Oraibi

Oraibi, also called Orayvi, or Old Oraibi, Hopi 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 c. ad 1150). It lies at an elevation of nearly 6,500 feet (1,980 metres). Oraibi was the site of the San Francisco Mission (1629–80). In 1890 a group of Oraibi farmers moved to the base of Third Mesa and founded the community of lower Oraibi (Kyakatsmovi), where a trading post and Hopi elementary school are located. After 1906, dissenting Hopi residents who advocated a return to traditional ways of life, and especially of education, left Oraibi and founded the nearby pueblo of Hotevilla 6 miles (10 km) northwest of the original pueblo.