WANTED: Feather donations from your birds. All feathers large and small from Budgies to Macaws for the Hopi and Tohono O'odham for ceremonial use. Hartman Lomawaima, Bear Clan and active in the ceremonies, from Shipolovi, Second Mesa will bring feathers to the Mesa where a full ceremonial calendar is observed. Feathers will also be distributed to the Tohono O'odham from Southern Arizona. The feathers are delivered to the Arizona State Museum by Lynn Teague and distributed from there.

If you wish to donate your bird's discarded feathers please contact me at suavian@home.com for more information. I have been collecting feathers for these two groups of Native Americans for several years now. Feathers have been generously donated from all over the US and Canada by exotic birds, emu, peacocks, a crow, and their owners.

Feathers may be sent to:

The Feather Collection Project

c/o Su Egen

PO BOX 40264

Tucson, AZ 85717-0264

All feathers are put to use by both groups. As most of the ceremonies where the feathers are used are private I am unable to post photographs of actual ceremonies, but I have been promised photographs from the Museum for the page of the Hopi and Tohono O'odham.

Parrots Depicted in Native American Art

Pottery Mound Kiva Mural showing macaws and masked dancer

(photograph by Helga Teiwes, Arizona State Museum)

 

 

 

 

 

Casas Grandes ceramics showing parrot and curvilinear designs.

(photograph by Helga Teiwes, Arizona State Museum)

 

 

 

 

Abstract macaw or parrot forms on pottery

(drawn by Kelley A. Hays, Arizona State Museum)

 

Ceremonial Use

Nakwakwosi placed in a Soyal shrine

Winter Solstice Ceremony

(Jo Mora, photographer)

Pahos

water prayer stick

A paho is a prayer object that is made of a short stick or two feathers, plant stems and a small packet of corn husk filled with cornmeal and a dab of honey. This is tied to the stick with hand-spun cotton string. All are made in the way the ancient people taught the Hopi to make them.

warriors prayer stick.......................Nakwakwos' hotomhni or nakwakucosi

Detail of above

 

 

 

 

 

Nakwakwos' hotommi-Breath Feathers

The term paho is derived from a combination of the word for water, pahii and one of the following, hongi (erect), kohu (wood), hohu (arrow) or homoya(prayer)

 

 

 

 

 

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Tohono O'odham Wi'ikita, 1920, Quitovac, Sonora

Singing and Dancing Before the Singers' Booth (photograph by Joseph Menaer

Tohono O'odham Wi'ikita Ceremony, 1920, Quitovac, Sonora

Priests With Their Feathered Wands (photograph by Joseph Menager)

To participate in the Feather Collection for the Hopi and Tohono O'odham, please contact

Su Egen at: suavian@home.com

Please come back and check the site for additions