Hopi Reservation

The Hopis are one of the oldest living cultures in documented history, with a past stretching back thousands of years. The Hopi trace their ancestry to the Ancient Puebloan and Basketmaker cultures, which built many stone structures and left many artifacts at the Grand Canyon and across the Southwest. For more than 2,000 years, the Hopi have lived in what is today known as the Four Corners region where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado meet. Their reservation, located in northeastern Arizona, occupies about 1.5 million acres, comprising only a small portion of their traditional lands. Juniper and pinyon pine grow at high elevations on the mesas, while the valley floors are mostly grasslands and the lowest elevations support desert vegetation.

The Hopis began raising livestock introduced by the Spanish who came to the area in the 16th century, especially sheep and cattle, though the size of their herds is limited by the amount of browse and water available. The Hopis also make extensive use of natural resources on their Reservation; for instance, they utilize 134 local plant species for food, grooming, basketry, and housekeeping.

Each of the twelve Hopi villages has an autonomous government, though a tribal council makes laws and oversees business policies for the entire tribe. The village of Old Oraibi on Third Mesa, settled in the 11th Century, is considered the oldest continuously inhabited village in North America. Each village also has a plaza where Hopis perform ceremonial dances passed down through the centuries. Hopi arts and crafts are often influenced by their mesa of origin, with First Mesa famous for pottery, Second Mesa for coiled basketry, and Third Mesa for wicker basketry, weaving, kachina doll carvings and silversmithing.

When migrating tribes entered Hopi territory on the Colorado Plateau, the Hopis retreated to the tops of the mesas and enlisted the help of Tewa Indians from the Rio Grande for protection. The Tewas helped the Hopis drive out the Spanish missionaries during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and eventually became part of the Hopi Tribe. However, today there is still a distinction among the villages, and some Tewas still speak their own native language.

Among the migrating newcomers were the Navajos, semi-nomadic hunters and gatherers who probably traveled south from Canada over many generations along the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains. Over the centuries, Hopis and Navajos have had a complex relationship, intermingling yet retaining separate identities.

Hopi lands came under control of the U.S. government with the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848. When the Navajos returned to the area in 1868 after their forced exile to Bosque Redondo, a treaty with the federal government granted them 3.5 million acres that included their homeland of Canyon de Chelly, about 90 miles east of the Hopi mesas.

Also in the late nineteenth century,  Mormon settlers entered the area and once the Santa Fe Railroad arrived towns began springing up uncomfortably near Hopi villages.

The Hopis never fought the cavalry and never signed a treaty.  For the most part, they avoided interaction with US government officials.  By the late 1800s, US Indian agents wanted to send the Hopi children to boarding schools, but realized they had no jurisdiction because the Hopi villages were not on established Indian reservation land.  On December 16, 1882, President Chester A. Arthur established the Hopi Reservation by Executive Order.  In a handwritten document, he set an arbitrary boundary between the lines of 110 to 111 degrees longitude west and 35 degrees 30 minutes to 36 degrees 30 minutes latitude north.  The 2.5 million acre reservation did not encompass much of their traditional land, important ceremonial shrines, or their village of Moencopi.

From 1868 to 1934, as the Navajo Reservation grew from 3.5 million to 16 million acres, it encircled and diminished the Hopi Reservation. Today, the Hopi Reservation occupies only 1.5 million acres.

The arrival of the Santa Fe Railway in northern Arizona the early 1880s had a profound impact on the Hopi. The Railway and the Fred Harvey Company realized the lucrative tourism potential of the Hopi Reservation, especially since it was so near to the Grand Canyon. Euro Americans had long admired the Hopis for their peaceful attitudes and for their arts and crafts. The company brought Hopis to the tourist facilities it built at the South Rim’s Grand Canyon Village, employing people from the reservation to work at Hopi House and perform dances for visitors, but they also took visitors to the Hopi villages. The companies offered a variety of excursions that took tourists over the Navahopi Road (built in 1924) to the Hopi Reservation, where they could mingle amongst tribal members, shop for souvenirs, and witness cultural events.

The Hopis adopted a constitution and created a tribal council in 1936. The federal government disbanded the council in 1943 because it was not enforcing a mandate for livestock reduction to deal with the problem of overgrazing. However, the council was reformed in 1951, mainly in order to create an official governing body to deal with mineral and water rights. Although most of Black Mesa with its large coal deposits was on the Navajo Nation, both tribes shared mineral and water rights there. By 1963 the Hopis had approved oil and gas exploration leases for non-Indian corporations worth several million dollars. In 1966, the Hopi and Navajo tribes signed leases with Peabody Western Coal Company for mineral rights on 64,858 acres of Black Mesa. Peabody also gained rights to pump water from the underlying aquifer. The company had 35-year contracts to supply coal to the 1,580-megawatt Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin, Nevada, and the Navajo Generating Station soon to open near Page, Arizona. In 1970 the Peabody Coal Company began strip mining on Black Mesa. This electricity helps power cities and industry in southern California, Phoenix, Tucson, and Las Vegas. While revenue from these operations brings in much needed money and jobs, the tribes also suffer from air pollution, environmental degradation, and the decline of their precious aquifer and springs caused by the mines and powerplants.

The Hopis still consider themselves primarily farmers, but today almost half of all households have some livestock and most have income from wage labor or arts and crafts sales. The vibrant Hopi culture still draws thousands of tourists to the reservation every year. The Hopis allow visitors to attend some public ceremonies and observe dances, although photographing, sketching, or otherwise recording villages and ceremonies is prohibited. Not all villages are open to the public or allow public viewing of their ceremonies. For information on visiting Hopi land, and for instructions on proper etiquette, visit the web site of the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office.