What Effect if Any Did the Europeans Have on the Hopi Tribe?

The Europeans took land from the Hopi tribe and attempted to destroy their way of life. Indians occupied North America long before the European settlers arrived. As more and more settlers arrived and pushed West, these Native Americans were slowly and forcibly pushed from their lands. Although they attempted to fight for their land, most were forced to assimilate to the European culture and religion in order to live peacefully with these new people.

The effect on the Hopi tribe was somewhat similar, although there were some differences from other tribes when considering the effect the Europeans had on the Hopi tribe.

The first visitors to the Hopi were the Spanish. Until Spanish settlers came to the Hopi area in 1540, the tribe had enjoyed their peaceful way of life. However, they soon found themselves fighting with the Spanish settlers to keep their land and way of life intact.

The Spanish came to the land with the desire to find gold. Although met with resistance by the Hopi tribe, they soon accepted the Spanish and allowed them to stay with the tribe for a period of several days. They were shown the Grand Canyon, but lost interest in the area when they failed to find the gold they were looking for. The Spanish settlers soon left.

Europeans Return with Missions

Fifty-two years later, in 1592, the Spanish returned and attempted to set up missions amongst the Hopi tribe in an attempt to convert these people to Catholicism and eradicate the religion of the Hopi people. The Hopi tolerated this for nearly 100 years before joining other Pueblo Indian tribes in the Pueblo revolt, which led to the destruction of the missions that had been established and the elimination of the Spanish settlers from the area.

While the Spanish were here, however, they bought the Hopi horses, cattle, burros, and sheep in addition to many different new types of fruits and vegetables. The Spanish also introduced the disease smallpox to the Hopi tribe, and this European disease had a damaging effect on the Hopi tribe.

Hopi Before the Europeans Came

The Hopi Indian tribe was one of the sub-tribes of the Pueblo Indians. This tribe has one of the oldest and most documented histories of any tribe in North America. They also have one of the oldest originally occupied lands of any tribe in North America. The Hopi tribe name, meaning the peaceful ones, primarily occupied approximately 1.5 million acres of land in northeastern Arizona and are thought to have migrated to this area in 500 B.C. from Mexico.

The Hopi have always occupied the Four Corners area of the western United States. They made their pueblo homes out of sand, mud, and clay on the top of three mesas in Arizona. To sustain their way of life, they used water runoff from the mesas to grow many different types of crops.

By the start of the 16th century, the Hopi tribe had become one of only a few tribes who had a complex social system, a highly developed culture, and traditional religious ceremonies that centered around the growing of their crops.

Invasions by the Navajo

Following the Spanish, a neighboring Indian tribe, the Navajo, began invading Hopi land. The Navajo used the land of the Hopi people to grow their crops and graze their livestock. They also raided villages at random in surprise attacks on the Hopi people. This continued until 1824 when the Spanish gained control of Mexico and also the lands that the Hopi occupied. The Navajo were then forced to live on their own reservations.

American Effect on the Hopi Tribe

In 1848 after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe de Hidalgo, the area became governed by the United States. In 1870, the United States took the land from the Hopi people and white settlers began to encroach on the territory, forcibly removing them from the land that they had occupied for hundreds of years. This, too, resulted in the Europeans having a damaging effect on the Hopi Tribe.

The U.S. government spent years attempting to eradicate the culture, religion, and way of life of the Hopi people. They did so by:

• Requiring the Hopi children to go to school
• Requiring the males of the tribe to cut their hair
• Forcing Christianity on them

However, the Hopi refused to be assimilated and many ended up in jail for their revolt against the U.S. government.

It was not until 1934 when the U.S. government became sentimental about what their ancestors had done in the past to the people of many Indian tribes. They attempted to rectify the situation by enacting the Indian Reorganization Act. This Act gave back original lands to the tribes that had once occupied them.

However, the Hopi to this very day only own about 9% of their original territory and continue to fight with both the U.S. government and the surrounding Navajo tribes in attempt to own all of their land again.