In the religious beliefs of the Native American Pueblo people, Toho is a Hunter Kachina for the Hopi and Zuni tribes;
Toho, The Mountain Lion Kachina, often accompanies such animals as the Deer or Antelope Kachinas when they appear in the Line Dances of spring. However, during the Pachavu or Tribal Initiation about every fourth year, Toho appears as a guard. Armed with yucca whips, he patrols the procession in company with He-e-e, Warrior Woman, and other warrior or guard kachinas.
Thought to be the most powerful hunter, the Toho is the guardian of the northern direction. He is associated with the color yellow and appears in both hunting and healing fetish sets, always facing north.
Toho can be represented by a naked man wearing a mask, whiskers and yellow feathers upon either side of his head to look like the lion's ears, or carved as a mountain lion fetish in an ancient, primitive style, most mountain lion fetishes are represented with their tails up and over the back.
Toho is there to remind us to persevere, clarify our goals and move forward to achieving our dreams. He steadies the hunter and protects his territory.
Hopi Kachinas by Jesse Walter Fewkes, 1903
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Kachina
A kachina (/kəˈtʃiːnə/; also katchina, katcina, or katsina; Hopi: katsina /kətˈsiːnə/, plural katsinim /kətˈsiːnɨm/) is a spirit being in western Pueblo religious beliefs. The western Pueblo, Native American cultures located in the southwestern United States, include Hopi, Zuni, Tewa Village (on the Hopi Reservation), Acoma Pueblo, and Laguna Pueblo. The kachina concept has three different aspects: the supernatural being, the kachina dancers (masked members of the community who represent kachinas at religious ceremonies), and kachina dolls, small dolls carved in the likeness of kachinas given as gifts to children.
Overview
Kachinas are spirits or personifications of things in the real world. These spirits are believed to visit the Hopi villages during the first half of the year. A kachina can represent anything in the natural world or cosmos, from a revered ancestor to an element, a location, a quality, a natural phenomenon, or a concept. There are more than 400 different kachinas in Hopi and Pueblo culture. The local pantheon of kachinas varies in each pueblo community; there may be kachinas for the sun, stars, thunderstorms, wind, corn, insects, and many other concepts. Kachinas are understood as having humanlike relationships; they may have uncles, sisters, and grandmothers, and may marry and have children. Although not worshipped, each is viewed as a powerful being who, if given veneration and respect, can use his particular power for human good, bringing rainfall, healing, fertility, or protection, for example. One observer has written:
