• ANY WOODEN INDIAN DOLLS made by natives - especially early examples (with carved heads, face masks, etc.)
• artist dolls like those by Joe Owl, and Ernest Redbird
• mystery wooden Indian dolls that you would like help getting more information about
• Seminole wooden Indian dolls
• An assortment of Tarahumara Indian dolls

Realistic carving of an old woman by Joe Owl photo thanks to private collector

Joe Lillian Owl On an on-line auction this doll was described: "Perfectly wonderful 10" completely hand carved from wood Indian. Excellent condition marked on foot Joe Lillian Owl." The owner has promised some more photos of this doll, so I look forward to posting them soon. Note the use of gray yarn for hair and calico fabrics. The wooden parts are expertly carved with minimal paint to accentuate the carved features. Was this a portrait of a particular woman? I am impressed with this doll and I really want to learn more about this artist. Who is Joe Lillian Owl? When was he making dolls and where?

Ernest R. Redbird from Albuquerque, NM (USA)
Ernest R. Redbird is a native American Indian and he carves dolls representing American natives that are elaborately and authentically dressed. What is his tribe and when did he start making dolls?

Cree
 

Cree dressed English QA dolls photo thanks to Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art

Cree dressed English Queen Anne dolls English wooden dolls dressed by Cree Indians. The Indian costumes are authentic and extremely detailed with a lot of quill work. According to one theory, the Indians were asked to dress some English "Queen Anne" dolls as a gifts, and to impress an important visiting European.

Hopi Kachina Dolls
Kachina dolls are traditionally made from the dried root of the cotton wood tree. I am looking for some antique examples of Kachina dolls now. The Kachina dolls posted below are modern Hopi dolls. Kachina Dolls are still being made today by Hopi Indians in traditional and modern styles.

One of the wonderful aspects of Kachina doll collecting is that they draw a collector into further research about the Hopi culture while learning about the different styles, stories, characters, and artists.

The following photos are just a very small overview of some of the beautiful work done by the Hopi.  Note: This following photo collection illustrates a wide variety of subjects, characters, and individual artistic styles available in Kachina dolls often with more than one photo from several active Kachina artists (most of these photos are from a single private collection).
 

Kwaahu (Eagle) Katchina c. 1930 or earlier photo thanks to Jesse White-Raven

1930's Kwaahu (Eagle) Katchina Jesse White-Raven states: Hopi men carved Katchinas and presented them to children during ceremonies. They are made in the likenesses of supernatural deities of the Hopi. This one is a 1930's or possibly earlier carving of Kwaahu (Eagle) katchina. It measures 4 inches tall by 7 1/2 inches wide. It is painted with all natural paints gathered from the earth. It has a wreath of twigs and feathers on it's head.  His face paint is a soft Turquoise green - more than likely made out of crushed turquoise or copper ore. The Eagles squawking and dance is believed to bring moisture and good harvests.

1880's Owak (coal) Kachina photo thanks to Jesse White-Raven

1880's Owak (coal) Kachina Jesse White-Raven states: This Owak (coal and minerals) Kachina is a very old and rare Kachina.  It's last appearance in Hopi ceremonies was said to be in 1899.  These Katchinas represented the minerals in the earth and educated the tribal people about the benifits of the minerals.  This Katchina measures about 8 1/2 inches tall and 2 3/4 inches wide.  It is handcarved out of a single piece of cottonwood tree root.  The mouth and ears were carved seperately and joind to it.  All the paints on this doll are natural Earth paints/clays.  He has two "diggin sticks under his sash belt and a rattle with painted sunfaces on it.  His kilt is made of an Old woman's dress fragment.  He has black pokadots under his chin - not viewable in photo.

