The Hopi and American Society

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the culture of the Hopi people with a focus on their history the problems the Hopi now face regarding acculturation into American culture.

From the Paper:

"The Hopis were first contacted by foreigners when Spanish conquistadors discovered their villages in 1540. In 1629, Spanish missionaries began to settle on Hopi land and tried in vain to convert the Indians to the Catholic faith. In protest, the Hopis joined with neighboring tribes facing the same persecution in the Pueblo Rebellion of 1680, causing the destruction of several Spanish missions throughout the southwest. When the Spanish returned to conquer the Rio Grande pueblos nine years later they did not venture as far west as Hopi territory. The Hopis lived virtually unbothered for more than a century until they became part of the United States at the end of the Mexican War in 1848. As Americans began to settle the southwest, the question of land rights arose. In 1882 President Chester A. Arthur established a 3,863-square-mile reservation for the Hopis (Hieb 1994). Now under U.S. government control, a culture that had remained practically unchanged for centuries began to feel the strong influence of an encroaching and far bigger society called America. "

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