Tribe: The Hopi. Their full name is "Hopituh Shi-nu-mu." According to one source, they were called "Moki" by the Spanish, but another site says "Pueblo."
Meaning of Name: "The Peaceful People" or "The Little Peaceful Ones." The "Hopi Way" is to behave in a manner that is polite, civilized and peaceable, and to live in a peaceful state of being that is respectful and reverent to all things that have been created by "Maasaw," the Caretaker of the Earth.
Location: Original descended from the Ancient Pueblo Indians, most of them live on reservations in northern Arizona. The Hopi reservation is completely surrounded by the Navajo reservation, and is near the Grand Canyon. So, when you go to the Grand Canyon, you are going into Navajo and Hopi territory, which explains why they have signs posted outside the tourist shops saying that they are the "good" or "friendly' Indians. The Hopi village of Oraibi has existed continuously since 1100 AD.
Original Language: Uto-Aztecan.
Tribal Affiliations: Pueblo, but given their predilection toward peace, they probably got along with most of the neighboring tribes.
Traditional Enemies: Spanish missionaries, American missionaries (Mormon and Baptist), and to an extent, the Navajo. And although their villages in Northern Arizona were somewhat isolated, the Hopi participated in the multi-tribal uprising against the harsh methods of conversion by the Spanish missionaries in 1680.
Traditional Style of Housing: Tall, multi-storied clay-mud and stone apartment buildings which you can get into using a long ladder and were cool, quiet and easily defensible. The men constructed the buildings, which were owned by the women.
Traditional Attire: It gets hot in Arizona, so men traditionally wore breech-cloths and moccasins and the women wore a loose piece of material that went to their knees and attached at one shoulder and moccasins. The Spanish missionaries thought this was immodest so the women added a blouse, and they like to wear lots of jewelry and other forms of adornment.
Traditional Foods: The women grew corn, squash, beans, pumpkins, sunflowers, wheat, nuts, fruits, herbs, corn stews, blue corn tortillas, blue corn dumplings and cornbread. The men hunted turkey, deer, antelope and small game. The Hopi women also grew, but did not eat, cotton and tobacco.
Position of Women: Tribes are matrilineal, and the children are born into the mother's clan, but are named by the women of the father's clan. The child's naming ceremony is on the twentieth day and the child is given his or her series of names. The child's mother and father decide which name, usually a non-Hopi one, is to be more commonly used, but additional names may be added on later, if the child is initiated into a society or after a major event. Most of the major deities, by the way, are female, but only men could be initiated into their societies or cults.
Hopi Courtship: A Hopi girl looking to marry would have her hair styled in a way that looked like a cross between butterfly wings and Princess Leia's cinnamon-bun style of hair. Then she would make a sweet (and probably blue) cornbread and invite the boy she had her eye on to a casual picnic. If he agreed to go and if he accepted the cornbread, they considered themselves (sort of) going steady. After the picnic, he would go back to his parents' apartment and prepare a bundle of fine clothing and white moccasins and deliver it to his girlfriend's doorstep. If she accepted it, they were considered engaged. Then the fiancé would go back to his parents' house, hang out, and then after supper, go to his girlfriend's house to ask her parents for her hand in marriage. If they say yes, he returns to his parents' apartment and informs his parents. Meanwhile, his fiancée makes more cornbread and, when it is done, takes it to his parents. If her potential mother-in-law accepts her cornbread, the couple is formally engaged and can now make plans to marry.
Interesting Tidbits: Unlike in most Native American tribes, the Hopi men are the weavers.... The Kachina Cult (kachinas are ancestral spirits or saints and may have its roots in Aztec culture) dates from at least 1325AD.... At the Bean Dance, kachina dolls, which are carved by uncles, are given by the uncles to their nieces in order to get their nieces familiar with the kachina cult.
Traditional Religion: Kachina religion and Christianity.
Slavery and the Hopi: The Hopi were probably against slavery but the eastern end of the Mojave Indian Trail was in Hopi territory, and this trail was used in the slave trade.
Current Population: There are more than 18,000 registered Hopi.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: Coal mining, tourism, arts, crafts, silver jewelry-making, ceramics, kachina-doll production.
Famous Hopi: None that I have heard of.
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