A Kachina

Maidie and I went on a Kachina tour of Arizona, under the aegis of Crow Canyon and under the leadership of the archeologist Chuck Adams (above), who has worked on the Hopi mesas for thirty years. We started off in Phoenix at the Heard Museum, and then went up to Flagstaff, to the Museum of Northern Arizona, where we were joined by Michael Kabotie, a Hopi artist. Chuck and Michael gave us a tour of the museum and of the mural that Michael has painted in imitation of a kiva.

The mural reads from left to right. On the right, through the rungs of the ladder, you can see some of the problems of the modern Hopi: alcoholism, diabetes, drug usage, and suicide. Michael himself, as he explained, at one point was a down-and-out alcoholic. But his kachina spoke to him, not so much in words as in feelings and ideas. Michael is in recovery, and an extraordinary artist. Here is one of his rings:

We then visited the ruins at Homol’ovi, which Chuck Adams had helped excavate.

Below Homol’ovi were rock art panels, one of which showed a kachina.

From there we drive north through dust devils and Navajo country to reach the mesas where the Hopis live. We stayed at the Cultural Center, which has an inn attached.

One of our local guides Micah Loma’omvaya, still plants his fields using a digging stick. But he said that only 15% of the arable fields were planted. Other Hopis rely on food stamps,

The Hopis were very open about the difficulties that have adjusting to the modern world: alcoholism, poverty, and a weakening of traditions.

But what they do have are the kachinas, the spirits of nature and the spirits of the dead, who bring rain and other blessings upon the Hopi.

One of my hopes has been to see a kachina dance, and we did. The Hopis feel that that cultural heritage has been exploited, so they strictly limit photography in the villages and absolutely forbid it at the dances. The few images I had seen did not prepare me for the dance. I had seen such images as these:

We entered a plaza similar to the one in the first picture and sat in a corner. The plaza was ringed by chairs filled with Hopi women and scores of children. The rooftops were also full of adults and teenagers. There were a handful of Anglos.

We sat for a while (the kachinas dance when they are ready) and then heard a few hoots in the distance. The kachinas, similar to the one in the first image, wearing ruffs of cedar and bells around their legs, started entering the plaza, 3, 5, 15, 25, 50, 100, and they kept coming. They milled around, making turkey-like noises for a while, and then formed a double oval line that filled the plaza. Then the kachinas in the center  started drumming, and all the kachinas started singing and dancing in unison, waving their headdresses and their triangular turquoise wands, and smell of the cedar and the sound of the bells filled the plaza.

They sang and sang and sang and danced and danced and danced. After about twenty minutes the singing stopped and the kachinas started milling around, going to the heap of food in the center of the plaza and starting to give the food to the crowd: candy and doughnuts and cookies and popcorn for the children, and big baskets of groceries for the elderly grandmothers who needed food. Then they started throwing carrots and apples and oranges and cookies into the crowd (my wife was tossed a sweet star biscuit) and to the people on the rooftop. The air was filled with a rain of food. The children, who know these are the real kachinas come down from the clouds, were delighted.

The kachinas reform their double line and do a different dance and song. Their song and their dance is a prayer, for rain and a good harvest and peace and blessings for the Hopis and for all people, black, white, yellow, throughout the world, for Hopiland is the center of the world.

The Hopis seem to have a strong sense of transiency. Masau is the spirit of this earth, and the spirit of death. But is the sadness rather than the cruelty of death that the Hopis seem to feel.

We saw two carved figures, both star beings, but of different colors. They symbolize the male and female principles. We were told that seeing one shooting star was wonderful, but to see two shooting starts go through the sky together and disappear into eternity is even more wonderful. Such are husband and wife, or friend and friend, passing briefly through this word together until they enter eternity.

The Hopis believe that when they die they become kachinas, spirits that carry prayers to the Creator and bring his blessings back to the earth, especially the blessing of rain. The kachinas therefore appear as clouds. A small Hopi child overheard us talking about kachinas and said “There are many kachinas today.” We asked where, and he pointed to the sky which was filled with white puffy clouds.

The Hopis feel their losses, and say that it has been prophesied they will one day lose everything and go on their wanderings again, but it has also been prophesied the kachina dance will be the last thing they lose. May it be many, many years before that happens.

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