Ha Hai I by Wayland Namingha

Crow Mother by John Fredericks

CLOWNS (Owl is NOT a clown) Tsudu by Joe Gash Owl by Wayland Namingha Tuhavi Koyemsi by Vina Harvey Hano Clown by H. Burnall	Patung (Squash) Tan w/ green stripe by Wayland Namingha Green w/ black stripe by Joe Gash Kisa (Prairie Falcon) by Joe Gash Green w/ yellow stripe by Wayland Namingha
CLOWNS Koyala by Joe Gash Kwikwilyaka by Joe Gash Kokopel Mana by Wayland Namingha Koyala by Stacy Talahytewa	Ogres Awtovi Suyok Taka by (unknown 1980's) Wilharo by R. Pela Woyak Kuita by Frank Howard
RUNNERS Wik China by Joe Gash Tsil by Joe Gash Dragon Fly by Clifford Pangyesvia Heheya Aumutaka by Joe Gash Patszro by Joe Gash	MIXED SUBJECTS Corn by Martin Jackson Kahaila (signed w/ initials but not identified 1940-50) Sun by Martin Jackson Chiwap by Joe Gash

For more information about Kachina dolls:

• Kachina Dolls by Eagle Wing Art
• List of Kachina reference books

FOLK DOLL OR AMERICAN INDIAN DOLL - Hopi doll?
 

click on the image for a larger view 14-1/2" solid wood painted folk doll or traditional flat Hopi doll of a young girl with pre-1900 "squash blossom" hair-do photo thanks to Peggy Wachtler

This 14-1/2" solid wood doll looks like a little girl with her hair in pigtails or buns over each ear wearing a shift type, black dress (with a red band or red belt) and a red/white sweater over it with matching red earrings. According to Peggy Wachtler, this solid wood painted folk doll has quite a history of hardship: "The doll belonged to my Mother. She played with it, and it was found many years later in the wall of the house Mom had been living in during her childhood. The reason it was found is that the house sustained a lot of damage due to a fire (in the late 1970's)  in the kitchen. The doll does have some discoloration due to the fire. The doll had fallen from the attic into the kitchen wall. My grandparents were both born around 1890 and my Mother in 1922." Unfortunately folk dolls like these are extremely hard to date and identify other than labeling it a "folk doll". It could very well have been made especially for Peggy's mom as a child since the dress and sweater look appropriate for the 1920's. Not many people could afford play dolls in the 1920's so a crudely made folk doll like this one would have been a specially wonderful gift for any girl.

Could this could be an American Indian doll, possibly a traditional flat Hopi Katchina type doll of a young girl with the traditional "squash blossom" hair style of an unmarried maiden dressed traditional wedding garb?

My friend Gail Enid Zimmer wrote to me with the theory that this doll represents a Hopi maiden. After researching Hopi hair styles, I definately think she is on to something here. But my question is still - "Do you think it is a true native American doll or a folk doll representing a native American? It is such an odd doll!"

Gail Enid Zimmer wrote:
I am pretty sure that early kachinas made to give to children were relatively flat and stylized. The more recent, the more dimensional and realistic, no longer representing the spirit itself but the dancer portraying the spirit. Of course, the Wachtler figure does NOT represent a kachina but is not that far removed from the earlier examples.

You should get some interesting replies (from asking Hopi experts about this doll), but it is always possible that even experts have never seen anything like this!

(after seeing some of my research which supported her theory) Wow, some research!  But your guess is as good as mine as to who made this and why. All I know is that after the railroads opened up the west, many things were made as tourist souvenirs.  This figure looks like a cross beween a kachina and a doll, so perhaps it employed traditional skills to create something tourists would buy.

