Andrew Sahmie
Squash
13 1/2"
total height
This figure, the Squash or
Patung kachina is a favorite among many collectors and appears
primarily on First Mesa as a runner. It is thought that he may
have derived from Zuni. Here is is depicted with flowers in both
hands, but generally appears with a set of yucca whips in one
hand.
As a "runner," the
Patung belongs to a class of kachinas who are not dancers but
rather run races with the men and boys of the village. "They
come in the late spring, either as a group or as individuals,
during a pause in a Mixed Dance or Plaza Dance.
Usually they will select one
end of the Plaza and , assembling there, will endeavor to have
an individual race them. If there are many runners, or Wawarus,
there will be a great churning about with one or another racing
down the length of the Plaza and other prancing up and down to
ready themselves for the coming contest.
Quite often they will lure
some unwary clown into racing and will immediately catch the
hapless individual and perpetrate their peculiar form of punishment
on him. They quickly tire of this and will gesture or hold up
a reward to some young man in the crowd of bystanders.
If he accepts, they will allow
him about ten feet of space in which he can move about as he
pleases. But the minute he leaves the area he runs as if instant
disaster were behind him, and it usually is, for some of the
punishments are quite unpleasant.
Win or lose, he will receive
payment with some kind of food from these racers. No one is safe
from the oldest man to the youngest boy; all, including white
members of the audience can receive the attention of these kachinas.
The kachinas are expected to pay for whipping the young men,
and this they do by sending water when it is needed for germinating
the crops."
- Barton Wright, Kachinas: a Hopi
Artist's Documentary (218)
Born in 1960, Andrew Sahmie
is a Tewa/Hopi Indian artist from First Mesa (Polacca) Arizona.
Like most of the Hopi carvers, he is self-taught in the art,
working from trial and error and watching his older brothers,
Finkle and Randall Sahmie.
Andrew has been carving steadily
since about 1990, and has developed outstanding refinement in
his work. One has only to look at the crook of a finger on his
kachinas to see his concentration and attention to detail.
Creative individuals surround
Andrew; his mother, Priscilla Namingha, and his Navajo wife,
Ida Sahmie, as well as his first cousins Steve Lucas and Dan
Namingha, are all award-winning artists. Andrew's great-great
grandmother was the historic Tewa/Hopi potter Nampeyo.
