ORAIBI

also called Old Oraibi, Indian pueblo (village), Navajo county, northeastern Arizona, U.S. The pueblo is situated on the narrow, rocky Third Mesa of the Hopi Indian Reservation. It is the unofficial capital of the reservation and is thought to be the oldest continuously occupied settlement in the United States (from about AD 1150). It lies at an elevation of nearly 6,500 feet (1,980 m). Oraibi was the site of the San Francisco Mission (162980). After 1906, dissenting Hopi residents founded the nearby pueblos of Hotevilla and Bacobi. At the base of Third Mesa is lower Oraibi (Kyakatsmovi), with a trading post and a Hopi elementary school. Pop. (1980) 636.