Jesse White-Raven wrote:
I looked at the "flat" maiden doll on your page.  She had some characteristics of a "Hopi" Kachina.  Their are some clues that say she is really a "folk" doll.  The first thing I noticed is that the doll has a underpainting of white - which is present on all Hopi Kachinas.  However, her arms appeared to be attached or jointed.  The Zuni (which I lived on that Rez as a child) attached arms on their Kachinas like that.  The Hopi rarely did.  The problem with the doll being Zuni - is the fact that they didn't underpaint their early dolls with white.  The face has a definite Folk look.  A kachina doll from the 1930's or earlier would have had a "Kachina face".  That face is too realistic.  The closest deity/ Hopi Kachina matching that would be "Aholatmana".  This Katsina maiden would definently be equiped with a basket in her hands.  The closest Zuni Katchina/deity would be "Hohomana".  The Zuni doll would not carry a basket in hand - but I still think the face would be a "kachina face".  The face has a "strong" early frontier look.  I believe it was made by some early frontier settler - that had an appreciation for the Native culture.  It is a beautiful folk carving and should be cherished.  What an interesting piece. I will send a comparison picture of a turn of the century Hopi maiden.  You will see the same hair, a simuliar shawl, but a distinctive "Kachina" face on the photo.

Squash Blossom Whorls and Cape
The following links and photos are a result of some of my Hopi research on the Net to support Gail's idea that this doll represents an unmarried Hopi girl:
 

Hopi Girls pre-1900 photo thanks to The Pitt Rivers Museum © The Pitt Rivers Museum

Hopi girls "Photograph: J. Hillers, Hopi Pueblo, 1879." - The Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford  - School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography. This photo shows the fabulous squash-blossom hair style of pre-1900 Hopi maidens and their capes. Two Hopi woman work on hair styles  - UCR/California museum of photography. The photo description: "Two Hopi woman work on hair styles, the one using a comb of yucca spines and straw to dress the others hair. The man emerges from a sacred kiva using a ladder decorated with sanctifying materials" Tobacco Silk of Hopi girls dressing their hair - Legacy. Tobacco Silks were a part of early tobacco packaging. The Legacy web site states that tobacco silks "were initially made to attract the new market of female smokers who would collect these colorful images and sew them together creating pillows or quilt covers."  American Indian images were popular subjects illustrated by these tobacco companies. At least one represented Hopi girls dressing their hair. This illustration is particularly interesting because it shows the squash blossom hair-do from the side.

Hano and Walpi Girls Wearing AROO photo thanks to The Curtis Collection

Edward Sheriff Curtis stated, "(Due to western influence) In 1906 not a maid at the East mesa kept her hair in the picturesque squash-blossom whorls indicative of the unmarried state." from NOTES FROM "THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN" BY ES CURTIS VOLUME-12 THE HOPI The Curtis Collection claims that it owns the world's largest, most extensive collections of Copper Photogravure Plates ever produced or assembled. These Copper Photogravure Plates represent the life work of Edward Sheriff Curtis and his massive documentation of Native Americans, "The North America Indian." In addition to selling reprints from their collection, this site also has an extensive educational TRIBAL SUMMARIES taken directly from Curtis' text, field notes and other source materials with a complete Image Index to the 2,234 images of Curtis' "The North American Indian"

Iroquois

Fearing that a doll would turn into the person it represented if depicted in too much detail, the Iroquois dolls were typically faceless. They were created of cornhusk and wood. Real hair (horse or human) was sometimes inserted into the middle of the crown of wooden dolls.
 

Wood Masked Corn Husk Doll photo thanks to Debbie Sapienza

6" EARLY IROQUOIS DOLL Debbie Sapienza states, "It's a souvenir Iroquois corn husk doll.  You are welcome to include it on your web page." The owner also offered more photos of this really nice doll - I hope to post these soon. A partially legible, attached tag written in script states: Old doll approx. 6" tall. Consisting of a finely carved wooden head depicting False Face Medicine Society dancer "The Doorkeeper". Body of cornhusk with hide breechcloth and what appears to be human hair. Finely beaded moccasins and colorful yarn garters and sashes.

