Hopi Great Horned Owl Wuhti Katsina Dolls [SOLD]

The Great Horned Owl Katsina, as a warrior, is relentless in persecuting the clowns. He stands to the edge of the dance circle while the clowns are performing and he watches disapprovingly of their antics. Near the end of the dance, a group of Mongwa swoops down on the clowns and beats them with yucca whips, douses them with water, and leaves them piled up in the center of the plaza in pain.

The Great Horned Owl Wuhti (female) has only been published in Fewkes' article on Hopi Katsinas and has appeared nowhere else. Present-day Hopi are not aware of the female version so perhaps it has not been seen in over a hundred years.

This version of the Mongwa Wuhti is beautifully carved and painted. She wears a traditional pueblo manta and has a shawl draped over her shoulders, by which the small Mongwa Katsina is secured, and wooden feathers on her head.

Brian Honyouti is an educator at Hopi and it is not surprising that he would research the literature and find a Katsina not presently known at Hopi but one which most likely existed decades ago before the current Hopi populace was around.

It appears that the carving of the two Owl Katsinas is from a single piece of cottonwood root, mounted on another single piece of cottonwood root in the shape of a tree and surrounding ground plane. The base is signed B. Honyouti 5/81.

Condition:  original condition

Provenance: from the estate of Tom Mittler, a former resident of Michigan and Santa Fe who purchased it at Kachina House in Santa Fe in 1986

Recommended Reading: Hopi Katsina: 1,600 Artist Biographies by Gregory Schaaf