Squash Kachina

Having been outbid repeatedly for one of these on E-bay, and the really cool ones being varkin’ expensive, I have given up hope of purchasing one for the moment, but I’m still going to share my delight with this thing with all of you.

This is the Squash Kachina.
http://www.silvertribe.com/pic10/K2957.JPG
http://www.rivertradingpost.com/images/981.JPG
http://www.quintanagalleries.com/images/sc/kachina/pg3015.jpg
http://www.hopiart.com/images/mk4cx.jpg

He is green. His head is a large stripey gourd. He is also called the Patung Kachina, and he’s important to the Pumpkin Clan, although there aren’t many of them left, so nobody’s real clear on what he does. On First Mesa, he’s a runner, one of a group who challenge people to races and then either reward them for winning or clobber them for losing. (Runners are a bizarre and eclectic lot, ranging from the Yellow Fox Kachina (understandable) to the Dung-Eating Kachina (unpleasant.)) For obvious reasons, despite being obscure, kachina collectors love this guy.

I love the Squash Kachina. I like kachinas in general, mind you. I loved them as a kid, and then I felt guilty for wanting to buy exploitive and over-commercialized and often tacky native art as an adult, and now I’ve come around full circle to “I don’t care, those things are freakin’ cool.” Plus, y’know, squash. We all know how I am with the squash, even if I don’t like to eat it.

I mean, who wouldn’t love the squash kachina? How can you not look at that…err…gourd…and not go “Duuuuude.”?

I want to do Squash Kachina art. I want him to appear in Digger for no reason. (He probably won’t, since black and white doesn’t convey the bright green glory of Squash, not to mention that the lack of information about him makes him bloody impossible to write dialog for, but the urge is still there.) I cannot help but love the Squash, and so, briefly, I had to rhapsodize about it. I suppose there’s a certain dignity in reserving my fangirl squeeing for an obscure minor indigenous deity dressed like a vegetable. Then again, maybe not.

Thank you. That is all.

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