The Hopi recognize over 200 katsinam, and no collector learns them all at once. Most start with a handful of figures that appear often and are easy to recognize once you know what to look for. This guide covers the ones collectors ask about most: the Mudhead, the Koshari, the Sio Shalako, the Long Hair, the Crow Mother and the Ogre.
For each figure we give its name and origin. Where published sources describe its appearance and role, we add them. We do not go further than the record does.
The Hopi word for the spirit beings is katsina (plural katsinam). The carved figure is a tihu (plural tithu), also called katsintithu. "Kachina" is the common English spelling, so katsina doll and kachina doll name the same object. Katsinam are spirit beings who act as messengers between people and the spirit world and are associated with bringing rain.
A figure is identified by the katsina it depicts. With well more than 200 types, carvers and collectors rely on recognizable features: a head covering, a color, a garment or an object carried in the hand. Traditionally the figures are given to babies and girls and hang on the walls of the home to be studied. They are made to instruct young girls. That teaching role, central to the meaning of a kachina doll, is why the features that identify each katsina matter.
The standard reference for this work is Barton Wright's "Hopi Kachinas: The Complete Guide to Collecting Kachina Dolls," published in 1978. Two of the identifications below rely on Wright directly. His book is also the natural next step for anyone who wants to go past the most familiar figures.
Hopi Mudhead. Wood Kachina, 9.5 x 3.5 in. View Work
The Mudhead is among the most recognizable figures in any collection. Its common name, Koyemsi, comes from Zuni Pueblo. According to Barton Wright, the proper Hopi name is Tachukti, meaning "ball on head."
The name describes the look. The mask and body are covered in reddish mud, and the head covering has knobs. Knobs on a mud-covered head make a Mudhead easy to spot.
The Mudhead is often called a clown, and collectors often file it with clown figures. Its roles are wider than that. A Mudhead may act as curer, messenger, dance director or sage. A carver who poses a Mudhead in a particular way may be pointing to one of those roles, so the posture of the figure is worth reading as well as its surface.
For collectors, the Mudhead is a good first figure. Carvers have depicted it often. With the subject held constant, differences between carvers show plainly. Comparing several Mudheads is one of the quickest ways to learn how individual carvers handle form.
The Koshari is not Hopi by origin. It comes from the New Mexico Tewa Pueblos, where it is called Koosa. It arrived at Hopi after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 with Tewa immigrants, who were given a village on First Mesa, Hano. That is why the Koshari is also called the Hano clown.
Its hat is the feature to look for: two long protrusions tipped with corn husks. On a carved figure, those two points give the Koshari its outline.
The clown has a teaching role. In plaza events, the clowns pantomime behavior the Hopi do not accept, such as gluttony, to make the point that it is wrong. Humor carries the lesson. A carver can reflect that comic side in the pose of a Koshari.
Clown Koshari. Wood Kachina, 16.5 x 4 in. View Work
Clown figures are one place where a single carver's name stands out. The Heard Museum holds a Clown katsina from 1994 by Neil R. David Sr., a Hopi-Tewa carver born in 1944. A museum acquisition of this kind places a contemporary carver's clown alongside older material in a major public collection.
The Heard Museum in Phoenix and the Autry Museum in Los Angeles hold major collections of katsina figures. Collections of that scale let a collector see how much range one subject allows across carvers and periods.
The point for collectors is simple. Clown figures are not a minor category, and the Koshari and the Mudhead both belong to it. They are a subject that recognized carvers take seriously, and their figures reward the same attention as any other katsina.
Shalako. Wood Kachina, 15.5 x 5.5 in. View Work
For collectors searching for a Shalako kachina, the Hopi figure to know first is the Sio Salako, also spelled Sio Shalako. It is a Hopi interpretation of the Shalako ceremony at Zuni Pueblo, hence the word "Sio," meaning Zuni.
According to Barton Wright, the Sio Salako was introduced to the Hopi around 1850 as a group of four katsinam. The group was later reduced to one, and a Sio Salako Mana was added as companion. A collector may therefore encounter the Sio Salako alone or paired with its Mana.
Precision matters here. The Sio Salako differs from both the Hopi Salako and the Zuni Shalako. Related names can sound like variants of one figure, but they are not interchangeable. When a seller describes a figure as a "Shalako," it is worth asking which one is meant.
The Sio Salako is also a clear example of exchange between Pueblo traditions. A Zuni ceremony became a Hopi figure, and the Hopi version then developed its own form over time.
