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In 1821, Spain ceded nominal control of Hopiland to the Mexican government. This was to mean little to the Hopi, since Mexico totally ignored the northern Arizona region, thinking of it as worthless land, remote, and too expensive to visit. Even the Franciscans had given up hope for the Catholization of the region. Spanish settlers were becoming numerous in the valleys and well-watered areas of New Mexico, but most of these were frightened at the thought of the lands to the northwest, ironically, due to the danger of raids by the Navajo and Apache, in that region. Once again, the Hopi's new worst enemies were a key element in their salvation from the western world.
Virtually the only contacts between the Hopi and Mexico City were a series of appeals to the Federal authorities for relief from raids on their lands and livestock by the Navajo, to the east. The members of the Native American population of Mexico were officially considered to be citizens of the government, with full civil rights, but these rights were often ignored. The complaints of the Hopi were greeted with a huge yawn by the new government, a few platitudes, and no action. The Hopi found that they still had to rely on themselves.
Within a year of the independence of Mexico, Anglo traders would open the Santa Fe Trail into the northern Mexican lands of New Mexico. Trappers would move across the region in search of beaver pelts over the next few decades. Still, there was no significant ongoing contact with the Hopi. Occasional meetings have been recorded, however. In 1840, a group of Anglo fur trappers looted a number of Hopi farms. The Hopi confronted the culprits, and the trappers responded by killing between 15 and 20 Hopi. This was one of the first lessons that the Hopi would absorb about these new European people from the east. The impression was, obviously, in Hopi eyes, that the Anglos in their respect for native peoples were no better than the Europeans to the south.
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Follow scholar Kokopelli to the Suggested
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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.
