HOPI. A division of nean Indians in northern Arizona, inhabiting seven small towns and forming part of the Pueblo group. They are also known as Moki or Moqui and their district as Tusayan. They were ered by Tobar of Coronado's pedition in 1540, annexed in 1598 by Onate, missionized in 1629. After the Pueblo rebellion of 1680 most of the Hopi moved their towns on mesas for defence ; only Oraibi perhaps still occupies the same site as in 1540. Soon after the rebellion, groups of Tewa from the Rio Grande established themselves among the Hopi; one of these remained and still preserves its old speech in the town of Hano. A single mission was re-established, at Awatobi, but permanently abandoned on the destruction of this pueblo by the other Hopi.
Awatobi and Oraibi were the largest towns in this period ; Shon gopovi, Mishongnovi and Walpi already existed ; Sichomovi and Shipaulovi were founded in the i 8th century. The population, perhaps 4,000 at discovery, has long been nearly stationary at about 2,000, nearly half of it in Oraibi until in recent years fac tionalism between the conservative and progressive elements in that town led to a secession and the founding of Hotavila.
Since their discovery, the Hopi have been the westernmost of the Pueblos. Spanish influence therefore rested lightly on them and native culture has been maintained more purely than at Zuni, Acoma and especially the Rio Grande towns. The Hopi snake dance, perhaps the most famous native ceremony still practised in the United States, owes its interest and repute to the purity of its aboriginal flavour ; except in details, it was like other Pueblo rites before these were modified or abandoned. The Hopi are also the last of the Pueblos to grow, spin and weave a native cotton.
See the series of monographs by Fewkes and Mindeleff in Reports of the Bureau of American Ethnology, and by Voth and Dorsey in Publications of Field Museum of Natural History. (A. L. K.)