Customer Reviews

Hopi Tales of Destruction

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If you enjoy Hopi culture you will have a hard time putting this book down. Archeologist discover an abandoned Hopi villiage. They also find numerous bodies burned inside the Kivas. Molotki matches local legends to describe what actually took place to cause everyone living in this village to die. In this case it was a game so addicting that the people no longer cared about anything except playing the game! You will have to read the book to find out how and why this villiage was destroyed. This is one of about 7 different stories blending archeology with actual events that have been passed down from generations in the form of oral tradition.

The book is a little technical with the archeological eveidence, but the stories of each villiage are well written and many times you feel like you are there seeing the actual events. The stories them selves are fascinating and I think you will find them very stimulating.There is also a good mix of cultural mythology in many of the stories.

I highly recomend this book as one of the best I have ever read!

Any town can be destroyed by war or natural disaster, but three centuries ago, Awatovi was destroyed, its men slaughtered, and some of its women and small children carried away to other villages, by raiding parties from other Hopi villages. Awatovi's chief had concluded that his people, his children, had grown too chummy with the Spanish, who were then creeping back into Tusayan, or Hopiland and environs, two decades after being driven off in the Pueblo revolt of 1680. The chief met with his counterparts from other villages, planned the attack, then intentionally met his end with "his children" he had sorrowfully sentenced to die.

The Awatovi site, an abandoned chaos of potsherds and human bones, has been left untouched except for one clumsy and aborted attempt at archeology (and doubtless a few thefts), and can be visited with a Hopi guide who will ask you only to refrain from photographing, sketching, or taking anything. A guest would be well-advised to dress and speak as one would inside a tomb. In addition to showing respect, your long pants and long sleeves will protect you from a howling wind you might conclude is more than naturally loud and chilly.

The exceptional fratricide of Awatovi remains a topic some Hopi are loath to discuss, especially with outsiders, and I encountered subtle resistance at the Cultural Center at Second Mesa when I inquired about visiting the site in 2006. I recommend asking for a guide at Tsakurshovi, a store located 1-1/2 miles east of the Center on Highway 264. Owned by a Hopi woman and her Anglo husband, Janice & Joseph Day, and specializing in traditional-style kachinas, Tsakurshovi attracts not only visitors but locals in need of carving tools and costume implements and eager to sell their art, and it out-cultural centers the Cultural Center.

Read this book before you visit, and after you return.