Overview  

Hopi culture is one of the oldest cultures on this continent. The Bear Clan were the first to reach the place where the blue corn grows and settled at Oraibi, possibly the oldest continually inhabited settlement in the United States. “l have washed away the footprints of your Emergence', a holy one, Sotuknang, reminded the Hopis, 'but the day will come if you preserve the memory and meaning of your Emergence, when those stepping stones will appear again to prove the truth you speak. For many Hopi, those stepping stones are seen in Freemont petroglyphs and found in Anasazi cliff palaces and Sinagua villages, predating AD 500. Scattered across the southwest and Four Corners region; Wupatki, Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, Betatakin and Keet Steel exemplify the 'Old Ones' of the Hopi, Zuni and Rio Grande pueblos.

About Your Day  

• Visit the dusty windswept pueblo of Old Oraibi which, perched on the edge of Third Mesa, dates back to 1150. Many fascinating stories are told of the history of this village. Although once the largest of the Hopi villages with a population of more than 800, when a major dispute occurred in 1906 between two chiefs, You-ke-oma and Tawa-quap-tewa, instead of settling through violence, the leaders staged a very unique contest, and the loser left with his faction to establish Hotevilla four miles away. Hear the story

• Learn why a quarter mile north of Oraibi a rock is carved with the inscription: "Well, it have to be done this way now, that when you pass this LINE it will be DONE, Sept. 8, 1906."

• Enjoy galleries, home studios and trading posts with exquisite Hopi designs on many artistic items.

• Try piki bread – an intricately made staple of the Hopi diet.

• Later, visit what is probably the finest single rock art site in the southwest with over 12,000 petroglyphs at Taawa Canyon. Here you will stand before ancient petroglyphs that interact with the sunlight to mark the equinox and solstice – thus acting as solar calendars.