The Pueblo Revolt and the Mythology of Conquest: An Indigenous Archaeology of Contact

by Michael V. Wilcox

In a groundbreaking book that challenges familiar narratives of discontinuity, disease-based demographic collapse, and acculturation, Michael V. Wilcox upends many deeply held assumptions about native peoples in North America. His provocative book poses the question, What if we attempted to explain their presence in contemporary society five hundred years after Columbus instead of their disappearance or marginalization? Wilcox looks in particular at the 1680 Pueblo Revolt in colonial New Mexico, the most successful indigenous rebellion in the Americas, as a case study for dismantling the mythology of the perpetually vanishing Indian. Bringing recent archaeological findings to bear on traditional historical accounts, Wilcox suggests that a more profitable direction for understanding the history of Native cultures should involve analyses of issues such as violence, slavery, and the creative responses they generated.

Genres: History, Indigenous, Nonfiction

334 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Robert Muller · Rating 2 out of 5]

The subtitle of this book should be "The Invisible Straw Man of Pueblo History", because very little of this book is actually useful in identifying anything useful about the Pueblo Revolt.

Firstly, there are literally only 4 pages devoted to the history (or archaeology or anthropology) of the Pueblo Revolt. The book is actually more interesting in the 20 pages or so describing the author's research into primary sources on the entradas that preceded the Revolt. The Revolt itself is apparently only documented by Hackett's 1942 account. There are much better histories.

Otherwise, this book is a borderline tour guide if you're interested in an archaeological tour of the Pueblos, with decent descriptions of the archaeological investigations of the sites. Some of the sites.

Mostly, this book is a discussion of the straw man: the eradication of the Native American population by disease, as exemplified by Jared Diamond's work, Guns Germs and Steel. I guess it's relatively unimportant that Diamond never mentioned the Pueblos as an example of his thesis. (!) I guess it's also unimportant that the author never introduces any examples of such a thesis in the published literature (I could be wrong, I started skipping over text about half way through--you never know what gems you might find if you continue sifting the sand of an archaeological PhD disseration).

In other words, if you're interested in the Pueblo Revolt, go to Hackett 1942 and subscribe to the relevant journals. Don't waste your time with this book.

[rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

the goat

[Sasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone invested in the decolonisation of archaeology and history.