....And so you will say, "Ah yes, a kachina is a masked character but who is he, what is he, and what is the big significance?" A Hopi Indian will tell you that a kachina is a supernatural being who is impersonated by a man wearing a mask, and he wil add that the kachinas live on the San Francisco Peaks, near flagstaff, Arizona and on other high mountains. A kachina has three aspects; the supernatural being as he exists in the minds of the Hopis; the masked impersonator of the supernatural being, who appears in the kivas and plazas; and the small dolls carved in the same likeness. The first two aspects are termed Kachinas and the latter, kachina dolls. Since Kachina dolls, with we are primarily concerned, depend for their significance upon the masked impersonations, we must consider kachinas first.

Ever since J Walter Fewkes, of the Smithsonian Institution, wrote his first illustrated report on Hopi Kachinas, in 1894, a growing number of people have become interested in the Hopi Indians and their delightful carved and painted kachina dolls. For years collectors have treasured these small representations of Hopi supernatural beings without being able to learn much about them. In northern parts of New Mexico and Arizona are a number of compact Indian villages with flat roofed houses built of stone or adobe. Because these Indians lived in villages, the Spanish word for which is pueblo, they are of the prehistoric people who lived in northern Arizona and New Mexico fifteen hundred years ago. Since that time they have developed a rich culture which, in certain aspects, because of their innate conservatism, has withstood the whiteman's efforts to supplant it with his own. Although most of the Pueblo Indians live in the Rio Grande Valley, near Albuquerque and Sante Fe, a chain of villages extends to the westward across the high plateaus and ends with the Hopi Indians who live on three mesas in northeastern Arizona. Many of these Puseblo Indians, particularly the Hopi and Zuni have ceremonies in which masked men, called kachinas, play an important role, and it is of these masked characters of the Hopi that we are going to speak. Stay tuned for part Two of What is a Kachina?

Dream catchers are originally a native artifact from the Ojibwa nation. Native mothers would use various threads, such as sinew and yarn and would die it red. They would wrap the threads on wooden hoops and place them or weave them into baby cradle boards. This spider web form would capture anything that may try to pass through. Weather it be harm or sickness or bad feelings and thoughts this would protect them. The dream catcher would also filter out all the bad dreams.

 

Charles Russell lived from 1864 to 1926 and was one of the few great western painters of his time to capture all aspects of the American cowboy and Native American Culture. One of his most famous paintings jerked down in 1907 dramatizes the dangerous work of the American cowboys way of life. In this painting the portrays a steer being roped while another steer trips on the rope pulling both the horse and the cowboy to the ground. Holding a firm grip, the cowboy fights to keep the horses' balance. The cowhand swings his rope in hope to lasso the situation. This method is known as the "hard and fast" method by which a rope is tied to the saddle horn.

Here at Alltribes we have the fortunate opportunity to offer all shapes and sizes of the Gallagher collection. Made of Aspen from Colorado, these beautiful statues grace many restaurants, basements, porches and businesses. Each cigar store Indian is unique in it's own right. It can take a wood carver as many as 20 years to become as skilled as the Gallagher's. The Gallagher's make around 300 of these collectible statues a year, driving nearly 50,000 just to get the perfect aspen. The first wooden Indians made their presence in Virginia 450 years ago. The merchants would put them outside their stores to show customers that they sold tobacco.

The most common traditional shape of the Pima Basket was a fairly shallow bowl with a slightly rounded bottom and flaring sides, approximately fifteen inches in diameter and five inches in height. This was ideal for important task of winnowing and parching wheat. The size of the basket varied considerably for use in other household chores, such as collecting and preparing squash, pumpkins, roots, beans, wild spinach, and fruits of the various cacti. A very special deep large basket was used to hold tiswin, a liquor made from the saguaro fruit. This was gathered in June, the harvest marking the beginning of the Pima year.

As an old Pima woman once said, "They used to line the basket with mesquite pitch so they could put liquor in it. They would put the stew in a large basket, and everyone would dip in with their hands, even the children. People put back in the bowl what they couldn't eat. They would take all the bones and dry them up on the roof and use them again. They still had their flavor. They were not afraid of flies in those days.

 

Baskets were also carried on the head in the Basket Dance. These were not used for food.

The utilitarian baskets have long ago been abandoned for the more easily obtained metal kitchen wares, although the traditional shapes are still woven for the tourist or collectors. Other forms, such as plaques, shallow or deep bowls with straight sides, narrow necked ollas and minature baskets are examples of experimentations by the weavers.

The O’odham mainly focus on Southwestern basketry. Native American baskets originally, like pottery, were completely utilitarian, and were being constructed well before pottery. Discoveries of Hohokam baskets go back 1300 years and were probably being made in the area well before that. Unfortunately baskets biodegrade while fired pottery lasts for ages which is why you come across Southwestern pottery well before Southwestern Native American Indian Baskets. O’odham baskets are still being made the same way they were years ago using the same techniques and materials. The only thing that changed was a few natural materials such as; willows and the yucca became more often used. During the late 19th century the tourist began buying, selling and trading and the demand for these Native American Indian baskets greatly increased.