Kachina

The Kachina religion is the belief of the Pueblo peoples of the American Southwest, the Hopi, Zuni and Keres among them, in kachinas, spirit beings who represent the Pueblo ancestors and the forces of the world. They are not worshipped, but given respect they bring rain, healing, fertility and protection, though they can also cause disease.

To the Hopi the kachinas live on the San Francisco Peaks and visit the villages in the first half of the year; the Powamu ceremony in February marks the bean planting. Masked men take on the spirits in dances, and kachina dolls are carved for children.

After the Spanish brought missions to Pueblo country in the seventeenth century, Diego de Vargas re-entered it in 1692. The Pueblos kept their ceremonies out of Spanish sight behind a veneer of Catholicism.