Seminole

Wooden Seminole doll in the cothing style of a Seminole Woman photo thanks to a private collector

While their own children played with simple rag dolls, Seminoles created wood or palmetto fiber dolls for sale to tourists. The Seminole wooden dolls are early and rare. Palmetto dolls were very popular and are still being made as Florida souvenirs. Wooden Seminole dolls have one piece cone shaped bodies with carved heads. Female dolls are cone shaped with a ball shaped head of cloth or palmetto fiber. Males dolls generally have legs but are occasionally cone shaped (as in some wooden examples). Most of these dolls were dressed in bright multi-color patchwork style clothes made with strip quilting construction techniques on their prize possessions: sewing machines. Both sexes of early dolls wore skirts. A traditional Seminole cape might be worn over a long skirt on a woman doll. Woman Seminole dolls had carved caps or hats. Multiple strands of beads were worn by women. Male Seminole wooden dolls might have a painted mustache on the doll's face, a male might be wearing his cloth turban, and a shorter skirt where you could see his carved legs. Later male dolls wore pants.

click on image to see full length 10" Seminole Woman photo thanks to a private collector

10" Seminole Woman with a carved hat, strip quilted cape and skirt, and multiple strands of beads. This doll was sold from an elderly woman who said the were her dolls from the 1940's. Her family traveled extensively and always brought her home doll. Interestingly I have seen photos of Seminole wooden painted figurines with a very similar face, and hat which were also dated in the 1940's. But they could have been made earlier. This Seminole wooden doll is surprising in its body style. Seminole dolls representing woman typically had a cone shaped one piece body with no arms or legs. This doll's body has separate arms, carved legs, and other details. This body has carved female breasts. Her arms are flat with carved fingers attached to the body with a metal pin.   arms and chest photo thanks to a private collector legs photo thanks to a private collector

The following quote is from the book "AMERICAN FOLK DOLLS" by Wendy Lavitt:

"The Seminoles were originally a "buckskin people" but discarded their heavy clothing in favor of cooler cotton of the Florida settlers. By 1870 the Seminoles were creating their distinctive patchwork clothing.

Seminole women were proud of the many-tiered beaded necklaces, collected strand by strand though out their lives, A little girl received her first strand at one, and each year till middle age when they are removed each year until there is only one. Beaded necklaces, black bonnet-like hats, and patchwork dresses identify female dolls, whereas small red hats and patchwork tunics denote the rarer male dolls.

Seminole dolls were either carved from wood or composed of fibers from the palmetto tree. These were trade dolls and the Seminole children played with "a bundle of rags, a stick with a bit of cloth wrapped about it."

"The history of the Florida Seminoles is one of extreme hardship and incredible determination to resist surrender."

"The patchwork blending and migration of the Georgia and Alabama Indian tribes (mainly Creek) in the 1700s with the later arrivals of runaway slaves in the 1800s formed the core of the Florida Seminoles in the 1900s and is mirrored in the patchwork clothing worn and made famous by these people today. Since the early 1800s the Florida Seminoles had been wearing fabrics obtained from trading with the Europeans instead of their own traditional leather-hide clothing, which was suitable for their former, colder northern climates."

"Not only were the Seminole ('seminole' meaning 'wild or free' or 'runaway') people an amalgamation of Indian tribes, but also of traditions and cultures."

"Since the later 1800s or early 1900s when they were able to obtain hand-cranked sewing machines by trading alligator hides and plumage for usage in the international fashion industry, the Seminoles have been making patchwork clothing for themselves."

"From 1892 to 1922 Captain George Storter operated a trading post in the Florida settlement called Allen's River (later called Everglade) to service the few settlers and the Seminole Indians there. Captain Storter is credited with encouraging the Indians to make dolls. According to a report written by E. F. Coe in 1921, Captain Storter was asked to supply an exhibit entitled "Convention of Doll Land" in New York City around the turn-of-the century with examples of Seminole dolls. Although the Seminole Indians at the time did not like to make figures in their own images because of bad luck superstitions, Captain Storter apparently convinced them otherwise."

