Native American tribe of the Shoshonean division of the Uto-Aztecan language family, of the Pueblo group of the Southwest culture area.

Also called Moqui, they live in a small group of autonomous villages, lying on or near three high mesas in northeastern Arizona.

These villages, or pueblos, in which the Hopi culture was retained long into the period of Spanish and American dominance, have been intensively studied by anthropologists. The Hopi tribe is the only branch of the Shoshonean linguistic stock that adjusted successfully to life in the pueblos.

In traditions, social organization, and customs the Hopi are almost identical with the other Pueblo Native Americans, and in modern times their culture is far better preserved than that along the Rio Grande.

The Hopi are industrious farmers; they harvest and store large crops of corn, beans, pumpkins, and some fruits. They also weave baskets and blankets and are skillful potters and carvers.

Hopi houses, built by the women, are of stone roughly cut and laid and finished in plaster. The ceilings are supported by beams and cross poles and consist of a compressed mixture of brush and clay. The floors are sometimes flagged, and the interior walls are generally whitewashed with gypsum and sometimes ornamented in simple geometric bands.

In early Hopi houses the doorways, which were the only sources of light, were sometimes built in T-shapes. Windows covered with selenite were introduced by the Spanish; modern houses generally have glass windows and hinged doors.

The tribe is grouped into exogamous clans; that is, the kinship relationship within each clan is so strong that intermarriage between clan members is forbidden. The clans themselves are usually coupled in pairs, and these links are sometimes strong enough to justify larger exogamous groupings.

Marriage is monogamous, and the lines of descent are matrilineal.

The Hopi religion, like that of all other Pueblo peoples, includes the worship of the forces of nature, and has many ceremonies intended to invoke or influence supernatural powers. Ancestor worship plays an important role in Hopi ceremonies, and some Christian influences can be detected, particularly in the dating of ceremonies and the observance of saints' days.

Private rites are held in underground ceremonial chambers called kivas, and public services and dances are commonly performed out of doors.

The most important Hopi religious ceremonies include the kachina fertility mysteries (the kachina is the spirit of an ancestor, usually representing a clan, symbolized in ceremonies by a masked and painted dancer), and the midsummer and midwinter rituals of sun and fire worship.

The celebrated Snake dance, actually a rain dance, is considered one of the most spectacular of Native American ceremonies. It is performed every two years near August 20, attracting thousands of visitors.

According to the 1990 census, 11,173 Hopi lived in the United States.

"Hopi," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000 http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.