What customs did the Navajo learn from the Hopi?

The Navajo lived near the Hopi on the high

Colorado Plateau and still do. The ancestors of today's Navajo

arrived in the high desert area when the Hopi and Anasazi were

farming there. They learned dry-land corn, beans and squash

agriculture and weaving from the Hopi and other Pueblo groups. One

could say that this is when the Navajo became Navajo and different

from other Athabaskan people. This happened around 900 to 110 years

ago according to Navajo traditional stories and modern archeology.

Also, many of the Navajo clans have roots in Hopi and other Pueblo

people. From the Navajo clan stories and names it seems that about

36 out of 72 clans have origins in one woman or man from an other

tribal group who married in to the Navajo. This is in part because

for the Navajo to marry into any of the four clans of one's

grandparents (or related clans) is considered incest. Therefore

there is pressure to out marry. A further reason is that after the

Pueblo revolt of 1680 some people fled to and joined the Navajo,

some permanently some for a while. Also, After the Hopi destroyed

the Hopi village of Awatovi in 1700 some of the survivors fled and

joined the Navajo in the Chinle valley area as well.

The Pima (Akimel O'odham is their own name),

live far to the south in low land deserts. The Akimel O'odham are

thought to be descended from the Hohokam (which means "The

Ancestors"). They were a sophisticated people who practiced

irrigated agriculture for hundreds of years in what is now the

greater Phoenix area centered on the Gila and Salt river basins.

They traded with the Hopi, Anasazi, Mogollon and later the Navajo

peoples but were pretty far away both in distance, culture and

environment..