Beans, Squash, and Other Crops

The Hopi cultivate a variety of plants and collect wild plants for basket making, medicines, and many other uses. Yucca roots, for example, provide the ingredients for ritual hair washing.

The indigenous food crops of corn, beans, and squash were, and to some extent still are, the principal foods. Walled garden plots on the slopes of the mesas, irrigated from nearby springs, continue to yield chile peppers and vegetables. Cultivated crops, including corn, beans, squash, and cotton, were introduced from Mexico and Central and South America before Spanish contact.

Peaches and apricots, introduced by the Spaniards and planted in orchards, provide irregular (due to frosts) but bountiful crops. These are preserved by drying on rooftops.

In 1939 at least twenty-three varieties of beans were grown at Hopi. Such types as black beans, yellow beans, purple string beans, black and tan pinto beans (all Phaseolus vulgaris), and tepary beans (Phaseolus acutifolius) are cultivated using floodwater and dry-farming techniques. Beans provide a necessary protein complement to corn and are also an important dietary source for fiber and nutrients.