K
The kachina, also spelled katsina, plays a major role in the religion and mythology of the Pueblo people of the Southwestern United States, particularly in the Hopi and Zuni communities, and to some extent in the Acoma and Arizona Tewa communities. There are hundreds of kachinas in the Hopi tradition, and somewhat fewer in the Zuni tradition. Each kachina represents an aspect of nature, with the most powerful kachinas representing the most essential life-giving elements, such as the sun and the rain. There are kachinas to represent all the elements, as well as important crops such as beans and corn; animals, such as the badger and the snake, also have kachinas. The appearance of kachinas is highly important on a spiritual level to ensure social equilibrium, as well as to establish the correct timing of planting for these agricultural societies.
Most kachinas are benevolent beings, revered as ancestors and life-giving spirits, but some have frightening personae to scare children into behaving. Each kachina has its own name, personality, set of abilities, or recognizable symbols, and each plays a specific role in the traditional ceremonies of the Pueblo people. Similar in some ways to Greek gods, kachinas populate elaborate origin myths. They live in the San Francisco mountains (Hopi), or in the Lake of the Dead (Zuni), just as the Greek gods live on Mount Olympus. Similar in other ways to Catholic saints, kachinas are revered and invoked for specific purposes. The term kachina refers to the spirits, to the men who embody the spirits (more than simply dressing up, it is meant to be interpreted as a literal embodiment of the spirit), and also to kachina dolls, small effigies carved from wood called katsina tithu.
Hopi kachina dolls represent ancestral spirits who dwell in the clouds and serve as intermediaries between humans and the spirit world. An individual kachina represents a force of nature, and those forces most vital to life are represented by the most powerful kachinas. Every kachina is distinct with its own name and attributes and may be recognized by its own unique set of symbols. Although popular collectibles amongst non-native peoples, a primary function of kachina dolls is to impart knowledge about beliefs and rituals to children of a particular community. (Corel)
Many aspects of the kachina tradition are concerned with agriculture. This is because the Zuni and Hopi are traditionally dry farmers in the high desert and they cultivate their crops without irrigation. They have always relied on rainfall for their survival, so a major theme of the kachinas in both traditions is some relation to rain, clouds, wind, sun, and the need for each element to arrive at the right time. The katsin-tithu are traditionally carved from dried branches of cottonwood, a tree that grows near rivers and streams.
Kiva
Underground rooms dedicated to sacred rituals and storytelling are common among current pueblo-dwelling Native Americans, and also proliferate among the ruins of cliff dwellings throughout the American Southwest. Kiva is the Hopi word for such a structure. Generally round or rectangular in shape, such chambers are usually accessed via a ladder that is placed in a door in the center of the ceiling. The kivas among the archaeological ruins of the region have been interpreted through the current use of existing kivas by men’s ritual societies. After the conclusion of the rites and ceremonies of such groups, the participants climb up out of the pit structure into the light of day, representing the emergence of the first People from the womb of Mother Earth in the creation stories of these peoples.
C. Fee
There are powerful mother spirits as well as maiden spirits who serve as helpers, but all kachinas are embodied in ceremonies by the men of the community in reverent and joyful ceremonies that occur in the kivas (ceremonial enclosures) as well as in public. Women and female children participate as observers and as recipients of honorary gifts, from katsin-tithu to offerings of seeds and bean shoots. Events are often closed to outsiders to preserve the sacred nature of the ceremonies, though some pueblos do allow visitors at certain events.
The timing and details of specific ceremonies within the Hopi community differ greatly from those within the Zuni community. Hopi people welcome the kachina spirits each winter in a symbolic acknowledgment of their reliance on the gifts granted by each spirit, and the kachinas leave after six months. There are also internal differences in the traditions between, for example, Hopi people living on the First Mesa and those living on the Third Mesa.
In the Hopi tradition, the first kachina ceremony each year is Soyalwimi at the winter solstice. More kachinas arrive for Powamuya (bean dance season) in February, and they stay until the summer solstice and the Niman (home dance) ceremony. For Powamuya, in the morning on the day of the dance, the chief kachina and others bring gifts. The lady of each household receives a bundle of bean sprouts so she can begin planting. At Niman, the brides of that year are presented by the grooms’ mothers to the kachinas and each bride is blessed and given an intricate katsina tithu. Niman marks the end of the kachina season for the Hopi.
Zuni ceremonies take place four times throughout the year, with the Shalako festival near the winter solstice being a very important event where “dancers representing the couriers of the rain deities come to bless new homes,” according to the Pueblo of Zuni (official website of the Zuni Tribe). For both the Zuni and the Hopi people, much about the ceremonies and traditions is sacred and knowledge of them is restricted to these tribes, with some specifics known only to men who have been initiated into the sacred traditions.
While kachina dolls are quite popular among non–Native Americans as tourist items and collectibles, and serve as an important means of income for Pueblo artisans, the figures have a meaningful instructive role within Pueblo. The dolls serve as pedagogical tools for teaching the traits and symbols of each kachina spirit to young children who receive them as gifts. Although the dolls themselves are not intended to hold religious powers, children are instructed to treat them with a great deal of respect, rather than just as toys. At first, young girls receive small, simply carved katsina tithu, and the dolls they receive increase in intricacy as the women grow up. The largest and most beautiful katsina tithu are given as gifts for a new bride. katsina tithu are often hung from the rafters or placed in a special niche in the home.
There are differing accounts regarding which community originated the kachina tradition, since they are fundamental within the religions of both the Hopi and the Zuni. In the Zuni language, Kököle (also spelled Kökö and Kököle-ish) is another term for kachina spirits, and the names of many kachinas in the Hopi tradition have this root, possibly suggesting that these spirits were inherited from the Zuni and integrated into the Hopi tradition.
Sipapu
The sipapu is a small hole, the focal point in the underground kiva—or ritual chamber—which represents the entrance into this world of the People in the Hopi understanding of the creation of the world. The Sipapu is a sacred navel of sorts, representing the place and method through which the People were born of Mother Earth. Through the Sipapu the People, like a kernel of corn planted in a hole in the ground, emerge from the darkness of the womb and blossom into the world of life and light.
C. Fee
The origin story behind kachinas in the Hopi tradition is that they live up in the San Francisco mountains. They were approached by humans for help with the crops during a drought, and they came down to help. However, the people were getting to be spoiled by everything being too perfect, so the kachinas went back up into the mountains. They come down now only for half of each year, and part of the rituals at the beginning and end of the season consist of enthusiastically requesting their return and then lamenting their departure.
Robin Potter
See also Corn Mother; Creation Stories of the Native Americans, Great Spirit; Myths
Further Reading
Adams, E. Charles. 1991. The Origin and Development of the Pueblo Katsina Cult. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Glowacki, Donna M., and Scott Van Keuren. 2012. Religious Transformation in the Late Pre-Hispanic Pueblo World. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Koenig, Seymour H. 1972. Sky, Sand, and Spirits: Navajo and Pueblo Indian Art and Culture. Yonkers, NY: Hudson River Museum.
Schaafsma, Polly. 1994. Kachinas in the Pueblo World. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Schaafsma, Polly, and Curtis F. Schaafsma. 1974. “Evidence for the Origins of the Pueblo Katchina Cult as Suggested by Southwestern Rock Art.” American Antiquity 34: 535–545.
Secakuku, Alph H. 1995. Following the Sun and Moon: Hopi Kachina Tradition. Flagstaff, AZ: Northland Publications/Heard Museum.