Modern Americans love thinking that the Hopi people of the Southwest represent the epitome of peacefulness. But in the year 1700, in the populous village of Awat’ovi, Hopi slaughtered Hopi by the hundreds in a predawn raid, showering crushed red pepper, fire, and arrows into subterranean kivas while kidnapping the women and children who survived. This massacre is well documented, but UCSB history and anthropology professor James Brooks wanted to find out why, and whether the tragic incident resonates in…