Katsina Hopi Sio Shalako (Male)

Ernest Moore, who signs his work with his Hopi name Quanhoyeoma, spent most of his life living off the Hopi Reservation, returning to live in the village of Moenkopi in 1998. For many years Earnest worked as a graphic artist.

In 2003, he entered his work in the Heard Museum annual show and it won Best of Show, which then sold for $20,000 to the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

He won many awards including being designated an “Arizona Living Treasure,” in 2005.

“The Sio Salako is a Hopi interpretation of the Shalako Ceremony of Zuni and thus receives the name Sio (Zuni). Sio Salako is portrayed like neither the Zuni nor the Hopi Salako but is instead a separate entity. He was introduced to the Hopis by a Tewa man around 1850 and first appeared as a group of four kachinas. Since that time changes in ceremonial have reduced the number to one and added Salako Mana that formerly did not appear.

The basic difference in costume of the Zuni Shalako Katsina and the Hopi Sio Salako Katsina is in body dress. Zuni Shalako are clothed in a white manta below the embroidered shoulder wrap. The Sio Salako at Hopi retains the Hopi style of feathers covering the body. The shoulder wrap is the same style as that at Zuni. The difference between the male and female version of the Sio Salako is that the male wears traditional moccasins and the female wears the white doe skin moccasins with leg wraps. The female also has yellow feathers ontop of her head as the male has white feathers.

Free-standing

Height: 18 1/2"