Kachina facts for kids

Palahiko Mana, Water-Drinking Maiden, Hopi 1899. She wears a headdress with stepped Earth signs and corn ears. Water Drinking Woman seems to be a name for the corn itself, one of many forms of the Corn Maidens.

Drawings of kachina dolls, Plate 11 from an 1894 anthropology book Dolls of the Tusayan Indians by Jesse Walter Fewkes.

A kachina (pronounced ka-CHEE-na) is a special spirit being in the religious beliefs of the Pueblo peoples. These are Native American cultures found in the southwestern United States. The Hopi, Zuni, Hopi-Tewa, and some Keresan tribes, along with most Pueblo tribes in New Mexico, practice kachina traditions.

The idea of a kachina has three main parts:

• The supernatural spirit itself.
• The kachina dancers, who are people dressed up as the spirits.
• Kachina dolls, which are small carved figures. These dolls are given to people who will care for them, like mothers or sisters.

What Are Kachinas?

Kachinas are spirits or representations of things in the real world. People believe these spirits visit Hopi villages during the first half of the year. The types of kachinas can be different from one Pueblo community to another.

A kachina can represent anything from nature or the cosmos. This includes respected ancestors, elements like water, specific places, qualities, natural events, or ideas. For example, there can be kachinas for the sun, stars, thunderstorms, wind, corn, or even insects.

Kachinas are thought to have relationships like humans do. They can have uncles, sisters, grandmothers, and they can marry and have children. While people don't worship kachinas, each one is seen as powerful. If treated with respect, a kachina can use its power for good. This might include bringing rain, healing, helping things grow, or offering protection.

The main idea behind kachina beliefs is that "everything in the universe has life." Everything has a spirit or life force. Humans must connect with these forces to survive.

Kachina dolls in the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona.

Hopi Kachinas

Kachina ceremonies are very important in the Hopi religious calendar. In Hopi religion, kachinas are said to live on the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, Arizona. For the Hopis, kachinas are supernatural beings. They visit villages to help with daily life and connect gods and people.

According to Susanne and Jake Page, the katsinam (the plural of kachina) are "the spirits of all things in the universe." This includes rocks, stars, animals, plants, and ancestors who lived good lives. Male dancers then dress up in costumes and masks to act as these spirits for ceremonies. These ceremonies happen during the first half of the year.

The first ceremony of the year is called Powamu. It takes place in February. This ceremony is linked to planting beans, the growing season, and young people becoming adults. The last kachina ceremony is Niman, which happens in July. It is connected to the harvest. After this, the katsinam are believed to return to their home in the San Francisco Peaks.

Hopi kachina dolls, called tihü, are ceremonial objects with religious meaning. Hopi carvers sometimes change these dolls to remove their religious meaning. This is done to meet the demand for decorative objects sold to non-Hopi people.

Important Hopi Kachinas

The most important Hopi kachinas are known as wuya. In Hopi, wuya can mean the spiritual beings themselves. It can also refer to the dolls, or the people who dress as kachinas for dances. All these parts are understood to be connected to the same belief system. Some of the wuyas include:

Hopi Pueblo (Native American). Kachina Doll (Pahlikmana), late 19th century. Brooklyn Museum

Map of Native American tribes in Arizona — located in the Grand Canyon and Northern Arizona regions

Zuni Kachinas

Religious ceremonies are very important to the Zuni farming society. These ceremonies are based around the winter and summer solstices (the longest and shortest days of the year). They focus on the importance of weather, especially rain, to help crops grow well. The Zuni people honor "Father Sky and Mother Earth" and welcome the kachinas, who bring many good things.

The Zuni believe that kachinas live in the Lake of the Dead. This is a mythical lake reached through Listening Spring Lake, where the Zuni River and the Little Colorado River meet. It's not clear which tribe, Zuni or Hopi, started the Kachina Cult first.

Zuni and Hopi kachinas are different but share some similarities. Both are very detailed. Kachinas from the Rio Grande Pueblos, however, look simpler in their features. The Hopis have developed their kachina traditions into more complex ceremonies, often with a strong sense of drama and art. The Zunis, on the other hand, have created more stories and folklore about their kachinas.

For the Zuni, the term kachina means three things:

• First, a supernatural being.
• Second, the masked dancer (when a Zuni person wears the mask, they become the kachina).
• Third, the carved, painted, and dressed doll.

The list of Zuni kachinas includes:

Kachina dancers, Shongopovi pueblo, Arizona, sometime before 1900

Ceremonial Dancers

Many Pueblo Indians, especially the Hopi and Zuni, have ceremonies where masked men play a big role. These men are called kachinas. Masked tribe members dress up as kachinas for religious ceremonies that happen many times a year.

These ceremonies are also social events for the village. Friends and relatives come from nearby towns to watch the dances and enjoy the feasts that are always prepared. When a Hopi man puts on a mask and wears the right costume and body paint, he loses his own identity. The spirit of the kachina he represents takes over. Besides the male kachinas, there are many female kachinas called kachin-manas. However, women never play the part of either male or female kachinas.

Clowns in Ceremonies

Koshari clown, Honolulu Museum of Art

Clown characters have two main jobs. Their most obvious job is to entertain the audience during the long outdoor celebrations and Kachina Dances. They act like jesters or circus clowns.

Clowns also have a more subtle and sacred role in Hopi rituals. These sacred functions are often kept private or secret by the Hopi. This means they are less known to the public. One observer was told, "We Koyala [Koshari] are the fathers of all Kachina." This shows their important, hidden role.

The Hopi have four groups of clowns, some of which are sacred. It can be tricky to identify and classify these groups. Also, some kachinas themselves act like clowns.

Kachina Dolls

Hopi Kachina dolls Kachina dolls are small, brightly painted wooden figures. They are miniature versions of the masked dancers. These dolls are given to children not as toys, but as special objects to keep and study. This helps young Hopis learn what the kachinas look like as part of their religious training.

During Kachina ceremonies, each child receives their own doll. The dolls are then taken home and hung on walls or from the ceiling. This way, children can see them all the time. The goal is to help children recognize the different kachinas. It is said that the Hopi recognize over 200 kachinas. Many more were created in the late 1800s.

Among the Hopi, maternal uncles traditionally carve kachina dolls. They give them to girls who have not yet been initiated into the ceremonies. This happens at the Bean Dance (Spring Bean Planting Ceremony) and the Home Dance Ceremony in the summer. These dolls are hard to classify because ideas about their appearance and purpose can differ from one mesa or pueblo to another.

Origins of Kachinas

There are two different stories in Hopi beliefs about where kachinas came from.

In one story, the kachinas were kind spirit-beings who came with the Hopis from the underworld. The kachinas traveled with the Hopis around the world until they reached Casa Grande. Both the Hopis and the kachinas settled there. The kachinas helped the Hopis a lot with their powerful ceremonies, for example, by bringing rain for crops. However, all the kachinas were killed when the Hopis were attacked. Their souls returned to the underworld. Since the kachinas' sacred items were left behind, the Hopis began to act as the kachinas. They wore their masks and costumes and copied their ceremonies to bring rain, good crops, and happiness.

Another story says that the Hopis started to take the kachinas for granted. They lost all respect for them, so the kachinas went back to the underworld. But before they left, the kachinas taught some of their ceremonies to a few faithful young men. They also showed them how to make the masks and costumes. When the other Hopi realized their mistake, they felt bad. They then turned to the human substitutes for the kachinas, and the ceremonies have continued ever since.

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See also

In Spanish: Kachina para niños