Hopi Kaletaka - Warrior Katsina Doll [R]

James Kootshongsie (1916 – 1996) Jimmie Koots, as he was known by most people, had a very interesting life.  He was born during World War I but obviously knew nothing about it nor was he affected by it.  A few years later, however, his life was turned upside down when government forces removed him and hundreds of other Native children from their homes and their parents and shipped them 500 miles away to a Bureau of Indian Affairs school where they were to be trained in White man's ways.  After 5 years, he returned to the Hopi Reservation and stayed there until World War II at which time he was drafted and sent to the Pacific Theater.  Following the war, he again returned to his life on the reservation.

Later in life, Hopi elders chose Koots to document traditional Hopi ways and he accepted the challenge.  From 1975 to 1990, he compiled and edited 44 newsletters recording teachings on Hopi prophecy, ancient land rights, and the basis of Hopi sovereignty.  It is quite likely that Koots was chosen for this task because following his return to the village after World War II, he led a fight to prevent big corporations and the U. S. government from taking the reservation away.  It was known that there was ample coal, oil, gas and Uranium on Hopi land and big corporations wanted to get their hands on it and the government was helping them do so.  Koots and the Hopi succeeded in keeping the reservation intact.

Koots was among a group of Hopi who revived the ancient art of traditional Hopi Katsina carvings.  He was immensely popular in the 1960s and 1970s as a katsina doll carver.  His dolls were mostly sold in Santa Fe at a downtown shop called Rare Things by Dutton, a business that is now closed but was very active in the 1960s-1980s.  His carvings, although not signed, are so distinctive in appearance that they can be easily identified as his work.  That is the case with this Katsina doll.  It is distinctively the work of Jimmie Kootshongsie.

This katsina doll represents Kaletaka Katsina.  Kaletaka is a Warrior Katsina, thus the bow carried in his left hand.  The gourd rattle in his right hand is indicative of his participation in a Katsina dance at the moment.  In the personage of a Warrior, he would also have arrows.  The ears normally would have eagle feathers inserted in them, but substitutions have been made in deference to federal laws.    He wears a bandolier across his chest and a turquoise nugget necklace around his neck.  His body is bare except for a kilt and accessories.  A metal stand has been fabricated for the doll to provide stability.

Condition:  very good condition.

Provenance:  from the collection of a Santa Fe resident.  The owner had it appraised in 1990 by Santa Fe dealer Rex Arrowsmith, so we know it was in her possession before that date.