat top. Some Hopi also live on the Colorado Indian Tribes Reservation in Parker, Arizona.

Population

In 1680 there were an estimated 2,800 Hopi. In the 1990 U.S. Census, 11,791 people identified themselves as Hopi. By the 2000 census that figure had decreased to 10,336; of that number, 6,946 lived on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona. According to 2004 tribal records 12,053 Hopi were enrolled as tribal members.

Language family

Uto-Aztecan.

Origins and group affiliations

Scientists say the Hopi tribe has lived in its present location for at least one thousand years. Hopi tales tell how their ancestors developed from small creatures in another world. The Hopi are the westernmost of the Pueblo Indian tribes. The Hopi, however, are the only Pueblo people who speak a Shoshonean language of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Hopi living on the Colorado Indian Tribes Reservation share the land with the Mohave, Navajo (see entires), and Chemehuevi. Over the years the Hopi who live on the Hopi Reservation have struggled with the Navaho over land rights.

The Hopi people regard themselves as the first inhabitants of America. They excel at the challenge of farming and gardening in their extremely dry climate. According to this deeply religious tribe, their way of life focuses on humility, cooperation, respect, and caring for the earth. Their isolated location, customary secrecy, and the fact that their community remains largely closed to outsiders have helped preserve their culture.

History

Prior to Spanish contact

Most scholars believe that the region where the Hopi live has been occupied for at least ten thousand years. Evidence suggests that as far back as 1,500 years ago ancestors of the Hopi made use of ceremonies, technology, and architecture very much like that seen on the Hopi reservation in modern times.

From 1350 to 1540 Hopi villages grew larger and required greater social organization. At that time chieftains, or heads of the villages, expanded their power. The period also saw the first use of kivas, underground ceremonial chambers found in every village. In addition coal was mined on tribal land, and the Hopi people were among the world’s first to use coal for firing pottery to strengthen it.

Other Native Americans call the Hopi, whose complex culture was firmly in place by the 1550s, “the oldest of the people.” The Hopi culture included an annual series of ceremonies and a social system based around clans (groups of related families that trace themselves back to a common ancestor). Their village of Oraibi dates back to at least 1550 and is the oldest continuously occupied settlement in the United States.

Important Dates

1540: The Hopi first meet Europeans when Spanish soldiers led by Coronado arrive.

1680: The Hopi and other Pueblo tribes force the Spanish out of their area in the Pueblo Revolt.

1882: President Chester A. Arthur establishes the Hopi Indian Reservation.

1934: The Hopi Tribal Council starts to deal with Hopi-U.S. government relations.

1974: The Navajo-Hopi Settlement Act returns 900,000 acres to the Hopi that had been taken over by the Navajo.

1996 The Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute Act allows more time for Navajos to relocate, but some stay and, with help of Hopi traditionalists, resist the desecration of Big Mountain.

Spanish impose Christianity

The Hopi had their first contact with Europeans in 1540 when a group of Spanish soldiers, led by explorer Francisco Vásquez de Coronado (c. 1510–1554), arrived in Hopi territory. They were looking for the legendary “Seven Cities of Gold”—places that were supposed to be full of riches. When the Spaniards searched and found no gold in Hopi villages, they destroyed part of a village and left. The Hopi did not face further interference from the Spanish until 1629, when the first Spanish missionaries arrived. These Roman Catholics built missions in Oraibi and at two other villages. Most tribal members pretended to adopt the new religion while practicing their own in secret.

Some Spaniards had come seeking gold, and they believed the tribe knew where it was located. Hopi oral tradition tells that the people were tortured to extract this nonexistent information. In addition the priests banned Hopi rituals and ceremonies. The Hopi finally rebelled against Spanish rule and religious oppression when they joined the rest of the Pueblo people in a unified revolt known as the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. (For more information, see Pueblo entry.) During this uprising the Native Americans took the lives of Catholic priests and Spanish soldiers and kept up a several-day attack on Santa Fe, New Mexico. After the battle the Hopi returned to their villages and killed all the missionaries.