The Long Hair, Angak'china, traces its origin to Zuni. It brings rain and flowers, and its long hair symbolizes rain.
Its appearance is distinctive. The Long Hair has waist-length black hair and a black beard. It wears a white cape and carries an evergreen bough. On a carved figure the long dark hair falling to the waist is the feature to look for.
Long Hair dancers often appear at Niman with Corn Maidens. Niman is the last ceremony of the katsina season, held in July, after which the katsinam return to the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, Arizona.
There is a practical detail for anyone comparing figures. Dolls of Long Hair are usually taller than other figures by the same carver. A buyer who sees a Long Hair standing above the rest of a carver's work should not read the height as a mismatch. It is typical of this figure.
Long Hair. Wood Kachina, 16.5 x 3.5 in. View Work
The Crow Mother's Hopi name is Angwusnasomtaka. Both names appear in collecting, and a buyer should recognize either one.
A well-documented example sits in the Smithsonian. The National Museum of the American Indian holds an Angwusnasomtaka katsina figure of cottonwood with feathers and paint, made 1964 to 1965. The Indian Arts and Crafts Board bought it from Hopicrafts on Second Mesa in 1965. The record is precise about both date and source, which makes the figure a useful point of comparison.
Feathers on any figure raise a point every Crow Mother collector should know. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act of 1940, amended in 1962, make dolls decorated with protected migratory bird or eagle feathers illegal to buy or sell, regardless of age. In the 1970s carvers began carving feathers in wood instead of attaching real ones. A Crow Mother with carved wooden feathers raises no such issue.
The Ogre Nata'aska has a disciplinary role. In the words of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it visits villages "to discourage bad behavior and to remind children of their responsibilities to their community."
That role fits the teaching purpose of the figures generally. Katsina dolls are made to instruct, and the Ogre carries one of the more direct lessons.
The Ogre has also drawn skilled contemporary carvers. The Heard Museum holds a Nata'aska (Ogre) katsina doll carving from 1998 by Brian Honyouti (Hopi, 1947 to 2016). For a collector, a museum example by a named carver is a reference point for how the figure can be handled at a high level.
Shalako Mana. Wood Kachina, 19.25 x 7.75 in. View Work
The same katsina can look different depending on when it was carved, and that affects identification. Around the turn of the twentieth century, figures had solid bodies with arms and legs defined but not separate. They wore a neck ruff of Douglas fir and cloth clothing that was embroidered or appliquéd, and they were painted with mineral pigments. On such a figure, the identifying features sit mostly in the paint and the added cloth.
By the mid-1900s, figures were posed to suggest movement and painted in bright colors with poster or oil-based paint. Some were carefully feathered and ornamented. Recent work, which the Heard Museum calls "action sculpture," carries fine detail carved directly into the wood. Some figures are carved entirely from wood with incised details and finished with a stain that lets the grain show. On those, a Mudhead's knobs or a Long Hair's hair may be cut into the wood rather than painted.
Cradle dolls are a separate case. Putsqatihu are made for infants: flat figures with enough features to identify the katsina. They show how little a carver needs to make a figure recognizable. The key feature survives even in a flat figure.
The figures above are a starting point. Museum collections show others. The Heard Museum holds a Turkey katsina by Ros George from 1988 and a Deer katsina by Ed Tewanema from 2000. It also holds a Muy'ingwa katsina by Arvin Saufkie from 2012. Each of these adds a figure that a collector who began with clowns and Mudheads might not yet know.
Building familiarity takes looking. Wright's guide gives the names and features, while museum collections give dated examples by known carvers. Handling kachina dolls in person adds what photographs miss: the scale of a figure and the depth of its carved detail. Cottonwood root, the material of Hopi katsina dolls, is light, and the feel of a figure in the hand is part of knowing it.
Figure identification also shapes how collectors read everything else. Knowing that a Long Hair runs tall changes how a buyer compares one carver's figures. Knowing that "Shalako" can name different beings changes what a buyer asks when collecting katsina figures.
With more than 200 katsinam, recognizing a figure is a skill built over time rather than a list to memorize. Several figures here have a feature that identifies them reliably, which makes them good teachers. Knobs on a mud-colored head mark the Mudhead. Waist-length hair and an evergreen bough mark the Long Hair. Once those features are familiar, the less common katsinam become easier to approach, because the method stays the same. Look for the identifying feature first, then for what the carver has done with it.