Hopi Indian Reservation

American Indian designated area in northeastern Arizona; area 6,070 sq km/2,344 sq mi, population (1990) 7,400. Entirely surrounded by the Navajo Reservation, it occupies three mesas (plateaus) extending south from Black Mesa, as well as land at the base of the mesas. The Hopi, descendants of the Anasazi, have lived in the area for 2,000 years.

In the 1880s the US government assigned 9,712 sq km/3,750 sq mi of Arizona jointly to the sedentary Hopi and the seminomadic Navajo. However, this arrangement sparked land disputes between the two peoples, which were still continuing in the 1990s, when proposals were made to relocate some dispossessed Hopi on off-reservation federal lands in central Arizona. The Hopi are noted for their ceremonies and for their traditional stone pueblos: Walpi, on First Mesa; Shipaulovi, on Second Mesa; and Oraibi, on Third Mesa, are well known. Modern communities have grown up around the base of the mesas. The tribal headquarters are situated at Kykotsmovi (population 770), which is also a trade centre. The San Francisco Peaks, which lie to the southwest, are a sacred site to the Hopi.