Spanish interference ends

To protect themselves from retaliation the Hopi moved three of their villages to the mesa tops. The Spanish returned in 1692 and reconquered the nearby Rio Grande area. (The Rio Grande is the river that separates Mexico from Texas.) Many Rio Grande Natives fled west to the Hopi lands, where they were welcomed. Over the next few years a number of the people who lived at the Hopi village of Awatovi invited the Spanish priests back. This situation caused a serious break between those who wanted to preserve the old ways and those who embraced Christianity. Finally in 1700 Hopi supporters of the old ways killed all the Christian men in Awatovi and then destroyed the village.

The destruction of Awatovi marked the end of Spanish interference in Hopi life. For the most part there was no further contact between the Hopi and white people until about 1850. At that time the U.S. government appointed an Indian agent to oversee the Hopi and other Native American inhabitants of their region. U.S. officials’ visits to Hopi lands caused a terrible smallpox epidemic that killed hundreds of people in 1853 and 1854. A drought soon after that reduced the population of Oraibi from eight hundred people to two hundred. When the American Civil War (1861–65; a war between the Union [the North], who were opposed to slavery, and the Confederacy [the South], who were in favor of slavery) began the military withdrew from the Southwest to fight the war. Without soldiers to stop them, the Navajo increased their attacks on Hopi villages.

Navajo intrusion

In 1882 aware that the Navajo were attacking the Hopi and taking over their land, U.S. president Chester A. Arthur (1830–1886; served 1881–85) ordered the establishment of the Hopi Reservation. He granted the tribe 2.6 million acres of land. But because of the wording of his order, Navajo takeover of Hopi land continued for nearly a century, until the passage of the Navajo-Hopi Indian Land Settlement Act of 1974. The act returned approximately half of the disputed land to the Hopi. Some land disputes between the Hopi and Navajo, however, still remain unresolved (see “Current tribal issues”).

In 1950 the U.S. Congress passed the Navajo-Hopi Act and spent $90 million to improve facilities on the reservation such as roads, schools, hospitals, water, electricity, and sewers. In 1961 the Hopi tribal council was granted permission to lease tribal lands to outsiders. As a result the council allowed the Peabody Coal Company to lease 25,000 acres of land for mining, a process that began at Black Mesa in 1970, and has brought some money to the Hopi. Since the 1960s farming has greatly decreased on Hopi lands, and by 1980 the major source of income had become wage labor (see “Economy”).

As of the mid-2000s most Hopi work at jobs in area coalmines, in the service industry, or as part of the tourist trade. Many also work as artists and craftspeople. One difficulty many Hopi find is that working for wages does not allow the necessary time for farming or participating in religious ceremonies. Nevertheless most families try to maintain their culture in spite of the changes brought about by modern living.

Religion

Dependence on the gods

The Hopi religion is a highly developed belief system. It has many gods and spirits including Earth Mother, Sky Father, the Sun, the Moon, and the many kachinas, or invisible spirits that inhabit living and non-living things. The religion features a yearlong schedule of rituals, songs, recitations, and prayers that are unusual and complex.

The Hopi have long believed that the non-religious elements of their lives must be based upon their religious patterns, the patterns of Creation. As of 1992 it was reported that more than 95 percent of the people remained faithful to their Hopi religious beliefs.

The Hopi believe that they are deeply connected to the Earth. They also have faith that if they perform their cycle of ceremonies successfully, the world will remain in harmony, the gods will be pleased, and sufficient rain will fall.

Kivas and prayer feathers

Central to the religious ceremonies of the Hopi are the kiva, the paho, and the Corn Mother. The kiva, an underground ceremonial chamber, is usually rectangular (although the ancient ones were circular) and is sunk into the village square. It symbolizes the place of emergence of the original Hopi people into this world. The kiva has a small hole in the floor that represents the entrance to the underworld and a ladder extending above the roof opening that represents the way to the upper world.

At the end of secret ceremonies held inside the kiva, ceremonial dances are performed in the square. The paho, a prayer feather, usually that of an eagle, is used to send prayers to the Creator. Pahos are used at all kiva ceremonies.

