Plate XLIV. Moen-kopi.

[ MOEN-KOPI.]

About 50 miles west from Oraibi is a small settlement used by a few families from Oraibi during the farming season, known as Moen-kopi. (Pl. XLIII). The present village is comparatively recent, but, as is the case with many others, it has been built over the remains of an older settlement. It is said to have been founded within the memory of some of the Mormon pioneers at the neighboring town of Tuba City, named after an old Oraibi chief, recently deceased.

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Plate XLIII. Plan of Moen-kopi (rotated).

The site would probably have attracted a much larger number of settlers, had it not been so remote from the main pueblos of the province, as in many respects it far surpasses any of the present village sites. A large area of fertile soil can be conveniently irrigated from copious springs in the side of a small branch of the Moen-kopi wash. The village occupies a low, rounded knoll at the junction of this branch with the main wash, which on the opposite or southern side is quite precipitous. The gradual encroachments of the Mormons for the last twenty years have had some effect in keeping the Tusayan from more fully utilizing the advantages of this site (Pl. XLII).

Plate XLII. The site of Moen-kopi.