Dolls of the Mountain Spirit Dancer of the Apache tribe are often carved.  Although masked, the Mountain Spirit Dancers have no direct relation to the kachinas of the Pueblo Indians. However, both the Navajos and Apaches are members of the Athabascan groups that traveled south from their original homeland in Alaska and northwestern Canada to the southwestern United States and Mexico, probably reaching Arizona and New Mexico in the early 1500s, and there is considerable evidence that they adapted many elements of the culture of the long-established Pueblo Indians when they came into contact with them. Thus there may be a distant relationship between the Mountain Spirit Dancer of the Apaches and masked dancers of the Navajos and the Pueblo kachinas. The Apache girls' puberty ceremony is accompanied by the appearance of the Mountain Spirits (Gahan).  They are impersonated by men with black masks, spectacular headdresses, painted bodies, and carrying painted wands. The Mountain Spirits appear at night and dance around a large bonfire with wild gestures and eerie calls.  (Author's collection. Carved by Chesley Wilson, Fort Apache, Arizona. Height 6 1/2 inches)

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