Hopi

Biography

The Hopi are Native Americans who primarily live in northeastern Arizona. The majority are enrolled in the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona; however, some Hopi people are enrolled in the Colorado River Indian Tribes of the Colorado River Indian Reservation at the border of Arizona and California. The 2010 U.S. census states that about 19,338 US citizens self-identify as being Hopi. The Hopi language belongs to the Uto-Aztecan language family. Hopi organize themselves into matrilineal clans. Children are born into the clan of their mother. Clans extend across all villages. Children are named by the women of the father's clan. After the child is introduced to the Sun, the women of the paternal clan gather, and name the child in honor of the father's clan. Children can be given over 40 names. The village members collectively decide the common name. Current practice is to use a non-Hopi or English name or the parent's chosen Hopi name. A person may also change the name upon initiation to traditional religious societies, or a major life event. The Hopi understand their land to be sacred and understand their role as caretakers of the land that they inherited from their ancestors. Agriculture is significant to their lifeways and economy. Precontact architecture reflects early Hopi society and perceptions of home and family. Many Hopi homes share traits of neighboring Pueblo tribes. Early communal structures, especially Pueblo Great Houses, include living rooms, storage rooms, and religious sanctuaries, called kivas. Each of these rooms allowed for specific activities. The Hopi encountered Spaniards in the 16th century, and are historically referred to as Pueblo people, because they lived in villages (pueblos in the Spanish language). The Hopi are thought to be descended from the Ancestral Pueblo people (Hopi: Hisatsinom), who constructed large apartment-house complexes and had an advanced culture that spanned the present-day Fo

Bio from Wikipedia