Leonard Selestewa, Koyemsi Katsina carving

Leonard Selestewa is an award-winning Katsina carver. He grew up in a family of artists and traditional farmers from Lower Moenkopi. Living in the desert, water has been essential for their survival: "Everything revolving around our religious practices, and even the more secretive ones, they revolve around sacred springs. This is said to be the channels by which the spirits of the kachinas travel." When the springs began drying up, he learned fro his grandfather that Peabody Coal Company was using millions of gallons of water to transport pulverized coal through a slurry pipeline. Leonard an other concerned citizens organized. He became President of the Black Mesa Trust. (Schaaf 2008:280)

Koyemsi or Mud-head Katsinas are probably the most well known of all the Hopi kachinas. They appear in almost every Hopi ceremony as clowns, interlocutors, announcers of dances, drummers, and many other roles. They nearly always accompany other kachinas; probably the only time when they do not appear with other personages is during the Night Dances. Koyemsi are usually the ones that play games with the audience to the accompaniment of rollicking tunes. These games are generally guessing games, or simple attempts to balance objects or performances of some common act. (Wright 1973: 238)