No, reading that title, you haven’t just flashed back to arguments with your parents forty years ago. Well, maybe you have, but establishment terms for either white hippies or traditional Indians isn’t the referent here.
Longhairs are katsinam (kachinas), spirit beings found among many of the peoples indigenous to this desert Southwest area. And on a day when Father Sun is pale and wan, when it’s thirteen degrees, with a wind chill of four, images of benevolent and brilliantly-robed spirits better associated with warmer times are welcome.
Our katsinam are all by the same artist, Josh Aragon (Hopi/Laguna). He learned to carve the old way from his relatives at Hopi, and he uses cottonwood root and, where possible, natural plant-based paints. Katsina carving styles vary among tribal traditions generally, and even within traditions, there’s great divergence among individual carvers. Each develops a unique style, and Josh is no exception. He’s been carving for years now, and we’ve been privileged to watch his style evolve and mature into something simultaneously very traditional and singularly, recognizeably his own.
Today’s featured piece is of a Hopi Longhair, a central figure in the spiritual and cultural tradition, and one whose presence is prayed for and welcomed. From its description in the Other Artists: Katsinam gallery here on the site:
Master carver Josh Aragon (Hopi/Laguna) coaxes the Longhair from this slender piece of cottonwood root. Carved in the traditional fashion, the katsina is hand-carved and then hand-painted with a variety of natural dyes, in patterns reflecting his role in Pueblo life as the Bringer of Rain. His blanket tells a story of daily life, with thunderheads scudding across the sky over the traditional Pueblo home, pine ladder propped against one wall. Stands 13.75″ from bottom of base to tip of feather (dimensions approximate). Front shown at top; reverse shown immediately above; below, a close-up of the detailed artwork on the blanket.
Cottonwood root; natural-dye paints
$585 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
The photos at top and immediately above demonstrate the visual relevance of the term “Longhair”: You can clearly see the spirit being’s long, straight locks cascading down its back, enfolding its shoulders like a second blanket; and, in the front, its beard falling from the chin of its case mask. It’s Native hair in its most basic, iconic form, long and luxuriant.
Here, it has specialized symbolic significance, as well.
We talk a lot here about the challenges of living in this arid high-desert climate. It’s a daily striving for survival, one that, in human terms, is as old as time itself. In places like Hopi, it’s especially acute: At an elevation of roughly 5,000 feet, Hopi regularly averages summer temperatures in the 90s, yet the entire area gets fewer than ten inches of annual rainfall, on average.
To call rain a blessing is a masterpiece of understatement.
And this is the Longhair’s role. He is a Bringer of Rain, and, indeed, his long locks symbolize the blessed water cascading from the sky.
In Josh’s version, his identity is buttressed by the traditional symbols carved and painted on his blanket, many in cool green and blue shades the color of water.
Look at the photo at the top, showing the front of the Longhair: On the front of his robe, Father Sun peers out above stormclouds gathering in a monsoonal sky; traditional thunderhead symbols accent his sash. On the reverse, shown immediately above and in close-up, below, the thunderheads on his sash are visible, flanking a single falling-rain symbol rendered in traditional colors. The stormy sky encircles the whole blanket, great pregnant clouds towering over the ancient roofs of the Pueblo itself.
It’s a beautiful rendering of a traditional story and symbol.
It also makes me feel warmer just looking at it.
Tomorrow: A smaller, younger version from another tradition, by the same artist.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
