Moquis and Kastilam: The Hopi History Project

FAIN: RZ-51044-09

Arizona Board of Regents (Tucson, AZ 85721-0073)
Thomas Edward Sheridan (Project Director: November 2008 to May 2016)

The collection of Hopi oral traditions related to early encounters between the Hopi and Spanish colonizers; and the preparation for publication of a scholarly history of Hopi-Spanish relations.

Moquis and Kastilam: The Hopi History Project is a formal collaboration between the University of Arizona and the Hopi Tribe of Arizona. Its primary purpose is to publish a history of Hopi-Spanish relations from 1540-1821. It will include English translations of Spanish primary documents about the Hopis of northern Arizona as well as Hopi oral traditions about the Spaniards, some of which are nearly 500 years old. These oral traditions complement, supplement, and challenge the Spanish colonial documentary record. They also give voice to the Hopis themselves. An NEH Collaborative Research Grant would allow the project to conduct ten more interviews with individual Hopi elders. It would also fund a three-day meeting with the Cultural Resources Advisory Task Team (CRATT), a group of Hopi elders representing villages and clans on all three Hopi Mesas. The Project has the potential to revolutionize the way the history of Native peoples is produced and represented around the world.