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

by James F. Brooks

The Hopi community of Awat’ovi existed peacefully on Arizona’s Antelope Mesa for generations until one bleak morning in the fall of 1700—raiders from nearby Hopi villages descended on Awat’ovi, slaughtering their neighboring men, women, and children. While little of the pueblo itself remains, five centuries of history lie beneath the low rises of sandstone masonry, and theories about the events of that night are as persistent as the desert winds. The easternmost town on Antelope Mesa, Awat’ovi was renowned for its martial strength, and had been the gateway to the entire Hopi landscape for centuries. Why did kinsmen target it for destruction?


Drawing on oral traditions, archival accounts, and extensive archaeological research, James Brooks unravels the story and its significance. Mesa of Sorrows follows the pattern of an archaeological expedition, uncovering layer after layer of evidence and theories. Brooks questions their reliability and shows how interpretations were shaped by academic, religious and tribal politics. Piecing together three centuries of investigation, he offers insight into why some were spared—women, mostly, and taken captive—and others sacrificed. He weighs theories that the attack was in retribution for Awat’ovi having welcomed Franciscan missionaries or for the residents’ practice of sorcery, and argues that a perfect storm of internal and external crises revitalized an ancient cycle of ritual bloodshed and purification.


A haunting account of a shocking massacre, Mesa of Sorrows is a probing exploration of how societies confront painful histories, and why communal violence still plagues us today.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Native American

288 pages, Hardcover

First published February 15, 2016

Reviews

[Max Carmichael · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's possible to extract some good information from this opaque and confusing correlation of the archaeological, ethnographic, and historical records, but Brooks mucks up the account so much with his nonlinear, repetitive, over-literary presentation that he ultimately fails to achieve his stated aim of making the Awat'ovi story relevant in a broader anthropological or sociological context.

Nonlinear narratives have a place in literature, but Brooks could have shed more light on Hopi history in a much shorter, conventionally structured book, without all the repetitive temporal circling and zigzagging. And if he really wanted to demonstrate the broader relevance of Hopi communal violence, he could have cast a wider net and integrated the contemporaneous histories of the many contrasting societies the Puebloan peoples were in contact with both in and surrounding the greater Southwest: from the Navajo, Apache, Ute, Southern Paiute, Havasupai, Hualapai, Mojave and Yavapai, to the colonial Spanish and Anglo-American.

[Darcia Helle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking forward to reading this book. I wish I could say that I loved it, but I really didn't, not at all. In fact, I had trouble slogging through the pages.

To start with, the subtitle - A History of the Awat'ovi Massacre - implies a narrow focus. That subtitle turns out to be misleading. I was surprised by how little attention the Awat'ovi Massacre received within these pages. This book turns into something more akin to a broad history of the Hopis. The events here span from well before 1300 all the way up through the early 1900s. Much of the content focuses on the 1800s, into the 1900s, when the Awat'ovi Massacre took place all the way back in 1700. The scope of information feels too ambitious, particularly for a book that sits at just 222 pages, discounting the notes and bibliography.

Then there is the timeline, which is anything but linear. We zigzag back and forth, and around and about, spanning centuries, with no cohesion to the storyline.

Finally, the content, for me, felt jumbled and disjointed. We jump from internecine warfare to superstitions to archaeological digs to Christianity and the Franciscans, then back to warfare, and soon we're on to village life, and then back to religion. The whole thing made me dizzy.

The author does offer some interesting detail about Awat'ovi specifically, and the Native American culture in general. For me, though, the structure of the book made this a difficult read.

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was told by my Hopi guide on the Third Mesa that this book is “controversial” and not well-regarded by many Hopi. I can believe it since it appears the author never did any in-depth interviews with anyone Hopi, depending almost entirely on second-hand accounts and academic resources to write this. Nevertheless it was a well-written and, although limited, informative account. The author’s interpretation and conclusion of the events are questionable to my mind, especially as he doesn’t speak to current-day Hopis for their perspectives.

[Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very interesting and good book on Awat’ovi and cultural conflicts among the Hopi. Those criticizing its nonlinearity should bear in mind that it is a carefully constructed argument for a particular set of conclusions about the destruction of Awat’ovi, something that is not understood. There is no definite history of what happened or why, only inferences and attempts to reconcile sketchy narratives, archaeology and ethnography. Brooks does an excellent job of bringing out the details of a complex problem and is an excellent introduction to the topic.

Excellent bibliography

[Ike Rakiecki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Centering on a series of 18th century events taking place at Awat'ovi, a once important Hopi locale which is now in ruin. The writer succeeded in tying together different aspects of Awat'ovi and the Hopi people, blending prehistory, history, current issues, archaeology, and anthropology.

[Shrike58 · Rating 4 out of 5]

What makes this book hard to get to grips with is that it's like a surrealist painting where there is no subject, just the surrounding context. All we really know for sure about the massacre of 1700 is that a community had fallen into such a state of chaos that said community's headman called in assistance to eliminate chaos, with extreme prejudice; the authority of the elite clans trumped all other considerations apparently. From there, Brooks goes on a looping look at such topics as the great Pueblo Revolt of the late 17th century, Hopi notions of history, the structural makeup of the Hopi community (or lack thereof), and the Hopi relationship with supernatural forces. The bottom line is that it appears that the real crime of the Awat'ovi community was that they were seen as potential Spanish sympathizers, as they appear to have been practicing a heterodox form of Catholicism. I wound up liking this book but I can see how a lot of readers would bounce off it.

[Margie Dorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A "buyer beware" that, on the one hand, this book strongly held my interest because I live near the area of the Southwest that the author is discussing, and in my local life and work I've heard stories about the events discussed here... this book filled in some researched as well as speculative detail. On the other hand, that being said, I don't think this book is for everyone. If a reader does not have background, the multiplicity of names and locations will only get bewildering. The narrative has a somewhat circular structure and can sometimes confuse, especially if the reader cannot remember a particular reference point from an earlier chapter. That being said, the research is detailed, balanced, and purposeful. Brooks says that the essence of his story is: "let us try not to make strangers of our kinfolk and neighbors."

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every book I read, I hope to learn at least one thing (I like to "complicate" my thinking, as one professor once said), and that was accomplished in Mesa of Sorrows. However, like other readers, I found the book extremely confusing and incredibly complicated. I have a layman's knowledge of the broad outline of Southwestern history and a passing interest in Native American history, but it took a lot of effort to try and keep things straight in my mind while reading this work. The author is to be commended for his use of Native American names and terminology, but it did slow down the pace. I did not know until I read another review that the book was considered controversial but after finishing it I can understand the concerns.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brooks helps us to understand the complex social environment of the indigenous peoples in the Southwestern United States over the past several hundred years. Communal violence was a fact of life long before the arrival of Europeans who unfortunately only made matters worse, at least in the beginning. Brooks also helps us to understand the complex history of the Hopi, a people whose ancestors include many different ethnic groups that intermixed in the communities of the Southwest. I appreciated Brooks' honest admission that the exact causes of the Awat'ovi massacre, that destroyed one of the key villages in the region, cannot be determined.

[Diane Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pahaana prophecy: purpose is to maintain ambivalence, paradox, and anxiety…not to relieve it. Hopi philosophy of history. Sukavungsinom (hostility to the threat imposed by white society to Hopi way of life). Tool of religious leaders to foster a regeneration of ritual ceremonial order. Purification through obliteration, called down by one’s own leader.

[Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too all over the place, very dry, not enough information about the actual massacre despite the title. A real shame, since I was interested in a lot of the info in this book, but the way it was presented was abysmal for my tastes.

[Anne Alameddin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting study of a massacre of a Hopi village, by other Hopis, in 1700. While the individual chapters are generally well written, the story does not flow well from chapter to chapter. It feels as if they were written as separate articles and later stitched together to create a book.

[Steve Comstock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fascinating subject, poor execution. Full of grammatical errors and repetitive, I was disappointed.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could have been a good book. However the author only briefly talked about the event and most of the book was filled with symbology and meaning of myths and the way events are remembered.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

The content was intriguing. The format was difficult to follow and took away from the intriguing story

[David Iverson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, well wriiten account about the destruction of awatovi, the events leading up to it, and the aftermath it left.

