Beyond Corn: Beans, Squash, and Other Crops

Hopi farmers 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 the shampoo used in 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 chili 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 23 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.