Separately from the Katsina Dances performed by the Hopi men during the summer, the women’s society performs non-Katsina dances of their own. One of these dances, and it is one of the most beautiful, is the dance of the Butterfly Maidens.

In the Shoshonean language of the Hopi, the Butterfly Girl is known as Polimana. She is not a Katsina, but one of the social dancers who comes in the late summer in August. She does not wear a face, but her eyes are ordinarily covered by bangs of her hair. Only unmarried girls who have no children dance her. She is similar in all the mesas and villages.

Social dances constitute prayers to the Katsinas for the benefits of good health and good harvest, and in some sense they are like a harvest dance, similar to a Thanksgiving dance. That is partially why they are performed primarily in August. The girls who are dancing are considered to appear as Butterflies.

This carving is from a basic piece of cottonwood root with a few additions such as the tableta, the evergreens in her hands and the feathers on her head. It has been beautifully painted using oil based stains. It is in excellent original condition.