ORAIBI

NAME: Oraibi COUNTY: Navajo ROADS: 4WD LEGAL INFO: 1 CLIMATE: Cold winter. Hot summer. BEST TIME TO VISIT: Spring and Fall

COMMENTS: Bring a camera, but expect not to use it a lot while in town. The more traditional Hopi people tend to be extremely private, and often wont allow pictures in town. REMAINS: Very old abandond houses. some still occupied homes.

Oraibi was founded sometime before the year 1100 AD, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements within the United States. it is speculated 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. As Oraibi was one of these surviving settlements its population grew considerably, and became populous and the most influential of the Hopi settlements. By 1890 the village was estimated to have a population of 905, almost half of the 1,824 estimated to be living in all of the Hopi settlements at the time. Hopi interaction with outsiders slowly increased during the 1850–1860 time period through 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. Naturally, the Hopi were introduced to a new culture and new way of life. In 1890 a number of residents more receptive to the 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)[8] led to an event called the Oraibi Split in 1906. In spite of the "friendly" ("New Hopi") outcome of the Oraibi Split, Old Oraibi has since maintained a more traditional Hopi way of life and has resisted the adoption of the more modern culture visible in Kykotsmovi. While visitors to the pueblo are welcomed, the residents tend to be very private and do not allow photographs to be taken in the town, and thus there are no reliable photographs of the settlement as it exists in the modern day. Submitted by: William Ryan

Oraibi Courtesy William Ryan

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