Living Hopi Katsina (Kachina)

[Totah Dine]

Thought I would introduce some new blood into the Cryptozoology section.  In the southwest there are several tribes that live around the Four Corner's area.  In southwest Colorado there are the two Ute Tribes, Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute.  To the east is the Jicarilla Apache tribe.  To the west surrounded by the much larger Navajo Nation is the Hopi tribe. To the south there are the various Pueblo tribes.  Zuni, Acoma, Tewa, San Juan, and Laguna.  Each tribe has their own set of traditions and beliefs.  Pueblo tribes share a lot of the same beliefs since they are related to each other and are descendants of the Anasazi people whose ruins dot the landscape.  Same goes for the Navajo and Apache.  There are differences due to proximity to other tribes and a lot of traditions were borrowed or incorporated.  The Navajo created new clans to reflect the intermarriage and interaction with friendly neighboring tribes.  The Jicarilla were influenced by the Ute and Plains tribes that they encountered to the east and north.  With that came the superstitions.  The Ute have their stick men, Navajos have Skinwalkers, Jicarilla have the giant owl man and the pueblo tribes have living kachina dolls that run around at night and cause mischief.  

This is about the Hopi kachinas.  First of all, when it comes to Hopi spirituality they are considered powerful.  Nobody messes with them. There are people in the tribe who are said to sing spirits into the dolls they carve and send them to do errands.  Depending on the individual who created them they can do harm or good.  The Katsinas come in three forms.  There are the spiritual beings that live on San Francisco peak (one of the four sacred mountains of the Navajo as well) and are benevolent and are helpful.  They come down to help the Hopi with things like planting, rain, healing and other various activities crucial in day to day life. They are also intermediaries between the creator and people.  These are known as wuya.  Then there are the kachina dancers who represent certain wuya important to whatever ceremony they are performing at that time.  They take on the characteristics and personalities of the wuya they are representing.  When they are dancing it is important to be respectful and reverent.  If not you could get smacked by a switch from one of the koshari clowns who are the only ones allowed to disrupt the ceremony.  Lastly we have the kachina dolls who are physical representations of the various spiritual kachinas (up to 400 of them) and are meant as teaching tools.  They are given to children who are expected to study them and their symbols and regalia.  These are the ones I'm posting about. 

A couple of decades ago while attending college my best friend was visiting relatives in AZ that lived close to one of the Hopi mesas.  Like me he wasn't a drinker nor did drugs.  It just wasn't a thing in my family or his.  They were participating in a Beauty Way ceremony for one of his cousins. When they were finished he hitched a ride with his uncle in the back of their pickup.  They had spent the day cleaning up and by the time they had finished it was after dark.  There had been some trouble in the area because of a conflict between Hopi and Navajo local families due to the Navajo/Hopi relocation act that forcibly moved Navajo families from their ancestral homes.  It's a long story but in a nutshell.  The Navajo tradition named of the local mountains as sacred.  Uranium was found.  The U.S. government wanted it.  The Navajo said no way it was a sacred site.  The Government approached the Hopi council with promises of big money and job opportunities and the Hopi council said heck yeah!  So the Navajo/Hopi relocation act was born.  The bill claimed there was a conflict between the Navajo and Hopi over a shared land agreement and the bill became law. 10,000 Navajos who had lived there for over 1500 years were removed.  To a Navajo this is the same as erasing your existence. We are tied to the land we are born on.  When we are the born our umbilical cords are buried there to symbolize the connection.  Cradle boards were carved from local trees and returned to the tree when no longer needed.  We have a deep connection with our birth place.  This was a tragedy that most people don't understand.  It was horrifying to us.  There was a lot of anger between the tribal locals and negative stuff happened. That's about all I'm going to say about it I just wanted to set the scene. 

Anway, it was around 11pm to 12am when my friend kept hearing a tapping noise on the tailgate.  At first he didn't think much of it. Older trucks have all kinds of noises when traveling on those nasty rez roads.  The tapping became more insistent.  He decided to take a look in case there was something wrong and his uncle would need to stop and fix it.  He crawled to the back of the truck and peered over the edge of the tailgate and was amazed and terrified by what he saw.  Running behind the truck was a small figure he couldn't make out at first but it was running on two legs and he saw feathers on the head and arms of the creature.  His uncle had to hit the brakes for some deeper ruts and the brake lights lit up the rear of the truck.  He scrambled to the back of the cab and begged his uncle to let him in.  What he saw nearly made him lose his mind.  He said it was one of the wolf Kachinas.  They are terrifying enough without the locomotion.  I was given one years back and it's still in my shed way at the back in a box covered by several other boxes.  I ain't taking any chances.  His uncle didn't know what was going on and slowed down.  The Kachina darted around the truck and started running in front of the truck full illuminated by the truck's headlights.  His uncle turned the truck around and drove to Tuba City where they stayed the night.  They headed back the next day and no one spoke of it again.  

