Mesa of Sorrows: A History of the Awat’ovi Massacre

In this vivid work of ethno-history, Brooks (Captives and Cousins) brings to life the Hopi Indian community of Awat’ovi, on Arizona’s Antelope Mesa. In the spring of 1700, Awat’ovi was destroyed and most of its inhabitants were killed. The attackers were fellow Hopi; as Brooks deftly shows, the offending group felt that Awat’ovi had fallen into koyaanisqatsi (moral corruption and chaos). The social order could only be restored by the village’s complete obliteration, with the ruins left to function as an “evil place” in local memory. Brooks works from historical and archaeological sources, revealing Awat’ovi’s long history as a place associated with sorcery. He emphasizes that the arrival of Franciscan missionaries in 1629, and their ejection in the course of Po’pay’s Rebellion in 1680, ensured that “something powerful remained” to trouble the land. Hopi identity was centered on individual villages, and each town’s inhabitants did not view those from other towns as their people. When Spanish friars returned to Awat’ovi, generating tensions between Catholic converts and practitioners of traditional religion, the warriors of the nearby Walpi and Oraibi communities were willing to respond to an Awat’ovi leader’s appeal and destroy the impure community. Brooks tells this tragic story with great sensitivity and power, offering readers a fascinating perspective on the history of the American Southwest. Agency: Garamond Agency. (Feb.)