Original Painting of a Hopi Lalakon Mana [SOLD]

The Hopi Lalakon mana is a leader of the women’s basket dance.  She is not a katsina but a social dancer.  The Basket Dance is an event performed by women of the village in September, following the completion of the Katsina Dances by the men.  It is a celebration at harvest time and a time to share personal wealth with others of the village.

The women form in a circle, arranged in height from the tallest down to the shortest, usually children of 5 or 6 years of age.  In the center of the circle is a pile of gifts—food, pottery, baskets, and clothing—nothing being overlooked.  The women dance while holding beautiful handmade baskets of the style of plaques.  During the dance, and after the dance, the leaders of the women routinely go into the crowd and throw items up into the air for the crowd to catch. 

Raymond Naha expended considerable effort to portray all of the Lalakon mana leader’s clothing and jewelry.  Every item of her clothing is presented in finite detail.  Every piece of turquoise of the necklace is detailed individually.  She carries ears of blue corn in her hands, each ear of corn embellished with feathers.  What appears on her back is a white fabric full of gifts to be thrown. 

The postcard shown in the image on this page (see below) presents a good example of an actual basket dance at the village of Oraibi on the Hopi Reservation.  Although not dated, the post card was probably made around 1900.  We will include the post card with the purchase of the painting.

Condition:  original condition

Provenance: from the collection of Katie Noe (1905-1998) of Gallup, NM.  Noe worked for the finest Indian dealers in Gallup for 20 years—C. N. Cotton, Gross-Kelly, Charles Ilfeld, Gallup Mercantile, and C. G. Wallace—before opening her own Indian shop “the Zuni Shop” which she operated until her health failed.

Recommended Reading: Southwest Indian Painting: A Changing Art by Clara Lee Tanner