Hooray for the Hopi!

Last week, the boys and I went to the world cultures and peoples museum down at Byu to learn about the Hopi Indians and their Kachina dolls. Each Kachina had a specific purpose and personality traits. I had the boys pick out their favorite one, and I took their picture with it.

James liked the white bear Kachina. The bear Kachina is important because of his knowledge of plants and roots. Jesse loved the sheep herder Kachina. The Hopi believed that if they did sacred dances acting as the sheep herder they would have a good hunt. He looks pretty fierce to me.

I loved this Kachina...he is the Ogre Kachina. If he looks creepy to you, then he is doing his job. The intent of this Kachina is to scare all misbehaving Hopi children into listening to their parents. If there was a wide spread problem of naughty children in a village, he would actually appear in the spring time and scare them all straight. There was definitely a scary aura around this particular doll, because neither of my boys would stand in front of him for a picture! The museum also had on display an amazing amount of beautiful pottery found in four mile canyon. It was a fun day!