I love my friend.  He's a good person.  I've never known him to lie.  He's an administrator for the Tribe in Window Rock and we get together every now and then.  I don't know what he and his uncle saw.  i really couldn't say.  But he was clear on the description.  He believes one of the Hopi neighbors sent that after them as a warning.  Don't come back.  It wasn't long after that his relatives were forced to leave and now reside in Phoenix. Their land is gone forever.  i have heard other stories about kachinas being sung to life and sent to harass people.  It's not something I've ever encountered but the stories keep coming.  

 

edit:  please forgive the typos and misplaced words. Relating this in English is taxing and I tried to find all the mistakes.  I'm a mess. 

Edited March 22, 2017 by Totah Dine

[Podo]

5 hours ago, Totah Dine said:

 I was given one years back and it's still in my shed way at the back in a box covered by several other boxes.

Are you trying to say that you have a living  "kachina" locked in a box in your shed...?

[Totah Dine]

11 minutes ago, Podo said:

Are you trying to say that you have a living  "kachina" locked in a box in your shed...?

Nope. Fortunately my Pinocchio doesn't want to be a real boy.  Let me show you a pic to give you an idea why I keep the dang thing in the shed:

 

I don't want something like this in my house.  O. O

[Podo]

1 minute ago, Totah Dine said:

Nope. Fortunately my Pinocchio doesn't want to be a real boy.  Let me show you a pic to give you an idea why I keep the dang thing in the shed:

 

I don't want something like this in my house.  O. O

Kill it with fire!

[MWoo7]

did you try holy water ? 

[Totah Dine]

No!  It burns!!!  O.O

[MWoo7]

 I used to make those when I was young, not as good as that one, well Princesses NOT THAT! hahaha like Princesses of all lands and my favorite were the Native Indian Princesses.   That does kind of look scarrrrrrrrrY!

[SHaYap]

7 hours ago, Totah Dine said:

The Navajo created new clans to reflect the intermarriage and interaction with friendly neighboring tribes.  The Jicarilla were influenced by the Ute and Plains tribes that they encountered to the east and north.  With that came the superstitions.  The Ute have their stick men, Navajos have Skinwalkers, Jicarilla have the giant owl man and the pueblo tribes have living kachina dolls that run around at night and cause mischief.  

That would be a great background synopsis for an epic tale, or an animated feature ...

~

[Totah Dine]

Considering how we've been portrayed by Hollywood in the past I think I'll pass on that.  

[SHaYap]

These days one can do something about that ... set things straight if not right ... small scale digital productions are very possible, or one can always go outsourcing ... Hollywood is not the end all or be all anymore ~

~

[Totah Dine]

1 minute ago, third_eye said:

These days one can do something about that ... set things straight if not right ... small scale digital productions are very possible, or one can always go outsourcing ... Hollywood is not the end all or be all anymore ~

~

You mean like this?

 

 

[MWoo7]

10 minutes ago, Totah Dine said:

Considering how we've been portrayed by Hollywood in the past I think I'll pass on that.  

hhhhhhhha THAT'S GREAT !

=-=-= cont.

Apache truck for Navajo just kidding.

Edited March 23, 2017 by MWoo7

[SHaYap]

2 minutes ago, Totah Dine said:

You mean like this?

