Indigenous History in the Borderlands

The contemporary Hopi reservation is comprised of more than 1.5 million acres in northeastern Arizona, entirely within the bounds of the Navajo reservation. Numerous collections bear on Hopi history, culture, and political life, with particular strength recent political history, including the long‐standing Navajo‐Hopi land dispute.

Synonymy
The English‐language designation “Hopi” is also the autonym (hópi). See also Schroeder and Goddard, Handbook of North American Indians, v. 9, pp. 550‐53.

Special Collections Materials | Arizona Historical Society Materials

Reports of a Land Management Survey, Navajo Indian Reservation, 1930-1938 (AZ 124)

Includes reference to survey of Hopi lands and range.

Lewis W. Douglas papers, 1859-1974 (AZ 290)

Includes Hopi protests over Navajo land transfers, and reports on Hopi health and the disposition of disused aircraft landing fields.

Stewart L. Udall papers, 1950-2010 (AZ 372)

Contains documents about the Hopi‐Navajo land dispute, road appropriations, and economic development.

Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh papers, 1867-1937 (AZ 407)

Includes manuscripts for several articles on the Hopi.

Hopi Traditionalist Movement papers, 1949-1972 (AZ 374)

Contains miscellaneous materials, collected and deposited by former UA Special Collections Curator Louis A. Hieb, on the Hopi political movement during its heyday in the 1960s and early 1970s. Many photocopied publications, but one extensive transcript of a movement meeting is present.

Harold Christy Schwalen papers, 1896-1967 (AZ 563)

Includes logs for water wells drilled throughout Arizona's reservations, including the Hopi reservation, in the early twentieth century.

Photographs of Carl Moon, ca. 1903-1914 (MS 285)

Includes images of Hopi individuals engaged in a variety of activities.

Papers of Chester J. Higman, 1957-1984 (MS 292)

Describes Chet Higman’s brief tenure as business manager for Tohono O'odham in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Some material on other tribes, notably the Akimel O'odham, Hopi, and Navajo appears.

Papers of Morris K. Udall, 1920-1955 (MS 325)

Contains materials that document extensively the Hopi‐Navajo land dispute, extending over much of Udall’s congressional career, providing an invaluable record of negotiation, brinksmanship, mediation, and the ongoing work of relocation, as well as the play of the conflict beyond Arizona.

Papers of Byrd Howell Granger (MS 340)

Includes the folklorist’s notes and manuscripts for her unpublished “Folklore and Legends of the Indians of the Southwest” including drafts of a chapter on Hopi folklore.

Dennis DeConcini papers, 1944-2003 (MS 399)

Contains materials that document the Hopi‐Navajo land dispute, although from the vantage of DeConcini’s opposition to relocation, conflict with members of the relocation commission, and efforts to establish conditions under which residents of disputed lands would keep their homes.

Robert R. Humphrey photograph collection, 1949-1963 (MS 431)

Includes photographs of mid‐twentieth‐century range conditions on the Hopi and Navajo reservations.

Bernard Fontana papers, 1832-2000 (MS 434)

Include clippings on land disputes.

Annita Delano photographic collection (MS 439)

Includes numerous photographic postcards of Hopi peoples and life.

Mary Jeffries Bruce and the Sunday Evening Forum collection, 1942-1989 (MS 472)

Contains scrapbooks containing press coverage and notices of speakers, including Sen. Ernest McFarland (D‐AZ) who briefly alluded to the Navajo and Hopi in his 1948 speech on Colorado River water disputes.

Rudolph C. Troike Bilingual Education collection, 1953-1988 (MS 473)

Includes a single Hopi‐related clipping on education.

Trudy Griffin-Pierce and Keith Pierce papers, 1938-2009 (MS 499)

Includes a single, unpublished Trudy Griffin‐Pierce paper, prepared for the 1989 annual meeting of the American Anthropological
Association (AAA), entitled “Hopi and Zuni Prayer Sticks: Magic, Symbolic, Texts, or Persons?”

Prescott, Arizona photograph collection, ca. 1915-1920 (MS 500)

Includes images of Hopi people and life from the early twentieth century.

The materials located in this section can be found at the Arizona Historical Society Tucson location, an institution separate from the University of Arizona. There you can find manuscript materials, photographs, oral histories and books that highlight Indigenous life in the U.S./Mexico borderlands. This selection represents only a small fraction of the Arizona Historical Society's materials related to Indigenous life in the borderlands. Please contact their archivists for questions about additional materials.