All About Kachinas

This Navajo Kachina is a gift from my wife. According to tradition, the Hoop Dancer moves the hoops in ways that tell a story. Each pattern of the hoops represents a spirit. Some examples are: the butterfly, the eagle, the snake, and the coyote. Together those four animals represent the circle of life.

In some settings, groups of Hoop Dancers use as many as sixteen different hoops at the same time. The dances require good balance, flexibility, and strength.

The hoops may be made of wood, but many are made of plastic. They are painted or wrapped with tape to make them colorful and represent the four directions. Sometimes the hoops have other meanings.

When a skilled Hoop Dancer holds the hoops, groups of them, three or four in one hand, interlock. That way the Hoop Dancer can use them to look like wings or tails.

Watching a Hoop Dancer is like watching animals move. Traditional stories are told in the patterns of the hoop movements, the dance steps, and the lyrics of the songs. By using these dances, the Anisnabe (people of the First Nations), keep their culture alive.

Here you see a picture of a Hopi Kokopelli Kachina. Many people think of the dancer holding a flute as a symbol of sexuality or fertility. Others say the flute is not at all, but a tobacco pipe instead.

Hopi people sometimes say that the Kokopelli carries unborn children on his back and gives them to women. He can be seen at the time of the full and waning moon. Some say Kokopelli sent winter away and brought spring along with rain to the world.

You can find Kokopelli in Zuni, Hopi, and Navajo art.

When you think of Kokopelli, remember that in some places in the Southwest, young girls are afraid of him and elder laugh when they see him because they know the Kokopelli danced with sexual meanings that the early white Missionaries didn't understand.

This Zuni Kachina is about 10 inches tall. The Corn Maiden Kachina is important because corn or maize is such a vital part of traditional life. The Hopi people used dry farming methods and grew several varieties of corn in the arid country where they live. Corn is a good staple for their diets because it stores easily, when dried, and can be adapted to many different types of recipes.

"A story is told of the Blue Corn Maiden going out during the winter to find wood to heat her home. This is not something she would normally do.

While she was out, Winter Kachina saw her and fell in love with her immediately. He talked with her, tricked her, and took her prisoner by keeping her barricaded in his lodge with snow and ice.

Blue Corn Maiden pushed the snow away from the door and got out anyway. She searched for something to heat the lodge and found Yucca leaves.

When Blue Corn Maiden burned the Yucca leaves for heat, Summer Kachina came. Discovering this, Winter Kachina came to fight Summer Kachina, but Summer Kachina melted the icicle Winter Kachina was going to use as a knife.

Winter Kachina saw he would need to be friends with Summer Kachina. So they talked and agreed Blue Corn Maiden would be with Summer Kachina half of the year and Winter Kachina the other half of the year.

That is why Hopi people have corn six months of the year and why they don't the other half of the year. When snow comes late in Spring, it is because Winter Kachina is disappointed because he must share Blue Corn Maiden."

Credit for the story: Stonee, a Pipe Carrier

The word Chipmunk comes from the language of the Ojibwa. It is thought to have meant red squirrel originally.

Ojibwa people live in the northern Midwest and southern parts of Canada near Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron. Their language has migrated to parts of Oklahoma with the Potawatami people.

I bought this Navajo Kachina, the Chipmunk, because we have a chipmunk living under our deck (here in Northern Michigan). He sits outside our sliding door each morning when we have breakfast. I think he hears our footsteps in the house.

When he first comes on the deck, he sits within a few feet of the door and barks. It's more like a chirp. But he makes sure we know he's there. Then he gathers acorns and brings them back to the deck to eat them. He doesn't have far to go because we have a large oak tree that grows up through the deck.

During the winter, when the snow is deep, he burrows under the snow on the deck creating a maze of tunnels. This is where he leaves the shells from the acorns he's stored. We find the tunnels during the first snow melt of spring and the piles of acorn shells later when it is all gone.

We found this modern Kachina in a gallery along the Rio Grande river just south of Taos. I like motorcycles and used to ride them often. This Kachina has a laughing spirit. It is an Indian on on Indian (motorcycle).

Today, some Native American artists use modern materials, while others use traditional materials of wood, stone, animal bones, hides, and other things found in nature.

Once while visiting an artist, I saw a pile of cans outside on the ground. I took a close look and saw they were actual tin cans with their labels on them. Some of the labels were older than I am. When I went into his gallery, I discovered why the cans were there. He uses them in his artwork.

Kachinas, like other forms of Native American art open our eyes to possibilities.