Becoming Hopi

A History

Edited by Wesley Bernardini, Stewart B. Koyiyumptewa, Gregson Schachner, and Leigh J. Kuwanwisiwma

The University of Arizona Press

Becoming Hopi is a comprehensive look at the history of the people of the Hopi Mesas as it has never been told before. The Hopi Tribe is one of the most intensively studied Indigenous groups in the world. Most popular accounts of Hopi history romanticize Hopi society as “timeless.” The archaeological record and accounts from Hopi people paint a much more dynamic picture, full of migrations, gatherings, and dispersals of people; a search for the center place; and the struggle to reconcile different cultural and religious traditions. Becoming Hopi weaves together evidence from archaeology, oral tradition, historical records, and ethnography to reconstruct the full story of the Hopi Mesas, rejecting the colonial divide between “prehistory” and “history.”

The Hopi and their ancestors have lived on the Hopi Mesas for more than two thousand years, a testimony to sustainable agricultural practices that supported one of the largest populations in the Pueblo world. Becoming Hopi is a truly collaborative volume that integrates Indigenous voices with more than fifteen years of archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork. Accessible and colorful, this volume presents groundbreaking information about Ancestral Pueblo villages in the greater Hopi Mesas region, making it a fascinating resource for anyone who wants to learn about the rich and diverse history of the Hopi people and their enduring connection to the American Southwest.

Contributors: Lyle Balenquah, Wesley Bernardini, Katelyn J. Bishop, R. Kyle Bocinsky, T. J. Ferguson, Saul L. Hedquist, Maren P. Hopkins, Stewart B. Koyiyumptewa, Leigh Kuwanwisiwma, Mowana Lomaomvaya, Lee Wayne Lomayestewa, Joel Nicholas, Matthew Peeples, Gregson Schachner, R. J. Sinensky, Julie Solometo, Kellam Throgmorton, Trent Tu’tsi

Reviews
Editor

Becoming Hopi is the kind of volume of which archaeologists engaged with Indigenous peoples dream of being part: the result of a coequal partnership driven by the wants and needs of the community. It is accessible, multivocal, empirically driven, thought provoking, emotionally powerful, hyperlocal, and globally relevant.'—Samuel Duwe, American Antiquity

‘Becoming Hopi brilliantly combines Hopi and non-Hopi voices in helping to rewrite Hopi history and the process of becoming Hopi. The coverage is extensive—both for Hopi as well as for wide swaths of the northern Southwest—and each chapter has something new to offer in terms of innovative data collection and interpretation. The combination and use of traditional, archaeological, and documentary histories unfolds a rare perspective on what it means to be Hopi.’—Barbara Mills, co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Southwest Archaeology

‘How did Hopi farmers sustain large, stable communities in an area that previous scientific models predicted could not support a substantial population? How did waves of migration shape Hopi social organization and ritual calendars? Archaeologists, ethnographers, and Hopi cultural specialists worked collaboratively to answer these and other compelling questions.’—Kelley Hays-Gilpin, co-editor of Color in the Ancestral Pueblo Southwest

Wesley Bernardini is professor of anthropology at the University of Redlands in California. He has worked collaboratively with the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office since 2003.

Stewart B. Koyiyumptewa is a member of the Badger Clan from Hotvela on Third Mesa. He is the program manager for the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office.

Gregson Schachner is professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Population Circulation and the Transformation of Ancient Zuni Communities.

Leigh Kuwanwisiwma is a member of the Greasewood Clan from Paaqavi on Third Mesa. He directed the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office from 1989 to 2018.

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