The Hopi tribe has lived in northeastern Arizona for over 800 years, with their villages clustered on three high mesas that form the southern edge of a vast landform called Black Mesa. This area sits on the Colorado Plateau, a semi-arid region of dramatic cliffs, flat-topped hills, and wide desert valleys. The Hopi are one of the few Native American peoples who still live on their ancestral land, and one of their villages, Old Oraibi, is among the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in North America.
Black Mesa and the Three Mesas
Black Mesa is an elevated, bowl-shaped region covering roughly 4,000 square miles in northern Arizona. Along its southern edge, three narrow, finger-like extensions of rock jut outward. These are known simply as First Mesa, Second Mesa, and Third Mesa, and they have been the heart of Hopi life for centuries. The mesas rise between 5,000 and 7,000 feet above sea level, placing the villages well above the surrounding desert floor and giving them natural defensive advantages and sweeping views of the landscape below.
Each mesa hosts its own cluster of villages, and each village has its own identity and traditions. First Mesa is home to Walpi, Sichomovi, and Tewa (also called Hano). Second Mesa includes Shungopavi, Mishongovi, and Sipaulovi. Third Mesa holds Kykotsmovi (sometimes called New Oraibi), Old Oraibi, Hotevilla, and Bacavi. In total, twelve villages are spread across the three mesas, though a few smaller communities also sit in the lowlands nearby.
Old Oraibi: One of America’s Oldest Towns
Old Oraibi, on Third Mesa, stands out as a place of extraordinary age. Pottery fragments from trash mounds at the site date its founding to around 1150 A.D., and tree-ring analysis of timbers in its structures points to construction by at least 1290 A.D. By 1300, it was likely the only occupied settlement on Third Mesa. According to the National Park Service, Old Oraibi is the only Hopi town of such early origin to remain occupied, giving it a continuous ceramic and cultural record spanning roughly 800 years. That makes it a strong candidate for the oldest continuously inhabited community in the United States, alongside Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico.
The Desert Landscape
The land the Hopi have called home is strikingly dry. Annual precipitation ranges from as little as 5 inches in the lower southern elevations to about 15 inches in the higher woodland areas atop Black Mesa. The terrain shifts with altitude: semi-desert grasslands below 5,000 feet, mixed grasslands between 5,000 and 6,200 feet, sagebrush grasslands up to about 7,000 feet, and pinyon-juniper woodlands at the highest elevations near 7,500 feet.
Despite these harsh conditions, the Hopi developed sophisticated dry farming techniques over centuries, growing corn, beans, and squash in sandy washes where moisture collects below the surface. The ability to farm in a place that receives so little rain is central to Hopi culture and identity. Corn, in particular, holds deep spiritual significance and appears throughout Hopi ceremony and daily life.
Ancestral Lands Before the Mesas
Before settling permanently on the three mesas, the ancestors of the Hopi lived across a much wider stretch of the Southwest. The Hopi Tribe itself describes its aboriginal territory as an area covering over 15 million acres, prior to the arrival of Spanish colonizers in 1540 and later encroachment by Navajo and Mormon settlers through the 1800s. Archaeological sites like Homol’ovi, located near present-day Winslow, Arizona, show that ancestral Hopi communities were active in the region well before consolidating on Black Mesa. These earlier settlements are part of the broader Ancestral Puebloan tradition that spread across the Four Corners region of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado.
Hopi oral history describes these earlier periods as a series of migrations, with different clans traveling across the landscape before eventually arriving at the mesas. The villages on Black Mesa represent the endpoint of those journeys, the place the Hopi understand as their intended home.
The Reservation and the Land Dispute
The modern Hopi Reservation sits entirely within the boundaries of the much larger Navajo Nation, creating a geographic arrangement that has been a source of conflict for over a century. The roots of this go back to 1882, when President Chester Arthur signed an Executive Order establishing a reservation for the Hopi. The boundaries he drew overlapped with land already used by Navajo families, setting up competing claims that would take nearly a hundred years to resolve.
In 1974, Congress passed the Navajo-Hopi Settlement Act, which partitioned the disputed area into Navajo Partitioned Lands and Hopi Partitioned Lands. The law required members of each tribe living on the other’s partitioned land to relocate. Congress initially estimated that about 1,000 Navajo people would need to move, but the actual number exceeded 16,000. The forced relocations caused deep hardship and remain a painful chapter for both tribes. Today, the Hopi Reservation covers a fraction of the territory the tribe once used, surrounded on all sides by the Navajo Nation.
Where the Hopi Live Today
The Hopi continue to live on the same mesas their ancestors settled centuries ago. While many Hopi people have moved to cities like Flagstaff, Phoenix, or Winslow for work and education, the villages on First, Second, and Third Mesa remain the cultural and spiritual center of Hopi life. Some villages, like Walpi on First Mesa, look much as they did hundreds of years ago, with stone buildings perched on narrow cliff edges. Others, like Kykotsmovi at the base of Third Mesa, are more modern in layout and serve as administrative centers for the tribal government.
The Hopi Reservation lies about 90 miles northeast of Flagstaff, Arizona, accessible primarily by State Route 264, which runs along the southern edge of the mesas. It is remote by most standards, hours from any major city, surrounded by open desert. That remoteness has helped the Hopi maintain cultural practices and a way of life that stretches back, unbroken, to the 12th century.