"It All Started with a Mouse"

This quotation is attributed to Walt Disney, whose entertainment empire began on this day in 1928 with the screening of Mickey Mouse's first cartoon, "Steamboat Willie."

Believe it or not, the Smithsonian American Art Museum has a Native American version of Mickey Mouse in its collection.

Mickey Mouse Kachina dolls appeared in the pueblos [of the U.S. southwest] after Walt Disney's cartoon character captured America's attention in the early 1930s. Perhaps inspired by Mickey's comical antics, this particular doll has been made to resemble one of the "Mudheads," the ritual clowns important to kachina ceremonies.

The primary actors in the rich ceremonial life of the Southwestern pueblos are the dancers and clowns who reenact the stories of the kachinas, spiritual ancestor guardians of their native way of life. Traditional dolls, carved from cottonwood and hung on the adobe walls of the kivas (subterranean ceremonial rooms) or in family dwellings, are often used by the kachina dancers.

Source: Lynda Roscoe Hartigan. Made with Passion: The Hemphill Folk Art Collection in the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C. and London: For the National Museum of American Art by the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990).

Pictured: Unidentified artist, Mickey Mouse Kachina, after 1930, carved and painted cottonwood, feathers, and string, 11 3/4 x 5 3/8 x 4 3/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson.