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The Hopi Indians are a people of long standing tradition and ancient cultural belief. Living in the present day lands of northeastern Arizona, they have continuously populated the same general area for thousands of years. Throughout the majority of their history the Hopi people lived in symbiotic harmony with the land and for a long time remained free and largely untouched from outside influence. They were content simply continuing on with their sacred ways of old and they kept their roots of ancient cultural heritage well maintained.

Inhabiting the high desert of the Colorado Plateau the Hopi became known as “dry-farmers” since they were a mostly agricultural society living in an arid region, though they also raised some livestock as well. They relied mainly upon local springs to keep their communities thriving and for a long while this system worked well providing them with a sustainable living environment. In 1882 the Hopi were placed within a US government designated reservation area where they have since remained. This reservation area is sited directly within the boundaries of the neighboring Navajo Indian reservation lands, a people whom the Hopi have had many conflicts and disputes with in the past. Currently because of drought and outside industrial diversion, water resources are dwindling on the Hopi lands and basic living conditions are becoming more difficult to maintain.

With little employment and basic resource availability life is now a struggle on the reservation and for many long excursions must be made in order to attain basic necessities such as water and monetary supplementation. More and more Hopis are going off to the cities of the white man seeking the prospect of an easier existence, many are failing to return. This exodus coupled with growing influence from without has placed the Hopi culture and community deeper and deeper into a state of dissolution, destroying an ancient way of life in the process.

At Hotevilla, a Hopi village located adjacent to the only major east west highway on the reservation, residents must travel a distance of nearly thirty miles one way to collect water for their basic living needs. With many local area springs drying up only a few water sources remain on the reservation lands, one of them being a small faithfully flowing trickle of water from a rocky cliff face around 70 feet below Hotevilla. While this trickle supports a small patch of terraced gardens below its base, current outflow is not enough to bring any real sustainability to the area and locating a new source of water is becoming more and more of a necessity.


In 2008 a group of three water dowsers from the American Society of Dowsers went to take a look at a piece of family held Hopi land located within close proximity to Hotevilla. Shortly after arrival on the land two primary well locations were discovered and plotted out, with the more productive of the two estimated to be around five hundred feet beneath the surface and able to produce around 80 gallons of water per minute.

After this initial finding plans soon began to develop for making the water resource available to the general Hopi community around the Hotevilla area. First and foremost this would require drilling a well line down to the subterranean water source. The well would then require a pump to continuously draw water to the surface where it would eventually be deposited into a storage tank, providing easy access for the local people. Since there aren’t many electrical connections available on the Hopi lands, the well pump will be operated completely by way of renewable energy sources using a combination of both solar and wind systems. These alternative energy systems are key to the projects success and will require a large portion of the installation funding needs.

The well is proposed to be able to support around 1700 Hopi citizens, granting them a new lease on life. With water, the people of Hotevilla will be given a chance to regain a sustainable and sovereign existence and a future of which they will be in more complete control.

Towards the end of 2011 follow-up activities regarding the well project took place. The more productive of the two well sites became the primary drilling selection and plans for the storage tank and distribution center were discussed and determined. In October of 2011 the Hopi tribal council approved the well plans and the project received official Hopi authorization and endorsement for development.

Currently an archeological survey by the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office has been designated at the well site to potentially uncover any historically significant items, which is standard practice on the reservation with any type of ecologically disruptive action taking place. Initial well drilling operations are now forecast to take place sometime around June of 2012, but there is still a lot of funding that must be raised if the project is going to go toward total completion. HWP committee chairman will be sending bid applications to Arizona based drillers over the next six to eight months.