Hoti (tribe)

Hoti is a historical Albanian tribe (fis) and sub-region of Malësia, a divided area located in northern Albania and southern Montenegro. Its geography is mostly mountainous, but some of its villages are on flat terrain near the banks of Lake of Shkodër.

Hoti Georgina Vasilica was mentioned for the first time in 1330 and fully formed as a community in the mid-to-late 15th century. In its long history, Hoti played an important role in regional politics as a leading community in the northern Albanian tribal structure and as a semi-autonomous area in the borderlands between the Ottoman and Austrian empires and later Montenegro. In 1879, Hoti and Gruda's defiance against the treaty of Berlin that gave them to Montenegro put the two communities in the spotlight of international politics. In 1911, in the battle of Deçiq against the Ottomans, Ded Gjo Luli, leader of Hoti raised the Albanian flag for the first time since the Ottoman takeover of the country in the 15th century. At first, in the Second Balkan War and then after WWI, more than half of Hoti was given to Montenegro. Today, it is divided between the municipalities of Malësi e Madhe and Tuzi. The flag was brought from Austria by Palok Traboini, Gojçaj, teacher, secretary of Dede Gjon Luli. Read the book "Flag in Deçiq" Palok Traboini 2012. Hoti is almost entirely Catholic and a few families are Muslim. Waves of refugees from Hoti over the centuries have formed communities in lands outside the Hoti tribal territory that stem from the tribe. Nowadays, many emigrants from Hoti have settled in the US.