Water
Tableta Tableta
Hopi, ca. 1904

Hopi teenage girls wear these headdresses in the autumn Butterfly Dance. Their young uncles and nephews make the tabletas, which the girls keep as mementos of their youth.

On the top of this headdress are birds and sunflowers with a terraced cloud in the center. Two sun katsinas flank towering clouds and falling rain. On the reverse side are sun and sunflower designs. All of these elements are associated with summer rains.

Pine? (Pinus sp.), commercial and mineral paints, laundry blueing, commercial leather, tanned deer? hide (Odocoileus sp.), commercial cotton, unidentified large owl feathers, cotton (Gossypium hirsutum); W 49.0 x H 44.0 cm; 3165-301