The Plural of Katsina is Katsinem

While staying at a Scottsdale resort in early August, I discovered it had a Native American Cultural Discovery exhibit. I’m always interested in finding out what those in the hotel business consider important for visitors to learn about Indians. The decent-sized room had several cases that focused on kachinas, or katsinum as they’re called by the Hopi. These Pueblo Indians are not the only ones to have developed a large hegemony of sacred beings, but their carved cottonwood dolls are one of the greatest categories of collectibles in the American Southwest.

Hopi katsinem are also one of the most recognizable “brands” of types of Indian arts. They vary from elaborate sculptures worth thousands of dollars to modest handmade figures sold at souvenir prices. I find the katsina figure to be a real paradox: on one hand, it represents a genuine sacred spirit possessed of powers important to the Hopis and a means of teaching their children, on the other hand it conveys an immediate exoticism and “otherness” that specific souvenirs conjure up just by their existence.

Gifts from the Katsinem

Katsina of Angwusnasomtaqa by Brian Honyouti

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