The Awatovi Ruins in northeastern Arizona are an archaeological site on the Hopi Indian Reservation. The site contains the ruins of a pueblo estimated to be 500 years old and those of a 17th-century Spanish mission.

When Spanish explorers arrived in 1540, the Hopi pueblo of Awatovi was already over 300 years old. Led by Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, the Spanish searched for the legendary golden cities of Cibola to bring wealth back to Spain. Instead, they found a harsh, arid country dotted with native towns, isolated from the populated Rio Grande Valley. The first Hopi settlement the Spanish encountered in Arizona was the Awatovi pueblo. Years later, the Spanish returned to Awatovi to establish a mission.

The Coronado expedition left Mexico in 1540 and headed north with over 300 Spaniards, 1,300 Mexicans, and Native and African slaves. As they trekked through the desert, Coronado ordered one of his men, Pedro de Tovar, to lead a party of 17 horsemen and several footmen in search of seven Hopi villages. Awatovi was the first of these villages that Tovar and his men discovered. Upon contact, the Hopi and Spanish briefly skirmished and exchanged gifts before the de Tovar party moved on. The arrival of Coronado’s men in Awatovi marked the Spanish’s first exchange with the Hopi in Arizona. Afterward, contact between the Spanish and the Hopi was sporadic over the next 90 years until Spain established missions in the region to create a permanent European presence. The Hopi had no food surplus or wealth in gold or silver. Their land was not a strategic place to establish a military presence, so the Spanish had no interest in living among the Hopi for any reason other than religious conversion.

During the Spanish colonial period, Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries brought Catholic and European values to North America on behalf of the Spanish crown. The Roman Catholic Church was charged with spreading Catholicism. The missionaries founded parishes near American Indian villages to make Christian converts, attempt to control the culture, and help administer Spanish law. In 1629, Spain launched large-scale missionary efforts in the Southwest, and Franciscans founded a mission church at Awatovi. The Franciscan fathers at Awatovi named their mission church San Bernard de Aguatubi, after Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.

According to New Mexico missionary records, the Franciscans at Awatovi struggled to persuade the Hopi to convert until a miracle occurred. The Hopi brought a blind boy to Father Francisco Porras and asked him to heal the boy. The legend goes that Porras held his cross to the boy’s eyes, curing his blindness. Afterward, a large portion of the Hopi at Awatovi converted, but others mistrusted the Catholic fathers and worried that they would not be able to maintain their essential rituals. During the 17th century, Awatovi hosted the largest mission of any Hopi pueblos and was home to roughly 900 Christian Hopi in 1664.

In addition to Catholicism, the Franciscans brought European tools, domesticated animals, new agriculture, and trade opportunities to their southwestern missions. At Awatovi, the fathers gave the Hopi iron knives, axes, hatchets, picks, crowbars, saws, chisels, and knowledge of Spanish wood and stoneworking techniques. The Hopi also adopted animal husbandry. They acquired sheep and began raising them, providing a new source of protein and wool for textiles. The Spanish introduced new crops, including peaches and wheat, which the Hopi incorporated into their diet. The Hopi territory also became part of a trade route that a wagon train traveled through three times a year. This wagon train gave the Hopi at Awatovi access to goods from Mexico, Europe, and Asia.

The residents of Awatovi were an anomaly among the Hopi, and the town’s open acceptance of Christianity led to its destruction. Beyond Awatovi, other Hopi villages rejected Spanish culture and Catholicism. Only four missionary outposts existed in the Hopi province beyond Awatovi, and none had Catholic fathers in residence. The Awatovi Hopi built their new church atop their kivas, adobe structures used in Puebloan spiritual rituals. Despite the apparent abandonment of the pre-contact religious practice, some native residents at Awatovi resisted the missionaries. A Hopi traditionalist poisoned one of the Awatovi mission’s founding fathers in 1633. During the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, the Hopi killed the fathers and razed the church at Awatovi.

Even so, when the Spanish returned to take back Awatovi in 1692, the Hopi welcomed them and invited them to reestablish the mission. Despite internal resistance, the anti-Spanish Hopi sacked the pueblo in 1701. These Hopi wanted to purge their province of Christianity, and the Hopi who accepted it to ensure the survival of their religious practices. They destroyed the pueblo and killed all the men at Awatovi during the attack, sparing only the unbaptized women and children who knew Hopi rituals and songs. The survivors were separated and sent to the surrounding Hopi villages. In retaliation, the Spanish attacked the Hopi several times over the decade following the destruction of Awatovi, but were unsuccessful in reclaiming the Hopi province. Since Awatovi, the Hopi have not hosted a Roman Catholic church or parish on their land.

In the 20th century, Awatovi proved to be a valuable archeological resource. During the 1930s, a group of experts from Harvard University conducted the first multidisciplinary study in American archaeology at the ruin. Geologists, surveyors, cartographers, photographers, bone and ceramics experts, artists, and ethno-biologists were involved in the field study. They excavated over 1,300 rooms, discovered 11,700 stone and bone artifacts, cataloged 8,500 pottery specimens, and recorded over half a million potsherds. They also identified three Franciscan churches, two of which were over 100 feet long. The site is not open to the public to preserve Awatovi Ruins for future research and enjoyment.

Awatovi Ruins, a National Historic Landmark, is located south of Keams Canyon on the Hopi Indian Reservation in northeastern Arizona. Though the Hopi Reservation welcomes visitors, Awatovi Ruins is closed to the public.

 

Compiled & edited by Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, updated April 2026. Source – National Park Service.

Also See:

Ancient Cities of Native Americans

Ancient Puebloans of the Southwest

Awatovi People

Pueblo Indians – Oldest Culture in the U.S.