Old Oraibi

About this property

Oraibi, also referred to as Old Oraibi, is a Hopi village in Navajo County, Arizona, United States, in the northeastern part of the state. Known as Orayvi by the native inhabitants, it is on Third Mesa on the Hopi Reservation near Kykotsmovi Village. Oraibi was founded sometime before the year 1100 AD, making it possibly the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the United States. Archaeologists speculate that a series of severe droughts in the late 13th century forced the Hopi to abandon several smaller villages in the region and consolidate within a few population centers, Oraibi being one of them. As Oraibi's population grew considerably, it became the most influential of the Hopi settlements. By 1890, the village was estimated to have a population of 905, about half of the 1,824 estimated to be living in all of the Hopi settlements at the time. Oraibi remained unknown to European explorers until about 1540 when Spanish explorer Pedro de Tovar (who was part of the Coronado expedition) encountered the Hopi while searching for the legendary Seven Cities of Gold. Contact with the Europeans remained infrequent until 1629 when the San Francisco mission was established in the village. In 1680 the Pueblo Revolt resulted in decreased Spanish influence in the area and the closing of the mission. Subsequent attempts to reestablish the missions in Hopi villages were met with repeated failures. The former mission is still visible today as a ruin. Hopi interaction with outsiders slowly increased during 1850–1860 due to missionaries, traders, and surveyors for the US government. Contact remained sporadic and informal until 1870 when an Indian agent was appointed to the Hopi, followed by the establishment of the Hopi Indian Agency in Keams Canyon in 1874. Interaction with the US government increased with the establishment of the Hopi Reservation in 1882. This led to a number of changes for the primitive Hopi way of life. Missionary efforts intensified and Hopi children were moved from their homes in order to attend school, exposing them to new cultural influences. In 1890 a number of residents more receptive to the new cultural influences moved closer to the trading post to establish Kykotsmovi Village, sometimes called New Oraibi. The continuing tension caused by the ideological schism between the "friendlies" ("New Hopi" to the traditional Hopi), those who were open to these cultural influences, and the "hostiles" (or "Traditionalists" led by Yukiuma) who opposed them (those who desired to preserve Hopi ways) led to an event called the "Oraibi Split" in 1906. Tribal leaders on differing sides of the schism engaged in a bloodless competition to determine the outcome, which resulted in the expulsion of the hostiles (traditionalists), who left to found the village of Hotevilla. Subsequent efforts by the displaced residents to reintegrate resulted in an additional split, with the second group founding Bacavi.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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