A Hopi Polychrome Wood Kachina Doll, attributed to Wilson Tawaquaptewa

depicting a stylized snake priest, standing with his arms bent sharply at the elbows and hugging his torso, the case mask with circular eyes, and projecting snout gripping a snake.

Overall very good condition with typical wear for its age.
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It is not until after 1945, when the kachina carving tradition begins to be recognized as 'art' with aesthetic merits, that named carvers begin to be associated with particular dolls. One notable exception to this is the artist and last chief of Old Oraibi, Wilson Tewaquaptewa (1871-1960).  He is known for creating dolls that are monochromatic in color (brown, ochre and black and white), and decorates the surfaces with a concentrated series of dots in contrast to solid areas of color.

The katchina dolls made by Wilson Tawaquaptewa are among the most intriguing examples of twentieth-century Native American art.  The uniqueness of the carvings themselves, Tawaquaptewa's importance as a Hopi religious and political figure, and the inter-relationship between Tawaquaptewa's art and his religious-political role make his kachina dolls especially interesting.

Tawaquaptewa was born in 1873 into the Bear Clan of the Hopi village of Oraibi, located on Third Mesa in northeastern Arizona. At the time of Tawaquaptewa's birth, Oraibi was the largest and most important of the Hopi villages, and within Oraibi, the Bear clan was its most significant clan.  In 1904, after a youth and young adulthood about which little is known, Tawaquaptewa assumed the most important religious and political position in the village-that of kikmongwi or village chief.  He remained in this position until his death in 1960, with a few interruptions related to political imprisonment or to health problems (Whiteley 1988).

In accepting the position of kikmongwi, Tawaquaptewa assumed center stage in a major controversy. The conflict involved a split between two Hopi groups, generally referred to as the Friendlies (or Progressives) and the Hostiles (or Traditionalists). Tawaquaptewa was the leader of the Friendlies, and as the name implies, he and his followers supported limited cooperation between the Hopi people and representatives of the United State government, primarily the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).

Sometime well after the events of the 1906 split, perhaps in the 1920s, Tawaquaptewa began to carve and sell kachina dolls.  He became a familiar figure to the ever increasing number of tourists, sitting on his doorstep in Oraibi selling his dolls for fifty cents or a dollar or two.

The fact that Tawaquaptewa carved kachina dolls for sale to tourists was, in itself, not at all unusual.  Starting in the 1880s, an increasing number of Hopi men had begun to earn some United States currency by selling dolls to tourists.  Nonetheless, the kachina dolls that Tawaquaptewa sold to the public were unique.  What distinguishes his dolls from all others of the same era is that his carvings, ostensibly representing specific Kachinas, bear little resemblance to the actual Kachina figures that dance in the villages during the Hopi six month ceremonial cycle.  Thus, one can not make a positive identification as to what Kachinas Tawaquaptewa's dolls are intended to represent.

Tawaquaptewa's kachina dolls are now valued by collectors and museums for their quirky creativity, their distorted realism and their artistic presence. The dolls are an enduring manifestation of Tawaquaptewa's life, reflecting his importance both aesthetically and historically.

A major exhibition of Mr. Tawaquaptewa's work was recently mounted at the Birmingham Museum of Art.