The Hopi are a Native American nation who primarily live on the approximately 2,500 square mile Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. The 2000 census population was 6,946 persons.

The name "Hopi" is a shortened form of "The People of Hopi," which is how they actually refer to themselves. Hopi is a concept deeply rooted in the culture's religion, spirituality, and its view of morality and ethics. To be Hopi is to strive toward this concept, but no one ever achieves it in this life. This concept involves a state of total reverence and respect for all things, to be at peace with these things, and to live in accordance with the teachings of Maasaw, the Creator or Caretaker of Earth.

The traditional Hopi are organized into matrilineal clans. When a man marries, the children from the relationship are members of his wife's clan.

The Hopi, more than most Native American peoples, practice and continue to practice most of their traditional ceremonial culture. These ceremonies are centered around a religious calendar and are observed in most of the villages within the Hopi reservation.

The Hopi are a Pueblo People. Pueblo Indians include a diverse group of Native American inhabitants of New Mexico and Arizona who traditionally subsisted on agriculture. When first encountered by the Spanish in the 1500s, they were living in villages that the Spanish called Pueblos, meaning "towns." Of the approximately 25 pueblos that exist today, Taos, Acoma, Zuñi, and Hopi are the best known.

Kokopelli has been worshipped since at least the time of the Ancient Pueblo Peoples. The first known images of him appear on pottery dated to sometime between AD 750 and AD 850.

Kokopelli is a fertility deity and is one of the most easily recognized figures found in the petroglyphs and pictographs of the Southwest. He is usually depicted as a humpbacked flute player. Like most fertility deities, Kokopelli presides over both childbirth and agriculture. He is also a trickster god and represents the spirit of music.