[Jenni V. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The description of the book, both from reading the summary and listening to the author speak at a reading, didn't match what I actually read. It's not necessarily a bad thing but it was dryer than I expected after his engaging talk about his research and I didn't get the deeper layers of how this applies to the present day that he alluded to in the summary.

There were some typos which surprised me since he's a professor, especially with using "there" instead of "their" occasionally.

He mentioned a way people used to determine if a woman was a witch that was new to me. They would measure her tongue...apparently witches' were shorter than average.

A Few Quotes from the Book
"In the Euro-American mind, history marches from past to present. Each event - birth, death, marriage, divorce, war and peace - accrues in a sequence that shapes the next in knowable ways, although their precise relation may prove elusive. We attend to the past to better comprehend our present. Yet, invert this. What is our present were already active in our past? What if our present is nothing more than a past foretold? This swirl of cause and effect, effect as cause, not linear but cyclical and untethered from western time, more closely captures the way many Hopis understood (and understand) the ruination of Awat'ovi Pueblo."

"The present troubles the ghosts of the past."

Find all my reviews at: http://readingatrandom.blogspot.com

[William Barrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mesa of Sorrows takes readers back to the beginning of the 18th century in native American history. Brooks reveals the interrelationships that developed with Spanish padres spreading the Roman Catholic faith among the tribal peoples of the Southwest. The clash of Christianity (at least of the Roman stripe) and the native cultures resulted in the tribal peoples purging from their midst one pueblo village on Antelope Mesa in what is now the state of Arizona. This study demonstrates how both tribal and non-tribal archaeologists, anthropologists, and historians remove the dust of time from past events to gain a new understanding of the complex network of relationships and events impacted specific groups of people. I highly recommend this book to anyone desiring to understand even the ongoing relationships between Hopi and Navajo, among others.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting story of the massacre at Awat'ovi and the circumstances, myths, and legends that surround it. By and large, the narrative was crafted in a very compelling manner, shifting focus not only between the massacre and the events leading up to it, but also moving ahead in time to the late nineteenth and early twentieth century as archeologists and anthropologists tried to make sense of what happened to the Awat'ovi village in 1700. The book draws upon a variety of sources, including ethnographies, archeological records, and oral histories, all of which help reveal facets of the society that existed and the scholarly/ anthropological understanding of that society.

My primary gripe with the book was that parts of the argument did not feel fully explored, and many interesting details were mentioned and then dropped.

[Georgene · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book which traces the history of the decimation of a Hopi village in 1700. This incident is traced from its origins in the Hopi culture to the reverberations that have echoed down to the present time. Relying on Spanish texts from the period, archaeology and oral traditions of current Hopi tribesmen, the author seeks to find a reason why a village was wiped from existence by its neighboring villages, which were populated by relations of the inhabitants of the targeted village.

An interesting book that is well worth reading!

[Br. Thanasi (Thomas) Stama · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book on archeology of the Hopi's as well as this particular site.
You begin to understand the relationships between the Hopi and the Rio Grand Pueblo peoples and the other native Americans. Also you can begin to understand the Spanish intrusion.

[Troy Myers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very detailed history of one event and perhaps why it occurred. Explores the Hopi and other Pueblo people's history. Gave me a greater understanding of this region and people in America. It was well researched and written.

[Beverly · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story being told was interesting, but the way it was told was fairly aggravating. A history book that not only wasn't told in a linear fashion - more of a spiral - but that also didn't seem to really have a solid point

[Beth]

Library recall that I finally finished in May.

[!Tæmbuŝu]

Reviewed by The Slate

[Eladia Rivera]

IF you are really interested in Hopi history and archaeology this is an engaging book. If not, it may be too in depth for the average reader.

[☆faithxnova☆ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3⭐️

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is a confusing read. It jumped back and forth and very little was about the massacre. Most of the book was about Hopi culture and historic tensions between the different Hopi villages. While the book held my interest it was difficult to read because of the way it jumped around and the subtitle was misleading.