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Within a few short years, in 1848, the U.S. and Mexico went to war, and Mexico lost. The lands of the Pueblo/Zuni/Hopi were passed to the government in Washington. A new flood of migration quickly moved into the Southwest. The peace treaty with Mexico, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, supposedly guaranteed the rights of Native Americans on the southwestern lands, including the protection of one group, like the Hopi, from another, like the Navajo. However, the US policy in the 1840's was that Native American nations were wards of the US Government, granting them the same “protections” given to children, but not the rights of citizenship. This was a step backwards, since the Native Americans had been granted citizenship rights by the Mexican Government. Conflict with the Navajo continued, with frequent raids and depredations on Hopiland.
This meant that the natives of the southwest had to depend on the US Government for protection, and could not officially take action to protect themselves. A Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) had been created by the US Government during the 1820's. This agency was to have a checkered career, at best.
In 1850, top Hopi leaders went to visit the new BIA agent in Santa Fe that had just been appointed for the region. They hoped to obtain recognition by the new administration, set a pattern for good relations, and receive surcease from the ongoing raids by the Navajo and Ute. The initial response looked promising. John Calhoun, the BIA agent, said that he would help.
The US army soon established Fort Defiance, in Arizona, south of the mesa, to control the roaming Navajo and Utes. The Hopi saw some improvement in the marauding, but things quickly went wrong. With a fort in the area, settlers quickly followed, gobbling up chunks of Arizona land. Government agents visited the mesa in 1851 and 1852 to offer aid and to make an assessment of the Hopi community. Unfortunately, they brought smallpox, once again, and, within two years, hundreds of Hopi had died in a wave of epidemics. These problems were compounded by still more droughts. Thanks to the exposure to the government agents and the famine produced by the drought, the population of Oraibi decreased from around 800 people to 200, in a few short years.
Over the next few years, things would continue to go badly for the Hopi. More dry years and additional epidemics would hit the mesa during the 1860's. During the Civil War-Period, Fort Defiance, and the Southwest, in general, would be ignored by the government in Washington. Raids by the Navajo and Utes would rapidly increase, as the pressure of the army was relieved, and drought forced the Navajo to take what they could to ensure the survival of their people. The population of the Hopi nation may have dropped as low as 2,000-3,000 members during this period.
Finally, the Hopi were treated to a reprise of the assaults by the Franciscans from the Anglo newcomers. Mormon proselytizing in Hopiland began as early as 1858. A Mormon mission was established in Moenkopi in 1875. The Moravians, a Pennsylvania-German sect, established a mission at Oraibi in 1870. The Mennonites, another Pennsylvania-German sect, not to be outdone by the Moravians, quickly entered the region for evangelizing, along with the Baptists.
The Hopi had long-ago decided that there would be no churches on their mesa. However, mission churches were quickly established on the flatlands surrounding the older towns, and an assortment of churches can now be found in the region of the Black Mesa. Reportedly, churches, including the Mormons, have even been established on First Mesa, but Second, and especially the more conservative Third Mesa, have no churches, even today.
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Follow scholar Kokopelli to the Suggested
Reading List
Go back to Hopiland, Republica de Mexico
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Black Mesa Highlighted in Sunlight on a Stormy Day
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Contents, including illustrations, copyright T. K. Reeves, 1997.
on 5 April, 1997.