The Corn Mother and kachinas

Corn, which has sustained the Hopi for centuries, plays a large role in Hopi ceremonies. For example cornmeal is sprinkled to welcome the kachinas to the Corn Mother. The Corn Mother, who has been described as “a perfect ear of corn whose tip ends in four full kernels,” is saved for rituals.

Hopi kachinas are said to inhabit the sacred San Francisco Peaks. They come to live in Hopi villages for six months of the year to perform ceremonies and dances. They are mostly good spirits who have the power to pass on prayers for rain to the gods. Masked people dressed as these spirits perform the kachina dances, which are tied to the growing season, beginning in March and lasting into July.

The Powamu Ceremony and Bean Dance

The Hopi Powamu Ceremony is performed to request plentiful crops from the gods and to initiate children into a Kachina society. The sixteen-day rites begin during the new moon in February and prepare the Hopi and their dry lands for the upcoming planting season. Beans are blessed, planted in moist sand in boxes, then grown in the hothouse environment of underground kivas. Ceremonies that center on planting are very important since they help seeds sprout and thrive when warm weather comes.

The Bean Dance celebrates the germination of the seeds. Kachinas dance into the village square along a path of cornmeal sprinkled before them by priests. The dancers call on the mysterious forces of nature and stay in the village for six months, dancing for rain, fertility, and other blessings.

The Crow Mother Kachina walks through the village on the last day of the Powamu Ceremony, carrying a basket of fresh bean sprouts that germinated in the kiva. These signify the abundance of crops to come. The Crow Mother is accompanied by her two sons, called the Whipper Twins. With eyes bulging and hair flying, they bare their teeth as they pretend to whip the children of the village with yucca fronds.

Language

The Hopi speak a single language, Hopi, a Shoshonean form of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Different Hopi groups have different dialects (varieties). For example the Hopi people of the village of Hano speak Tewa, a Pueblo language derived from the Azteco-Tanoan language family.

The Hopi language is difficult to translate, and only recently has it been written down. But the strong Hopi oral tradition preserved it and passed it down from generation to generation, so that today most Hopi, including the young people, still speak their language as well as English.

Hopi Words

tiva … “dance”
tuwaki … “shrine in the kiva”
kahopi … “not Hopi”
kachada … “white man”
Hotomkam … “Three Stars in Line” or “Orion’s Belt”
kachinki … “kachina house”
Hakomi? … “Who are you?”
Haliksa’i … “Listen, this is how it is”

Government

Each independent Hopi village is governed by a Kikmongwi, or village chief. Villages are only loosely connected politically as a confederation, although they have strong cultural connections in their shared history and religion and the similarity of their ceremonies.

The Hopi tribe has always been organized according to a system of clans based on the mother’s ancestry. In modern times there are some thirty clans. Clan membership helps to provide a singular Hopi identity. Although an elected Hopi Tribal Council has existed since 1934 to deal with matters between the Hopi and the federal government, it does not govern the tribe. The council is made up of a chairperson and vice-president who serve four-year terms, and by council members who serve two-year terms. Every village has its own government, but the Hopi Tribal Council sets general policies and oversees tribal business and laws.

The Tribal Council represents the Hopi people in dealings with the external world, and the 12 Hopi villages hold the power within the tribe itself. Kikmongwi still lead many of the villages. Some of those also have representatives on the Tribal Council. One village now has a constitution and a western-style government.

Economy

For many centuries the Hopi stayed in one place and farmed. Men planted and harvested the crops, while women gathered other needed food. During a great drought from 1279 to 1299 the Hopi adopted inventive farming methods that took advantage of every possible source of moisture and are still in use today.

One Hopi irrigation method used wind to blow sand up against the sides of the mesas, forming dunes that trapped moisture. They planted crops in these dunes. Hopi farmers also planted in the dry washes (low ground that is flooded part of the time) as well as in the mouths of the streams. They sometimes irrigated crops by hand. The Hopi raised cotton in addition to edible crops, and men spun and wove cotton cloth into clothing and textiles for their own use and for trade.

