Old Style Navajo Carved Cow Traditional Animal Kachina Doll (Katsina Doll)

Description

Old Style Navajo Carved Cow Traditional Animal Katsina Doll by Shawn Deel

Cow Katsina (Wakas'katsina) is a male animal spirit messenger to the rain gods. His songs are prayers for plentiful animal life and are symbolic of their self-sacrifice as food supply to sustain life. Cow Katsinam appear in the Kiva night dances and during the Katsina day dances in the plaza. During the dance, spectators will remove juniper and/or feathers from this Katsina to place in their houses and corrals in hopes that their stock will increase. This is a really beautiful piece by Shawn. The bow guard and belt have Sterling silver conchos, the shells, the trimmed leather and the little bracelet has hand-ground stones for beads. He does a wonderful job on all of the details even on these small creations.