That's a bit too basic for what I had in mind ... but in general, yeah ... ride the internet digital multi media corridor surge ~

~

[Totah Dine]

10 minutes ago, third_eye said:

That's a bit too basic for what I had in mind ... but in general, yeah ... ride the internet digital multi media corridor surge ~

~

Not basic.  It is actually a very complex representation of Navajo spirituality.  That video is chock full of symbolism that has meaning only to us.  It is a beautifully done production that represents the 12 teachings and the sacred path we travel.  The Blessing Way.  I walk with beauty before me. I walk with beauty behind me.I walk with beauty below me. I walk with beauty above me.  I walk with beauty all around me. My words will be beautiful.  The word in Navajo doesn't exist in English so  we substitute the word Beauty.  The word we use is Hozho (last o is nasalized and as a high tone) The closest meaning would be a combination of beauty/harmony/balance.  This video symbolizes that word.  Towards the end the Dawn Sisters make an appearance and the feathers in the head-dresses are symbolic of the 12 teachings.  Navajo spirituality is very complex.  It may seem basic to the untrained eye but to me it is profound.  

edit: The Dawn Sisters are stars.  

Edited March 23, 2017 by Totah Dine

[SHaYap]

Just now, Totah Dine said:

Navajo spirituality is very complex.  It may seem basic to the untrained eye but to me it is profound.  

You misunderstood me ... I don't mean the material , I meant the presentation. I was proposing something friendlier for a wider and greater viewer base, or more accessibility to the general viewer ... what I meant by basic  was the presentation ... it was thoroughly enjoyable by the way ... thanks ~

~

[Totah Dine]

2 minutes ago, third_eye said:

You misunderstood me ... I don't mean the material , I meant the presentation. I was proposing something friendlier for a wider and greater viewer base, or more accessibility to the general viewer ... what I meant by basic  was the presentation ... it was thoroughly enjoyable by the way ... thanks ~

~

Has no importance to us.  Different priorities.   

 

[Tatetopa]

I will tell this story for you, although I feel that telling a story too often robs it of its power.  I was in Hopi and Navajo lands about thirty-five years ago.  I curated a Native American art exhibit in Japan and I went down to collect some information for artist's biographies. In any case I found myself near Wupakti in the late afternoon and wanted to visit.  It is somewhat of a drive in through beautiful irregular land. I might have been the last person in before closing, there was nobody else on the road.  I rounded a corner and saw two small man-like shapes standing in the trees near the road.  I would guess they were about three feet tall.  They were red/brown , the same color as the earth in that area.  Instead of heads they has a sweptback cloud of brown and grey feathers, much larger than a head would be.  They had no eyes or other features. Around their middles, there was another cloud of feathers.  They might have been holding something.  Strangely, I was not afraid.  I got to the ruins, explored and felt really good.  The park closed about half hour later.  Driving out the sun was setting.  I looked in the place that I had seen the two, but there was nothing there.  I felt blessed. I remember being quite happy. I never saw them again.

A few days later, I drove into the towers at Hovenweep.  I expected to feel really good and happy as I had at Wupakti.  Instead, I immediately felt very uncomfortable.  I left in less than ten minutes.  That was a long time ago, I've not seen anything like them since.  When I got back to the Northwest, I told some friends that I thought might explain what I saw.  Sadly I think by telling the first time, I took away its power .  That is why I tell the story now, maybe it will help you. For me now  it is just a good memory.

 

[Totah Dine]

This is why we have taboos about visiting ruins.  We avoid them.  A lot of strange things happen around those ruins.  We refer to the Anasazi as the bird people.  For various reasons.  I think you saw something you shouldn't have.  

[Tatetopa]

50 minutes ago, Totah Dine said:

This is why we have taboos about visiting ruins.  We avoid them.  A lot of strange things happen around those ruins.  We refer to the Anasazi as the bird people.  For various reasons.  I think you saw something you shouldn't have.  

Maybe you are right, I don't feel it that way though.  In later times I have had a couple of experiences up here in my own neighborhood from other sources.  Once a near death encounter that resulted in a car wreck, the second time a life saving command.  The bad experience was related to an enemy of my friend who I was supporting.  That enemy was a person with some power.  My family was with me in the car and my wife saw something just before our wreck.  Afterwards, there was a balance between what attacked and what protected. I knew there was no more worry from that source. Among the Lakota and Blackfeet people, pipes and bundles carry power.  

 The good experience was maybe from praying and listening. I would have been killed or badly injured without that intervention.  I have always felt that the experience at Wupakti was more like that.  maybe not a blessing but a tolerance.  

I am an outsider who has spent a few years with Lakota friends, but I know nothing of Dine ways. I know that power is not always good or evil, sometimes it is just power guided by a good or evil individual.

I wish you well on your beauty way.   My friends would say that we walk the  good red road.  Red for the Lakota is the color of life.  Thanks for the thread.