Sam Kayquoptewa
Eagle Dancer
13 1/2"
total height
This dance is not as common
as it might have been at one time, and according to Barton Wright's
Kachinas: a Hopi Artist's Documentary, you might have
the satisfaction of occassionally seeing a performance "in
one of the night ceremonies in March or during the Powamu."
"Usually the personator
imitates the step or motion and cry of the eagle to absolute
perfection. There is evidence that this kachina was imported
into Zuni from the Hopi and is danced there in much the same
manner that it is at Hopi.
This may be why the Eagle
may appear during Pamuya on First Mesa with Zuni Kachinas."
(87)
Sam Kayquoptewa, a member
of the Rabbit/Tobacco Clan, lives in the village of Hotevilla
on Third Mesa on the Hopi Reservation.
He is from a family of talented
siblings who are basket weavers and katsina doll carvers. He
is an award winning carver, having won both the 2003 and 2004
Award of Excellence in Katsina Doll Carving, Southwest Indian
Art Fair, Arizona State Museum, Phoenix, Arizona.
His work is in the collection
of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma
City, OK.