click for a larger view Large Indian (31.5") photo thanks to Gayla Lewis

Large Indian Doll possibly created for a Special Display Indian images are exciting and very abundant. Most people are very familiar with some of the many drawings and paintings of American Indian life, and most everyone knows of the "cigar store Indian" carved figures which advertised tobacco merchant store fronts. Most of this artwork was created by white people trying to capture the romantic, rustic lifestyle of the American Indian in some small part. Some displays were very elaborate, and detailed.  This doll is so unusual and so big that it seems to have been made for some special display. At this point I don't know if this was made by a native or a non-native. There are many dolls which represent American Indians but most were NOT created by natives. White doll artists today still love to portray native Americans and Eskimos. I research all wooden dolls but I am particularly interested in those dolls representing native Americans created by native Americans - a self-portrait of their lifestyles and important artifacts from their cultures, superbly crafted representations, and unusual wooden display dolls such as this fine one. Gayla Lewis stated: "This is a hand carved wooden doll of a Navajo man. He is a one of a one of a kind doll that is believed to have been carved some time in the 1930's - 1940's around Winslow, Arizona area. He stands a full 31.5" tall and has real hair. His blanket is made of genuine flax and his moccasins are real doeskin. He is attached to a wooden base as seen in the photos. The man I bought it from told me that the doll belonged to a woman that used to run an old Indian curio shop in Arizona and that is where it came from.  I think it has her name on the bottom of the stand. The woman's name is "Barbaea Bower" and it is on a tag taped to the bottom of the stand.  It is followed by 'Navajo Doll Navajo 1940 Carved Indian'.  " If you know more about this doll, then please Contact Us

Navajo souvenir dolls c. 1950's photo thanks to Jesse White-Raven

Navajo Tourist dolls Jesse White-Raven describes her dolls: "These two cute dolls comonly mistaken for "Hopi" katchina dolls - are actually Navajo Tourist dolls. They were sold along roadsides all across New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. Unlike "true" Katchina dolls - these dolls were made for decorative/ tourist trade. They are painted with early poster paints. The taller one is 3 inches tall the smaller one is a rare size and is only a mere 1 1/2 inches tall."

Northwest Coast Tribes
 

need a photo

The tribes of the Northwest coast were renown for their carving abilities (masks and totem poles are typical) but the "dolls " created by these tribes were used as religious and ceremonial objects See more about Eskimo dolls from the Lotz Doll Pages

Mexico: Tarahumara (or Raramuri) - Cooper Canyon - Chihuahua, Mexico
 

click to see full view and baby 3-1/2" Lady with 1-1/4" Baby on her back (one leg is missing) note the insized eyes and mouth photo by Jean Lotz

These crudely carved small wooden dolls carved from one piece of wood or larger dolls (6" - 10") may be very simply jointed with limited movement. They have chunky legs and crudely carved arms. The smaller dolls (about 1" to 3-1/2") have no arms and wrapped in a cape. They are simply dressed in traditional brightly colored clothes. The smaller dolls and some larger dolls are bald, but others have real hair with bandannas.  Some of these dolls have very simple incised facial features as if the eyes and mouth were just chipped out with minimal carving to define a nose. Others are better carved with more detail. Some of these dolls may hold household utensils to illustrate the Tarahumara way of life (examples: a standing woman holding a basket; a seated man at a loom; a woman with cooking utensils). A mother holding a baby or carrying a baby on her back is a common theme. A segment from an interesting post that I saw on the Web:  "Mexico's Tarahumara (or Raramuri) Indians live in small communities in the ravines and canyons of the Sierra Tarahumara high in the Western Sierra Madre mountains. The women travel to the Copper Canyon railroad platform to sell their wooden dolls. These Indians live in poverty and often suffer from cold and lack of food in this beautiful but inhospitable region of Chihuahua." more information from Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology at Wichita State University

Central America: Can you share any photos and information?
South America: Can you share any photos and information?

• TRIBAL SUMMARIES by The Curtis Collection
• North American Indians stereographs from the Keystone-Mast Collection - University of California Riverside / California Museum of Photography