Native American Facts For Kids was written for young people learning about the Hopi Indian
tribe for school or home-schooling reports. We encourage students
and teachers to visit our Hopi language and
culture
pages for in-depth information
about the tribe, but here are our answers to the questions we are most often asked by children, with
Hopi pictures and links we believe are suitable for all ages.
Hopi Tribe
How do you pronounce the word "Hopi"? What does it mean?
It's pronounced "hope-ee," and it means "peaceful person" or "civilized person" in the Hopi language.
Where do the Hopis live?
The Hopi are natives of northwestern Arizona, where they and their ancestors have
been living for thousands of years.
How is the Hopi Indian nation organized?
The Hopis live on a reservation, which is land that belongs to them and is under their control.
The Hopi Nation has its own government, laws,
police, and services, just like a small country. However, the Hopis are also US citizens and must obey American law.
In the past, the Hopi Indians had a theocratic government. That means that the head priest or kikmongwi of each village
was also the town chief. Today, each Hopi village still has its own kikmongwi, but he is primarily a religious leader. The Hopi nation is now
led by an elected tribal council.
What language do the Hopi Indians speak?
Almost all Hopi people speak English today, but most of them also speak their native
Hopi language. Hopi is a complex language with long words. It isn't related to other Pueblo languages at all, but is
actually a distant relative of the Aztec language.
If you'd like to know an easy Hopi word, "ha'u" (sounds a little like hah-uh) means "hello" in Hopi.
You can also read a Hopi picture glossary here.
What was Hopi culture like in the past? What is it like now?
Here is the homepage of the Hopi Nation.
On their site you can find information about the Hopi people in the past and today.
How do Hopi Indian children live, and what did they do in the past?
They do the same things all children do--play with each other, go to school and help around the house.
Many Hopi children like to go hunting and fishing with their fathers. In the past, Indian kids had more
chores and less time to play in their daily lives, just like colonial children. But they did have
dolls, toys, and games to play.
A Hopi mother traditionally carried a young child in a
cradleboard
on her back--a custom which many American parents have
adopted now.
What were men and women's roles in the Hopi tribe?
Generally, Hopi women were in charge of the home and family. Hopi clans are matrilineal, which means Hopi people trace their
family through their mothers. Hopi men were in charge of politics, agriculture and war. Hopi political leaders and warriors were traditionally
always men. Both genders took part in storytelling, music and artwork, and traditional medicine.
What were Hopi homes like in the past?
Hopi people lived in adobe houses, which are multi-story house complexes made of adobe (clay and straw baked
into hard bricks) and stone. Each adobe unit was home to one family, like a modern apartment. Hopi people used ladders to reach the upstairs
apartments. A Hopi adobe house can contain dozens of units and was often home to an entire extended clan.
Here are some pictures of Hopi adobe homes
and other Indian houses.
Unlike most old-fashioned Indian shelters, traditional Hopi houses are still used by some people today.
Other Hopi families live in modern houses and apartment buildings, just like you.
What were Hopi clothes like? Did the Hopis wear feather headdresses and face paint?
Originally, Hopi men didn't wear much clothing-- only breechcloths or short kilts (men's skirts).
Hopi women wore knee-length cotton dresses called mantas. A manta fastened at a woman's right shoulder, leaving her left shoulder bare. Missionaries
didn't think this dress style was modest enough, so in the 1900's many Hopi women started wearing blouses underneath their mantas. This style is still
in use today. Men and women both wore deerskin moccasins on their feet.
For dances and special occasions, women painted their moccasins white and wrapped white strips of deerskin around their shins as leggings.
Here is a site with sketches of Navajo and Hopi clothing styles,
and some photos and links
about Indian clothing in general.
The Hopis did not traditionally wear feather warbonnets.
Hopi men usually wore cloth headbands tied around their foreheads instead.
Most men wore their hair gathered into a figure-eight shaped bun called a hömsoma, though some Hopi men began cutting their
hair to shoulder-length during the early 1900's. Umarried Hopi women wore their hair in elaborate
butterfly whorls, while married women wore theirs in two long pigtails.
The Hopis also painted their faces for special occasions.
They used different patterns for war paint, religious ceremonies, and dances.
Today, many Hopi people still wear moccasins or mantas, but they
wear modern clothes like jeans instead of a breechcloth...
and they only wear legging wraps or kilts on special occasions like a dance.
What was Hopi transportation like in the days before cars? Did they paddle canoes?
No--the Hopi Indians weren't coastal people, and rarely traveled by river. Originally they just walked.
There were no horses in North America until colonists brought them over from Europe, so the Hopis used dogs pulling
travois (a kind of drag sled) to help them carry heavy loads. Once Europeans brought horses to America, the Hopis
could travel more quickly than before.
What was Hopi food like in the days before supermarkets?
The Hopis were expert farming people. They planted crops of corn, beans, and squash, as well as cotton and tobacco, and raised turkeys for their meat.
Hopi men also hunted deer, antelope, and small game, while women gathered nuts, fruits, and herbs. Favorite Hopi recipes included hominy,
baked beans, soups, and different types of cornbread.
What were Hopi weapons and tools like in the past?
Hopi hunters used bows and arrows. The Hopis did not go to war often, though Hopi
warriors did sometimes have to defend their territory against the Spanish and Navajos.
When this happened, they normally fired their bows or fought with spears.
Hopi tools included wooden farm implements, spindles and looms for weaving cotton (and later wool), and pump
drills for boring holes in turquoise and other beads.
What other Native Americans did the Hopi tribe interact with?
The Hopis traded regularly with other tribes of the Southwest, particularly the other
Pueblo tribes. Pueblo trade routes reached into Mexico and to the California
coast, supplying Hopi craftsmen with shells, coral, and turquoise for their jewelry. The Navajos
were frequent trading partners, but also frequent enemies, who sometimes raided Hopi villages.
What are Hopi arts and crafts like?
Hopi artists are famous for their intricately carved kachina dolls
and fine pottery and
baskets. All of these art forms are still flourishing today.
Here is a good site about the
art of Hopi kachinas.
What kinds of stories do the Hopis tell?
There are lots of traditional Hopi legends and fairy tales. Storytelling is very important to the
Hopi Indian culture. Here is a Hopi story about a rooster and mockingbord
trying to win a wife.
What about Hopi religion?
Sorry, but we cannot help you with religious information. Religions are too complicated and culturally sensitive to describe appropriately
in only a few simple sentences, and we strongly want to avoid misleading anybody. You can visit this site to learn more about the
Hopi religion
or this site about Native American religion in general.
Can you recommend a good book for me to read?
You may enjoy Truth Is A Bright Star,
a good historical novel for young readers about a Hopi boy's experiences in the 1800's.
Younger children may like Field Mouse Goes To War,
a picture book of a traditional Hopi legend.
Meet Mindy is an illustrated biography
of a modern Hopi-Tewa girl which makes a great introduction to Hopi life today.
If you want to know more about Hopi culture and history, two good books are
Hopi Native Americans and
The Hopi Indians of North America.
You can also browse through our reading list of recommended Indian books in general.
How do I cite your website in my bibliography?
You will need to ask your teacher for the format he or she wants you to use. Our names are Laura Redish and
Orrin Lewis and the title of our site is Native Languages of the Americas. The site was first created in 1998 and last updated in 2009.
Thanks for your interest in the Hopi Indian people and their language!
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