In modern times small farms and cattle and sheep ranches are a major part of the tribal economy. A number of people work on the reservation in the construction industry, either for private developers or for the tribal government. The tribe has renovated the Hopi Industrial Park and the Hopi Cultural Center Museum and built a shopping mall and motel-restaurant complex. Tourism is also important as visitors come to see Hopi historical sites such as Oraibi Village. Coalmining, arts and crafts, service businesses, and tribal government employ many people. Some have left the reservation to pursue professional careers.

Daily life

Families

Parents gave their children much love and attention to teach them the Hopi Way of peace and kindness. If a child or adult did not act according to these values, the tribe shunned them until they changed their behavior, but they quickly forgave those who repented. When children were bad, a scare-kachina with bulging eyes and long fangs often frightened them into better behavior.

Buildings

For centuries Hopi villages were composed of houses built of local native stone and arranged around a center containing one or more kivas. Villages in the early twenty-first century are set up in much the same way.

From 1100 to 1300 the climate became drier, and people were forced to move into villages. It became difficult for farmers to grow enough food for everyone. To house the growing population, buildings in the villages grew larger, with some containing hundreds of rooms. Houses built from 1350 to 1540 ce were made of stone cemented with adobe (pronounced uh-DOE-bee; a sun-dried mud made of a mixture of clay, sand, and sometimes ashes, rocks, or straw) and then plastered inside. They were very similar to the older houses of present-day Hopi, except that they often had many stories. The houses of that time were heated with coal.

In the mid-2000s the Hopi live in both older-style houses and modern ones. The kiva remains largely the same as in ancient times: a rectangular room built of native stone, mostly below ground. Sometimes kivas are wider at one end, to form the same T-shape as the doorways found in all ancient Hopi ruins. Kivas contain an altar and a central fire pit below the roof opening, with a ladder extending above the edge of the roof. They also serve as meeting rooms.

Clothing and adornment

In earlier times Hopi men wore fur or buckskin loincloths (flaps of material that covered the front and back and were suspended from the waist). Some loincloths were painted and decorated with tassels, which symbolized falling rain. The men also wove robes and blankets out of the cotton they grew. Observers who were in the region around 1861 reported that women wore loose black gowns with a gold stripe around the waist and at the hem, while men wore shirts, loose cotton pants, and a blanket around their shoulders.

Married women wore their long hair straight or in braids. Unmarried girls wore their hair in large twists on either side of their heads in a shape that resembled squash blossom, a symbol of fertility. Unmarried women wear this time-consuming hairstyle today, but only for ceremonies. Some Hopi men still wear the traditional male hairstyle with straight bangs over the forehead and a knot of hair in the back with the sides hanging straight and covering the ears.

In modern times some Hopi women and girls still wear the traditional Hopi dress, which is black and embroidered with bright red and green trim. For ceremonies and dances Hopi men wear elaborate costumes that feature special headdresses, masks, and body paints. The costumes vary according to clan and ceremony.

Food

In earlier days the staple crops of the Hopi were corn, squash, beans, and some wild and semi-cultivated plants such as Indian millet and wild potato. Salt was obtained during long, difficult excursions to the Grand Canyon area. Hopi women gathered piñon, prickly pear, yucca, berries, currants, nuts, and various seeds. In the sixteenth century the Spanish introduced wheat, onions, chilies, mutton (sheep meat), peaches, and other fruits into the Hopi diet.

Many modern Hopi farmers still use the old methods of cultivation. They primarily raise corn, melons, gourds, and many varieties of beans. The six traditional Hopi varieties of corn include yellow, blue, red, white, purple, and sweet. Corn is ground for use in ceremonies, such as the annual corn roast, as well as to make piki, a traditional bread baked in layers on hot stones.

Hundreds of years ago wild game was more plentiful than it is today, and Hopi men hunted deer, antelope, and elk. They also hunted rabbit using boomerangs (flat, curved sticks that can be thrown so that they will return near the thrower). By 1950 wild game had dwindled, leaving only rabbit and a few quail and deer.

