In Pueblo religious practices, Kachina (also spelled Katsina) refers to three related things:
Supernatural entities or spirits capable of influencing the natural world.
The men of the tribe dressed and masked to represent the Kachinas in traditional dances/ceremonies. Their beliefs are that such dancers actually become the spirits they represent for the duration of the ceremony. Even though there are male and female Kachinas, only men can represent them.
In Hopi and Zuni tribes, masked dolls which represent Kachina spirits, made (by the Hopi) of cottonwood root or (by the Zuni) of pine. They are presented to the women and children of the tribe and are kept in the home as fetish objects.
The Kachina are ancestral spirits which act as intermediaries between humans and the gods. The identity of each Kachina is depicted by the specific shape of the mask, intricate use of color, and elaborate ornamentation with feathers, leather, and fabric. Each Kachina is also portrayed using distinct behavior, dance steps, gestures, and vocalizations.

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GRAND CANYON, Ariz. — Passed down by elders for generations, the cultural dances, music and art of Native American tribes still resonate for their people.

Representatives from Apache, Havasupai, Hopi and Navajo tribes came together at Grand Canyon National Park Nov. 9 to share their tribal traditions with locals and visitors alike.


Dancers and musicians took the stage at Shrine of the Ages in a flurry of bright color and movement. Each tribe’s unique presentation was an expression of joy, prayer, hope, or all three at once.

The Havasupai Guardians of the Grand Canyon Ram Dancers, dressed in traditional dress representing the bighorn sheep that wander their ancestral lands. The bighorn sheep is an integral figure to the Havasupai, as he protects all who inhabit the Grand Canyon.

One of the elder ram dancers told the story of one of their own tribal warriors, a young man who grew tired of life in his village and traveled far into the canyon. The young warrior was gone for many days, he said, and the people of the village got worried and went looking for him. They found him in a cave lying next to a bighorn sheep, and they brought him back to the village. The young man was not content, though, and he left again many times, only to be found in the same place, among the bighorn sheep.

“They noticed he began changing,” said the storyteller, “his hair was braided and coiled like the horns of the ram and he now had fur and hooves. When he saw the villagers coming, he ran away with the herd, leaving the people behind. He was satisfied with what he had become.”

According to the story, he lived the rest of his life in the wilderness, becoming a guardian of the Grand Canyon. Eventually, however, he longed for the things he had left behind, and he began to sing songs of all that was taken from him in his transformation.

“The Havasupai people, when we sing the song and dance the ram dance, we are saying that we are going to regain everything that was taken from us,” he said. “It is a hope that everything we lost will be brought back one of these days.”

The Ram Dancers then offered a prayer honoring soldiers and veterans.

An expression of prayer through song and dance is sacred to many tribes, including the Navajo. Dressed in traditional Navajo regalia and adorned with eagle feathers, Miss White Mountain Apache Katerri Dale performed an Eagle Dance in honor of her late sister. Sacred to the Apaches, eagles deliver messages of prayer to the Creator on behalf of the people.

Dancing, however, is not just for elders.

Hopi youth performed the butterfly dance, complete with colorful ceremonial dress and a kopatsoki, an elaborate, colorful headdress. According to Gloria Lomahaftewa, a Hopi of the Cloud/Water Clan and former curator at the Heard Museum and Museum of Northern Arizona, young girls and boys come together in late summer or early fall to perform the social dance. Young, unmarried Hopi girls and a boy relative from their clan are permitted to dance. During the two-day event, the young participants will learn all 32 songs and dances that will be performed by men of the village.

A departure from the childlike joy and elegance of other dances, the Apache Crown Dancers build a frenetic energy with powerful movements and jingling bells.

Each kiva is home to a secret society which (generally) reveres a single Kachina. Members of the kiva take on the identity of the Kachina spirit they revere. Upon reaching puberty, young men in the Pueblo are inducted into a kiva, where they learn the secrets associated with that Kachina. Women are not members of kivas, although they are taught the mythology and religious practices in a more general way.

Different Pueblo cultures adhere to their secrecy pledges to different degrees. The Hopi, for example, have allowed their religious dances to become tourist attractions and freely sell Kachina dolls and masks to non-Hopis. The Zunis, on the other hand, have traditionally been much more secretive about their religious practices.

Over 300 different Kachinas have been identified across Pueblo cultures.

Zuni kachinas
The Zuni believe that the Kachinas live in the Lake of the Dead, a mythical lake which is reached through Listening Spring Lake located at the junction of the Zuni River and the Little Colorado River.

Hopi kachinas
Within Hopi mythology, the Kachinas are said to live on the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, Arizona. The most important Hopi Kachinas are called wuya.