Executive Order creating the Hopi Reservation, 1882
An 1882 executive order set aside about 2.5 million acres in Arizona for the Hopi and other Indians, land the Hopi and Navajo have long disputed.
- Signed
- December 16, 1882
- Senate
- Not recorded
- Land set aside for the nations
- about 2.5 million acres
What happened
What happened
On December 16, 1882, President Chester A. Arthur signed an executive order for a tract in Arizona Territory, between the 110th and 111th meridians. The order withdrew it "from settlement and sale" and set it apart "for the use and occupancy of the Moqui and such other Indians as the Secretary of the Interior may see fit to settle thereon." The presidency.ucsb.edu copy heads it "Moqui (Hopi) Reserve." It is a unilateral executive act, not a treaty or an agreement with the Hopi.
A 2005 Senate committee report says the order set aside approximately 2.5 million acres. It says that a small but indeterminate number of Navajos lived on part of the land at the time, and that the Hopi and Navajo Tribes have disputed title and occupancy "throughout the 1890s and up to the present."
In the 1940s the Secretary of the Interior set up grazing districts, with District Six, about 631,000 acres, for the Hopi. Congress authorized a suit in 1958. In Healing v. Jones (1962, affirmed 1963), the court gave the Hopi the exclusive right to District Six and gave both tribes joint and equal rights to the rest, which became the Joint Use Area. Congress then passed the 1974 Act (P.L. 93-531) to promote a settlement through partition and land exchanges.
Good to know. This was an executive order, not a treaty. Sources describe the tract as 3,863 square miles or about 2.5 million acres.
Summarized with AI assistance from 4 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error
What the sources say, and how this was checked
Well supported by the sources below.
for the use and occupancy of the Moqui and such other Indians as the Secretary of the Interior may see fit
The American Presidency Project: Executive Order—Establishment of Moqui (Hopi) Reserve, December 16, 1882The 1882 Executive Order set aside approximately 2.5 million acres of land for the Hopi
Senate Report 109-206 (2005)both tribes had joint and equal rights to the surface and subsurface of the remainder of the 1882 Reservation
Senate Report 109-206 (2005)P.L. 93-531 was enacted to promote a comprehensive settlement of the land dispute
Senate Report 109-206 (2005)
Research notes. The order lists the tract as 3,863 square miles in the American Presidency Project's header note; the 2.5 million acres is the Senate report's figure.
What the treaty did to the land
About 2.5 million acres recognized, kept or set aside for the nations. Each shape is a numbered area in the federal government’s 1899 record of land cessions.
set aside as a reservationabout 2.5 million acres
Reservation of the Moki and others in Arizona (area 640)
Set apart by executive order in December 1882 as a reservation for the Moki and other Indians in Arizona; not a cession.
What happened next
Everything the record holds about this land and this treaty, in order: what earlier agreements said, what this one did, and what the United States, the courts and the nations did afterwards.
Who is doing the work today
The nations connected to this treaty come first, then groups returning land and defending treaty rights. Support goes directly to them.
Who is doing the work
This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:
Working with these nations
- Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition Nation government Tribal co-management and protection of Bears Ears National Monument Give on their site Website
- The Hopi Foundation Native-led Hopi community self-determination, capacity building, leadership programs and Hopi radio Give on their site Website
- Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture Institute Native-led Hopi land stewardship, food sovereignty and regional food hub Give on their site Website
Native legal and land defense, nationally
- Native American Rights Fund (NARF) Native-led Litigation and legal advocacy for tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, land and resources Give on their site Website
- NDN Collective (LANDBACK Campaign) Native-led LANDBACK campaign (launched 2020; Mount Rushmore closure and return of Black Hills public lands), Indigenous… Give on their site Website
- Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF) Native-led Land recovery and control by tribes and individual Indian landowners Website
- Decolonizing Wealth Project (Indigenous Earth Fund; California Tribal Land Return) Native-led Reparative philanthropy Give on their site Website
Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.
Sources
Sources
Research notes
Wikipedia (pointer) states the Hopi reservation was created by an executive order of President Arthur in 1882. Date and compilation location. 25 U.S.C. 211 (Act of May 25, 1918, 40 Stat. 570) later barred new or enlarged reservations in AZ and NM except by Act of Congress.
Shapes are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land, title or jurisdiction.