Kachinas: Carvings of the Spirit World

Kachina Carving

Hard rain had swept across northern Arizona in August, and the unpaved patches of road on the Hopi mesas were gouged into miniature sculptures of hardened mud. Darrell Batala, a 21-year-old Hopi Indian, sits with his friends in a shed on Second Mesa, appreciative of the rain clouds that are gathering again outside the tiny window. On the arid mesas of fractured sandstone where the Hopi live, rain is always welcome, especially since it is regarded as a gift from the kachinas, the spirits who govern the Hopi Way.

These kachinas - there are an estimated 400 of them - have been the foundation of the Hopi religion for thousands of years. This August morning, Batala holds a pocketknife in one hand and a representation of a badger (or Honan) kachina in the other. One of many Hopi artisans who have turned to the carving of kachina dolls to supplement their income, Batala hopes to sell this carving for $600.

With prices for these colorful hand-carved dolls ranging from $100 to upwards of $3,500, it is clear that the kachina spirits who remain an omnipresent feature of Hopi religious life are now also a basic ingredient in a thriving cottage industry.

Like other Hopi, Batala makes a distinction between the object he is carving and the kachinas themselves: kachina dancers are the human manifestation of the spirits. Kachina dolls are representations of the dancers and the qualities of the kachina spirits.

Barton Wright, former curator of the Museum of Northern Arizona and an authority on kachina dolls, notes in his book Hopi Kachinas (Northland Publishing, Flagstaff; update 1992) that to the Hopi, "Kachinas are the spirit essence of everything in the real world."

Today kachina dolls can be divided into three categories: those given to Hopi children at ceremonial dances, those carved for collectors and tourists, and the more stylized and artistic dolls called kachina sculptures.

Kachina dolls are carved from the dead root of the cottonwood tree, which is soft and easy to work. Lately a small number of dolls have been cast in bronze.

Emory Sekaquaptewa, a Hopi and a research anthropologist at the University of Arizona, notes that kachina dolls are given to Hopi girls from the time of birth to around the time of puberty, when the youngsters are initiated into a kachina cult. Unlike dolls made for the commercial market, these are not signed by the craftsmen. That is so the children will believe that the dolls are the gift of the kachina spirits, and not of humans.

"These kachina dolls begin as a flat piece with a notch to distinguish between the head and the body," Sekaquaptewa says. "There is no detail in it. The detail is supplied by paint suggesting arms but no legs. From that point to the time of puberty, the doll becomes fully formed; it is an evolvement of 10 to 12 carvings."

From the time they are about a year or two old until they are about 10, Hopi girls receive two dolls each year, present-ed to them at the Bean Dance in February and the Home Dance in July.

Kachina Carving

These two events, when the kachinas dance in the plazas in the ancient vil-lages on the Hopi mesas, represent the beginning and end of the ceremonial seasons, which are linked to the agricultural season. The dolls are given to the children by the kachina dancers. They are neither toys nor something to be worshipped, but rather a symbol to be treated respectfully.

"The evolution of the doll [from a flat figure to a three-dimensional one] represents the growth of the fetus in the womb and the sacredness of conception and birth," Sekaquaptewa explains. "The doll, since it is made by a kachina, who is a perfect being, is believed to be endowed with all things of perfection. The girl is expected to nurture that doll as a pretend baby. In this association, the doll en-dowed with those qualities of perfection will make the girl fertile."

The dolls also serve to familiarize children with the characteristics of each kachina spirit in the Hopi pantheon and, by extension, instruct them in Hopi beliefs. In effect, they help provide the continuity of belief that keeps the Hopi religion alive.

They also "help to keep kids in line," adds Iva Torivio, a Hopi from First Mesa. The Ogre Woman kachina, also called One Who Enforces, is useful in this re-gard. Ogre Woman is an ugly hag with a beard and bulging eyes who always car-ries a hooked cane, a dagger, or a rope.

She is one of the monsters who go door-to-door a few days before the Bean Dance demanding food. After leaving Hopi girls a few grains of corn (boys get a yucca snare with which to catch mice), she says she'll be back, and if she isn't given food, she will take the children. "If the children have been bad, when the ogre comes back she will poke them with her cane and start to drag them away by their feet. The idea is that she is going to eat them," Torivio explains.

But, Wright notes in his book on Hopi kachinas, "Any petty misdeed that is brought up [by Ogre Woman] is countered by a relative who points out that the child has really learned his lesson and no longer makes such mistakes."

The family offers food to appease the monster, who then goes stomping off. Children subjected to this experience learn that they must contribute to the food supply or die, Wright concludes. They also learn that their well-being is dependent on the goodwill of their relatives, and that the village men will protect the people. These and other messages are reinforced by the presence of the kachina dolls that young girls collect and hang on their walls while they are grow-ing up.

Tourists and serious collectors who buy kachina dolls, however, are usually as interested in the artistic execution of the carving as they are in the complex mythology connected to the work.

Cottonwood roots are hard to find on the Hopi reservation, so many carvers buy them from dealers who visit the mesas. Dolls made for the serious collector are carved from a single block of wood, usually a foot to 18 inches high; and they will be detailed and elaborate, often taking two weeks or more to complete.

Each limb and feather is meticulously carved from the single piece of cottonwood root with no pieces added, then the carving is treated with a sealant and hand-painted with the specific colors associated with each kachina.

Dolls made for Hopi children, as well as the majority of those found in gift shops, usually have the trunk of the body carved from one piece of wood with limbs carved separately from another piece, then nailed and glued on.

Feathers, pieces of leather and fabric, and often human or horse hair are added to complete the piece. Most carvers use pocketknives, but some also use a Dremel tool and a woodburning tool for details like feathers and fingernails.

The quality of the carving and painting varies considerably. The work of today's finest Hopi carvers is featured in an excellent book, Kachina Dolls (University of Arizona Press, Tucson; 1991), by Arizona State Museum photographer Helga Teiwes.

In recent years, other Indians in Arizona and some non-Indians have been carving and selling kachinas, although the dolls are not linked to their religious beliefs, and the practice is frowned upon by the Hopi. There are kachina dolls manufactured in Taiwan and Hong Kong and even kachina-doll kits sold in crafts stores, laments Leigh Jenkins, director of the Hopi's Cultural Preservation Office in Kykotsmovi on Third Mesa.

Kachina dolls produced by non-Hopi usually sell for less than the Hopi dolls, but the Hopi complain that they are inaccurate renderings of the traditional kachinas.

Authentic Hopi dolls are sold at crafts stores along State Route 264, which runs through the Hopi reservation. They also can be found at Indian arts stores in Phoenix, Tucson, and Flagstaff. Identifying an authentic Hopi kachina doll can be difficult for the novice, but Barton Wright's Hopi Kachinas provides a good guide to collecting the real thing.

Editor's Note: The Heard Museum, (602) 252-8840, in Phoenix, is one of the best places to see and learn about kachina dolls. The representative sampling there includes simply carved historical dolls and the more intricately detailed dolls of contemporary times. The kachinas at the museum are from the collections of former U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater and Fred Harvey, founder of the Harvey Houses.