The Society for American Archaeology (SAA) has named Becoming Hopi: A History the recipient of its 2022 Scholarly Book Award. The book, published by the University of Arizona Press, is co-edited by Wesley Bernardini, Stewart B. Koyiyumptewa, Gregson Schachner, and Leigh J. Kuwanwisiwma. Schachner, an associate professor of anthropology and chair of the Interdepartmental Archaeology Program; Reuven Sinensky, a doctoral student in anthropology at UCLA; and Katelyn Bishop, who received her PhD in anthropology in 2019 and is assistant professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, co-authored multiple chapters in the volume. The award will be presented on April 1, at the Annual Meeting of the SAA in Chicago.
The SAA announcement commended the book as follows: “Becoming Hopi shows a masterful interwoven collective work of conventional archaeological data and Hopi traditional knowledge to carefully study the Hopi Mesas of Arizona. In this volume, the voices of the Hopi are integrated with archaeological and ethnographic work conducted over two decades to show an important Indigenous group of the American Southwest with its rich and diverse historical tradition dating back more than 2,000 years. This tradition is deeply rooted in time, and the voices of the Hopi can be heard by scholars and non-experts. In addition, the collaborative effort resulted in a book that can be used by members of the Hopi community to learn about their own past.”