Education

The Hopi made use of the original “interactive method” of learning—speaking and listening. This was their main method for teaching their children about the Hopi ways. In modern times Hopi children are educated at six elementary schools, a junior high school, and a high school on the reservation as well as at a boarding school in Kearns Canyon and a community college nearby.

A partnership between Northland Pioneer College, Northern Arizona University, and the Hopi Nation allows students to take college classes while they are in high school. When they graduate they may have as many as thirty college credit hours; this allows them to skip several college semesters. Not only does this program called “Two Plus Two Plus Two” encourage students to go on to college, but it also lowers the costs of getting a college education.

Healing practices

Many Hopi healing methods rely on the power of suggestion—the fact that people often feel better if something is said or done to make them believe they will get better. The Hopi are also knowledgeable about the healing properties of certain plants and herbs.

There are several healing societies that perform curing rituals; some concentrate on only one type of illness. For example snakebite is treated by the Snake Society on First Mesa, while rheumatism (muscle or joint discomfort) is treated by the Powamu Society.

Sometimes people become members of curing societies after suffering an accident or illness. For example lightning-shocked people and those whose fields have been lightning-struck join the Flute Society, whose members can cure earaches in babies. Other healers can suck out diseases from infants and children by holding cornmeal in their mouths and symbolically “spitting away” the disease. Certain kachina dances (including the Horned Water Serpent and the Buffalo Dance) are held specifically to help afflicted persons.

In addition to these age-old healing techniques, modern-day Hopi use medical science, including doctors and hospitals. There are health clinics on the reservation and hospitals nearby. The U.S. Indian Health Service provides mental health services and substance-abuse programs.

Arts

Hopi women make fine multicolored pottery. They also produce traditional textiles for trade or sale, Hopi kachina dolls, hand-woven baskets, and ornate jewelry.

Oral literature

Hopi stories present tribal knowledge in such a way that both children and adults can learn something new at each hearing. Each clan has its own stories with information valuable to its members, and people learn only the stories of their own clan. The stories contain more than enough truth to ponder for a lifetime. The Hopi consider their stories sacred and private.

Hopi Origin Tale

Hopi myths teach that their people originated in the first of Four Worlds, not as people but as insect-like creatures who fought among themselves. Displeased that the creatures did not grasp the true meaning of life, the Creator, the Sun spirit Tawa, sent Spider Woman, another spirit, to guide them on a journey. By the time they reached the Third World, they were human beings. They reached the Fourth, or Upper World, by climbing up from the underworld through a hollow reed.

When the Hopi reached the Fourth World, they were given four stone tablets by Masaw, the spirit that protected the world and taught the people the proper way to live. Masaw described the travels they were to take—to the ends of the land in each of the four directions and how in time they would find the place where they were meant to settle.

As the migrations began, various clans started out in each direction. Their routes eventually formed a cross, the center of which was the Center of the Universe, their intended permanent home. According to this Hopi story of creation, their journeys finally led them to the plateau that lies between the Colorado River and the Rio Grande, in the Four Corners region (where Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico join). The Hopi believe they were led there so that the scanty rainfall would encourage them to pray and remain close to the Creator to fulfill their needs.

Because the number four holds great significance in the Hopi religion, many ritual customs often call for repetitions of four.

Customs

Naming ceremonies

Newborn babies are kept out of the Sun for their first 19 days, then a naming ceremony is held. A baby belongs to its mother’s clan, but it is named for the father’s. Since one cannot be Hopi without a clan of birth, if the mother is not Hopi, neither will her children be.

For the ceremony a traditional Hopi stew is prepared at the home of a baby’s maternal grandmother (mother’s mother). During the naming ritual, the grandmother kneels and washes the mother’s hair, then bathes the new baby, who is wrapped snugly in a blanket with only its head visible. Using the baby’s special ear of corn called the Corn Mother, the grandmother rubs a mixture of water and cornmeal into the baby’s hair, applying it four times. Then each of the baby’s paternal aunts (from the father’s side) does the same, and each gives a gift and suggests a name. The grandmother chooses one of the names. Then she introduces the baby to the Sun god just as the Sun comes up. A feast follows the naming ceremony.

