Northern Arizona Native Americans

Native Americans have populated northern Arizona for many millenniums. The state still has the biggest numbers throughout the US, including the Yavapai and Hopi nations. In fact, they were not the first tribes to occupy the area, and archaeological ruins show a culture that existed there well-before these other tribes arrived.

Though Arizona's northern Native Americans consist of only two tribes, the Hopi and Yavapai, there was an earlier tribe that lived there many thousands of years earlier. Evidence of this can be found in many places, amongst the ruins of what is considered to be a once thriving culture.

The earliest known tribe to inhabit the area was the Anasazi. They are renowned for their unique, pueblo homes, pottery and ruins that date back some three thousand years. In fact, a lot of adobe tribes claim to be their descendents.

In more modern times, two tribes dominate the region. The Yavapai (talkative ones) or Yavape, are commonly confused with the Apache tribes. Ironically, though they share similar languages and cultural aspects, they are very different. In fact, they occupy over twenty thousands square miles of territory close to the San Francisco Peaks mountains.

The Hopi tribe claim to be an amalgamation of many tribes, and occupy over two thousand square miles of land, but are surrounded by their ancient enemies, the Navajo. In fact, this enemy status has not much improved over the years, except per se for recent efforts to work together more amicably. They are considered to be the more urbanized of all the local tribes.