Hello Friends and Family,

Heard Museum, Part 8

Link to the web version by clicking here.

Link to this year's index by clicking here.

Here we see additional items of jewelry — handmade from natural products and castaways.


I love the turquoise against the silver or gold metal. So lovely.


Next is a handmade drum with a wood shell and animal skin head. Drums provide the sound of thunder and are a primary instrument accompanying song prayers in ceremonies.


Here is an interesting headdress with deer antlers, a leather cap, wooden strips, cotton balls, and some feathers.


This canteen was made before Europeans came to America. The back of such a canteen was rarely decorated.


The next section of the museum contains hundreds of handmade kachina dolls. A kachina is a spirit being in the religious beliefs of the Pueblo people, Native American cultures located in the southwestern part of the United States. In the Pueblo cultures, kachina rites are practiced by the Hopi, Hopi-Tewa, and Zuni peoples and certain Keresan tribes, as well as in most Pueblo tribes in New Mexico. The kachina concept has three different aspects: the supernatural being, the kachina dancers, and the kachina dolls.

These dolls represent a drummer, a figure, and a storyteller.


This Acoma jar, by Dorothy Torivio, who used her eye to measure the sectioning of the pot for her designs. This piece was a division winner in the Heard Museum Guild's Native American Arts and Crafts Show.


Here is another type of Zuni water jar.


Next is a beautiful display of Zuni Jewelry. "Art is really something that has no translation in Zuni. But it's understood that the jewelry we have created is considered art. It is a treasured item." Quote from Dan Simplicio, Jr., Zuni


Barry Goldwater was a great collector of Kachina (also spelled "Katsina") dolls and these were donated to the Heard Museum after his death.

Kasinas are the spirit messengers of the universe, representing all things in the natural world as well as Hopi ancestors. After death, a Hopi continues a spiritual existence as a life-sustaining Katsina. When Katsinas appear as rain clouds, they bring prayers for nourishment of the earth, moisture, and a long life for all mankind.


The Bean Dance, or Powamuya, is one of the most important Katsina dances, and also very significant in the "coming of age" of Hopi children. During Powamuya, Eototo, the Father of Katsinam, uses cornmeal on the ground to draw symbolic representations of clouds.


Soyok Mana – One of several women ogres, who along with Soyok Wuhti (Monster Woman), visit the houses in the villages during the Powamu ceremony. During their visits, they threaten children who have misbehaved and ask for food. They either whistle their disapproval of or accept the food which is put in their baskets and taken to the kivas.


Here is a set of Kachina dolls by William Quotskuyva, a Hopi artist. The set represents a Mixed Kachina Dance that would take place in the village plaza. The elder man takes care of the Kachinas and encourages them in their singing.


To be continued...

Life is good.

Aloha,
B. David

P. S., All photos and text © B. David Cathell Photography, Inc. — www.bdavidcathell.com