Adolescence

Both boys and girls are initiated into a kachina cult between the ages of eight and ten. The initiation ceremony includes fasting, praying, and a light whipping with yucca leaves. Each child is assigned a ceremonial mother (for the girls) or father (for the boys), who sees them through the ordeal. Boys usually join the society of their ceremonial fathers. There are four such societies—Kwan,Ahl,Tao, or Wuwutcimi. Joining one of these groups is part of the Powamu ceremony, a four-day tribal initiation rite for young men that traditionally takes place at planting time.

Ten-year-old girls once took part in a ceremony that involved grinding corn for an entire day at the girl’s paternal grandmother’s house. Some girls ground corn for four days to mark their first menstrual period, received a new name, and adopted the squash blossom hairstyle (see “Clothing and adornment”).

Festivals

The cycles of Hopi rituals are conducted in secrecy within the kivas. The dances that follow in the village square are rhythmic, mystical, and colorful. Outsiders are sometimes allowed to watch them.

One of the most important Hopi ceremonies is held at the Winter Solstice (the time when the Sun is farthest south of the equator). This ceremony, called the Soyal, is the first ceremony of the year and the first kachina dance. The people believe this ceremony will make the Sun return sooner. The Niman Ceremony or Home Dance, the last kachina dance of the year, is held in thanksgiving at the Summer Solstice (when the Sun is closest to the equator). By this time the last of the crops have been planted and the first corn has been harvested.

Other dances of less religious importance are the Buffalo Dance, held in January to commemorate the days when buffalo were plentiful; the Bean Dance, held in February to ask the kachinas to bless the next planting; and the Navajo Dance, which celebrates the neighboring Navajo tribe.

The relatively short (one hour) Snake Dance is preceded by eight days of secret preparations. During this rite priests handle and even put snakes in their mouths. The secret of how they do this without being bitten has never been revealed to outsiders. At the end of the dance, the snakes are released back into the desert to ensure that the rains will come. Alternating every other year with the Snake Dance is the Flute Dance, which honors the spirits of people who have died during the preceding two years. Women’s dances, like the Basket Dance, are held near the end of the year.

Courtship and marriage

Some of the ancient Hopi marriage customs still survive, but many have fallen into disuse. For example around 1950 courtship was still an elaborate procedure that involved a rabbit hunt and corn grinding, and marriages could only take place with family approval. A bride wore a traditional white tasseled robe, woven for the occasion by her uncles. She carried a similar, smaller white robe rolled up in a type of suitcase. This gown later served as her burial clothes. The young couple lived with the mother of the bride during their first year together.

In modern times courtship is much less formal. Couples are often married in church or by a town official and then return to the reservation. Since many men no longer know how to weave, most uncles do not make the traditional robes.

There are several Hopi marriage customs still practiced in the early twenty-first century. A bride-to-be stays with her future in-laws for four days. During this period she grinds corn all day and prepares the meals to show that she knows how to cook. Prior to the wedding the aunts of the bride and groom participate in a good-natured free-for-all, throwing mud and trading insults, each suggesting that the other side is no good. Then the groom’s parents use yucca for a ceremonial washing of the couple’s hair. A huge feast follows at the house of the bride’s mother.

Clan membership continues to play a role in partner selection. There are still rules that discourage marrying into one’s own clan, but such marriages are no longer forbidden. The fact that marriage to non-tribal members is extremely rare has helped to preserve Hopi culture.

Funerals

Among the Hopi it is desirable to grow old because the journey of life is almost complete, and the soul will go on to a better place. Because they believe the soul’s journey to the land of the dead begins on the fourth day after death, bodies are customarily buried as quickly as possible. Any delay in burial could interfere with the soul’s ability to reach the underworld.

