Shalako

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Shalako refers to a series of dances and ceremonies conducted by the Zuni tribe at the Winter Solstice, and other Native American tribes of the American Southwest in the fall, typically following the harvest. It is notable in that unlike many other Zuni ceremonies that are closed to outsiders, non-Zuni are often invited to visit and watch portions of the Shalako dances. The American fascination with these ceremonies, dances, and proto-New-Age mysticism focused on Native American spiritual beliefs caused the word "Shalako" to be used as a place name or otherwise associated with ephemera of the frontier days of the American Southwest.

The Shálako festival of Zuñi, which occurs every year near the end of November, is a remarkable sacred drama, enacted in the open for the double purpose of invoking the divine blessing upon certain newly-built houses, and of rendering to the gods of Zuñi thanks for the harvests of the year. The exact date of the coming of the Shálako is fixed each year by some occult formula of the Zuñi priests, and while the appointed day is generally known several weeks in advance, the official publication of it is not made until the eighth evening before the event. The immediate effect of this announcement, which is given out by ten masked buffoons in the principal plazas, is to quicken the easy-going life of the old pueblo into a bustle of industry. The Indians of the Terraced Houses, Chapter XVI. Of the Night Dance of the Shalako Gods, pg. 15, Charles Francis Saunders, G>P> Putnam's Sons, 1912.

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