Artist:Pat Howesa
Medium: Cottonwood root, pigment
Geograhical Locations:
Dates:1970s
Dimensions: 4 3/4 × 1 5/8 × 2 7/16 in. (12.1 × 4.1 × 6.2 cm)
Collections:
Museum Location: Arts of the Americas Galleries, 5th Floor
Accession Number: 2013.64.13
Catalogue Description: Shalako (or rainmaker Kachina) arrives at the end of the year in December for both the Hopi and the Zuni. Towering over 7 feet high they appear in the pueblo village and go from home to home accepting gifts of food as they dance and give blessings all night long. The Shalakos have come to the human realm to collect the people’s prayers and take them back to the rainmakers at the end of the ceremony, thus connecting the mortal world to the spirit realm. Their final task is to go outside to the river and cross it and disappear, thus signally the end of that religious cycle until the Kachinas come again.