North American Indian people constituting the westernmost group of Pueblo Indian s.
Most live on reservation lands in northeastern Arizona, U.S., surrounded by the Navajo Reservation. The name Hopi means "Peaceful Ones." They speak a language of the pueblo structures of stone and adobe. Their precise origin is unknown, though they are usually considered descendants of the Anasazi peoples. Matrilineal descent was the rule. They supported themselves by growing corn, beans, squash, and melons and by sheepherding. Hopi life was steeped in religious ceremony and involved secret rites held in semi-underground {{link=kiva">kiva s (pit-houses) and the use of masks and costumes to impersonate kachina s (ancestral spirits). Some 11,100 people claimed sole Hopi descent in the 2000 U.S. census.