Hopi kachina dolls have fascinated Anglo-American collectors since the late nineteenth century. Originally intended as educational toys for young girls who were otherwise unable to participate in the ceremonies of the Hopi religion, kachina dolls (known as tithu to the Hopi) are traditionally carved and decorated by Hopi men from cottonwood roots and distributed during religious gatherings. The dolls represent the katsinam, sacred beings who come down to Hopi villages from the San Francisco peaks during the months between the winter and summer solstices. Over three hundred katsinam exist in the Hopi religion, many of which are embodied by masked dancers during this period. When Western tourists encountered kachina dolls, they began collecting them for their aesthetic—rather than religious and community-based—values. The Hopi people, in turn, modified their production of the objects to suit Western collectors, though this change has not been without significant controversy within the community, which has long strove to maintain privacy and propriety in regard to religious practices.¹ The artistic evolution of Hopi kachina carvings has branched into a variety of styles over the course of more than a century of entanglement with Anglo-American commercial and collecting practices. Unlike the earlier dolls, which were often played with until they fell to pieces, the objects created for the Anglo market became highly elaborate, increasingly realistic, and often fragile, meant for aesthetic and visual appreciation.² Today, some Hopi carvers have revived the minimalism of the earliest dolls. In contrast, artists like Cecil Calnimptewa, whose work is represented here, have expanded their repertoire of tools and techniques to produce highly realistic objects that blur the line between Western conceptions of individually-driven artistic production and Hopi community-based practices.

      Shalako Mana exemplifies Calnimptewa’s considerable talents in carving as well as the artist’s ingenuity in response to the legal obstacles to traditional kachina decorating practices. After the United States government made the use of migratory bird feathers illegal in kachina dolls, the artist was one of a handful of kachina makers who began to carve the feathers from wood [fig. 1].³ In the following decades, Calnimptewa developed a sophisticated trompe l'oeil technique which incorporates contemporary tools such as the Dremel and X-acto knives, as well as a staining technique that allows the grain of the cottonwood root to remain visible. Calnimptewa’s carved figures build on the turn toward realistic action that began in the 1960s, when carvers began to incorporate movement into their dolls.⁴ This work, Shalako Mana, moves beyond the exaggerated gestures of some of these figures. The kachina appears to turn toward the viewer, her head slightly askew in a gesture that might imply curiosity. Below the visual crescendo of her head dress, the eagle feathers of her regalia sway as if caught in the light breeze, their directional pull forming a gentle S curve in conjunction with her turquoise necklace. The subtlety of the carving, as well as the nimble transition between bright and subdued coloring, creates a simultaneous effect of visual unity and perpetual motion.

      Calnimptewa’s works, as well as those of other kachina makers who have transitioned to realism in their carvings, are no longer considered tithu by some Hopi people. These objects exemplify the ongoing debates concerning the limits and overlaps of European notions of art, craft objects produced for the commercial trade, and the Hopi spiritual practices which inform the production of these figures. Nevertheless, as for most Hopi kachina carvers, Hopi religious practice is inextricable from Calnimptewa's work, and he regards his carvings as living beings which have a nascent spirit and must be treated with deference. These aspects of Calimptewa’s practice are critical to a holistic understanding of his work, which bridges Native religious and Anglo-American aesthetic sensibilities.

¹ Zena Pearlman, et al, Katsina: Commodified and Appropriated Images of Hopi Supernaturals, (Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Natural History, 2001), 55-56.

² Ibid, 53

³ Theda Bassman, The Kachina Dolls of Cecil Calnimptewa, (Tuscon: Treasure Chest Publications, 1994), 2.

⁴ Jon T. Erickson, Kachinas: An Evolving Hopi Art Form? (Phoenix: Heard Museum, 1977), 79-83.