Hopi Small Snake Dancer Doll [SOLD]

At the end of the nineteenth century, very few tourists had ever seen the Hopi Snake Dance. Many, however, had heard tales of a dramatic ritual that only occurred every other year in isolated Indian villages in Arizona. This religious ceremony that Victorian society found so horrifying—and so fascinating—soon grew into a symbolic representation of “Indian Country” in the Southwest.

The Passenger Department of the Santa Fe Railway played upon sensationalist, tourist visions of American Indians when it published Walter Hough’s travel guide to The Moki Snake Dance. The guide describes Hough’s text as a “popular account of that unparalleled dramatic pagan ceremony” with “incidental mention of their life and customs.”

Today, the Hopi Snake Dance is closed to all non-natives. There was a time before the 1990s when tourists were allowed to witness the Snake Dance, but no longer. There was also a time when Hopi carvers would not carve Snake Dancers, but that has relaxed somewhat now and some carvers will make them.

This small Snake Dancer doll is simple in presentation and was obviously made for sale as a tourist item or a souvenir of the Snake Dance.

Recommended Reading: The Moki Snake Dance by Walter Hough, 1898.  An Avanyu Publishing 1992 reprint of this book is available from Adobe Gallery at $5.95. 

Condition: very good condition

Provenance: from the collection of a family from Oregon to whom we sold this doll in 1984.