The Origin Myth of Acoma Pueblo

A masterpiece of Pueblo Indian mythology—now in a restored, definitive edition

In 1928, Edward Proctor Hunt, a Pueblo Indian man who was born in 1861 in the mesa-top village of Acoma, New Mexico and initiated into several secret societies only to later break with his people’s social and religious codes, recited his version of the origin myth of the Acoma Indians to Smithsonian Institution scholars. Hailed by many as the most accessible of all epic narratives recounting a classic Pueblo Indian story of creation, migration, and ultimate residence, the myth offers a unique window into Pueblo Indian cosmology and ancient history, revealing how a pre-modern society answered key existential questions and formed its customs. In this new edition, Peter Nabokov renders this important document into a clear sequence, adds excerpted material from the original storytelling sessions, and provides an introduction to Acoma Pueblo and information on the unusual life of the myth’s narrator. More

Peter Nabokov is a professor of World Arts and Cultures and American Indian Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. An acclaimed scholar of Native American history, he is the author of Where the Lightning Strikes and edited the volume Native American Testimony.