More than 12,000 years ago, indigenous hunter-gatherers arrived in the area now known as Arizona. There are currently 22 federally recognized Native American tribes in the state, including the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Tonto Apache Tribe, Tohono O’odham Nation, and Pueblo of Zuni.

In the 12th century, the Hopi people migrated from Mexico and South and Central America to the area now known as Arizona. They are one of the oldest living cultures. Oraibi, an Indian village that is believed to be as old as 1150 AD, is the oldest uninterrupted inhabited settlement in the United States.

Located in northern Arizona, the Hopi settled on three hard-to-attack mesas. The Hopi developed an ingenious form of agriculture known as dry farming, which used tillage methods that retained water to sustain crops on this dry land. According to the Hopi, humans should live in harmony with nature and in peace. Pottery, paintings, weaving, and carvings are among the tribe’s artisan skills.

800-1000 years ago, after crossing the Bering Strait and then traveling south, the Navajo started to settle in the southwestern United States. Diné (meaning “the People”) were hunter-gatherers until the Pueblo people taught them agriculture.

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European Invasion

The discovery of silver deposits around the Arizonac mining camp attracted Spanish colonists in the late 17th century. The Tohono O’Odham and Apache Native Americans raided Arizona’s villages for livestock during the mid-18th century, preventing the pioneers from expanding their territory northward.

A scorched-earth campaign was planned by Colonel Kit Carson in 1863 to force the Navajo to surrender. In January 1864, the U.S. attempted to remove all Navajos from their homeland. Over 8,500 Diné people were forced to abandon their homes in northeastern Arizona and walk 300 miles over two months to the Bosque Redondo Reservation. As a result of starvation and exposure, about 200 people died, and it was like living in an internment camp for those who arrived.

In 1868, the Navajo signed the U.S.-Navajo Treaty, which allowed them to return to their homelands. Hopi lands were encroached upon by the reservation, causing years of conflict between the two tribes.

In Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, the Navajo Nation alone occupies more than 27,000 square miles. As of 2020, the Navajo Nation had nearly 400,000 members.

Arizona’s Spanish Explorers and Missionaries

It was the 1539 expedition of Fray Marcos de Niza that brought the first European explorers to Arizona in search of the Seven Golden Cities of Cibola. Next to pass through Arizona and see the Grand Canyon was Francisco Vázquez de Coronado’s expedition in 1540.

In the 17th century, the Spanish began exploring and settling in Arizona, lured by the discovery of silver. Spanish missionaries continued to arrive, but most colonists eventually left, save for a few farmers. A series of Primera Missions was built by the Jesuits across the Arizona desert between 1687 and 1692 to convert the Indigenous peoples to Christianity. The Franciscans occupied the missions after the Jesuits were expelled from Spanish territory in 1767.

The state of Arizona

The area now known as Arizona was part of Mexico’s territory when it gained independence from Spain in 1821. President James Polk promoted the concept of Manifest Destiny in 1844, which led to the Mexican-American War in 1846. As a result of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico handed over parts of Arizona, along with New Mexico and several other states, to the United States in 1848.

With the 1854 Gadsden Purchase, President James Buchanan acquired the rest of New Mexico and Arizona. In 1863 the territory of Arizona was established from part of the Territory of New Mexico. Because Republicans thought it would help them keep control of the Senate, Arizona almost became part of New Mexico in the early 1900s; however, voters rejected the measure. The last of the 48 coterminous United States to be admitted to the union, Arizona became a state on February 14, 1912.

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Arizona’s Population Booms

With the California Gold Rush in 1849, Arizona’s population began to grow. The Desert Land Act of 1877, which promised 640 acres to married couples who would tend it, was passed in response to the growing population. Copper and silver mining also attracted immigrants in the 1870s.

From the early 1900s – 1940s, many new residents came to Arizona to farm cotton. After World War II, military bases changed Arizona’s agricultural and mining dynamics, and into the second half of the 20th century, refrigeration and air conditioning contributed to a population boom.

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