Old Style Hopi Carved Ahote Traditional Katsina Doll

Description

Old Style Hopi Carved Ahote Traditional Katsina Doll by Marc Bilagody

A'hote is considered a good hunter. He may appear in any of the directional colors, the two most common being the Yellow (Sikyahote) shown here or the Blue (Sakwahote). The A'hote is the Grand Katsina Uncle of the Mixed Katsina Group and appears in the Mixed Dances. The A'hote is painted in two different ways. He appears with planets on his mask. The other A'hote version has a "split" mask with different colors on each side. Both seem to be derived from a Plains Indian because he wears a long trailing eagle feather headdress. This is one we have not seen for some time. Marc actually created a full trailing feather headdress for this Ahote and it is fastened to the doll with a string loop that goes over the long post on the back of his head. Very traditional and very unusual.