A paternal aunt washes the hair of the deceased with yucca shampoo, then she decorates the hair with prayer feathers and covers the face with a mask of raw cotton that symbolizes clouds. The body is wrapped—a man’s in a deerskin robe and a woman’s in her wedding robe. The oldest son buries the corpse in a sitting position along with food, water, and cornmeal. Finally a stick is inserted into the soil of the grave, creating a place for the soul to exit. If rain follows, it signifies that the soul has experienced a successful journey.

Current tribal issues

Land claims

When the Hopi Reservation was originally established in 1882, nearly 2.5 million acres were set aside in northeastern Arizona for the Hopi and whatever other Native Americans the federal government settled there. The Hopi Reservation was centered within a larger area that the Hopi considered to be their ancestral land, but it was designated the Navajo Reservation.

As their population increased the Navajo expanded their settlements beyond their own borders, and pushed onto the Hopi Reservation. The situation went on for many decades. Although the Hopi complained, the U.S. government failed to act. In time the Navajo took over 1.8 million acres of the land originally designated for the Hopi, leaving the tribe with only about 600,000 acres. Recognizing the problem, Congress passed the Navajo-Hopi Settlement Act in 1974. The act returned 900,000 acres to the Hopi. But as late as the 1990s the dispute over resettlement and the remaining 900,000 original acres continued. Finally in 1996 the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute Act reaffirmed that the land belonged to the Hopis, but allowed more time for Navajos to relocate. Some Navajos remained, however.

Preserving the Hopi Way

Concerns about the preservation of the Hopi Way have divided the tribe into two factions: Traditionalists and Progressives. Traditionalists, who want to keep the old ways, fear that white influence will break down Hopi culture. On the other hand, Progressives feel that adopting some aspects of modern American life is necessary if the tribe is to survive and grow.

Hopi people are disturbed that the privacy surrounding their rites and practices has been violated for the benefit of non-Hopi people. For example stories told to visitors and photographs of rites have been published in books without permission, observers have taped Hopi ceremonies and sold the tapes to the public, clothing and ceremonial dance steps have been copied and sold in non-sacred settings, and designs from Hopi potters and kachina doll makers have been reproduced without their permission.

Environmental concerns

Coalmines have changed the Black Mesa area. They pump a huge amount of water daily from the ground. Large sinkholes have opened in the ground, some as deep as thirty feet. Experts say this could indicate that the water is drying up. If so, it could mean forced relocation for the tribe. As of 2005 the Navajo Nation Council voted to stop the water pumping done by Peabody Energy, which should help with the problem.

Reclaiming the land stripped by the mines is another ongoing project. Holes are filled with dirt and rocks, then reshaped so they look similar to the original landscape, then twenty pounds of seeds per acre are sown. But it will take many years before the land is restored. Meanwhile new areas are being mined that will also require extensive clean up and reclamation.

Notable people

Louis Tewanima (1879–1969) was a world-class Hopi athlete. He won a record-setting silver medal in the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden, in the 10,000-meter race. Tewanima returned to his home on the reservation to tend sheep and raise crops, but still kept active well into his nineties. In 1954 he was named to the All-Time United States Olympic Track and Field Team. In 1957 he was the first person to be inducted into the then-new Arizona Sports Hall of Fame.

Hopi Charles Loloma (1921–1991) designed jewelry that is among the most distinctive in the world. His unique designs combined non-traditional materials like gold and diamonds with typical Native American materials like turquoise. He also received great recognition as a potter, silversmith, designer, and painter of murals.

Other notable Hopi include: geneticist and the first Hopi to receive a doctorate in sciences, Frank C. Dukepoo (1943–); traditional artist Fred Kabotie (c. 1900–); the “single most influential Indian woman creator in clay,” Otellie Loloma (1922–1992); award-winning artist and teacher, Linda Lomahaftewa (1947–); a ceramicist who helped revive Indian arts, Nampeyo, (c.1860–1942); influential periodical publisher and editor, Rose Robinson (1932–); anthologized poet Wendy Rose (1948–); and weaver Ramona Sakiestewa (1949–).

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