The Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon has a small collection of Pueblo pottery on display.
The Pueblos are the village agriculturists of New Mexico and Northern Arizona. While the Pueblos are usually lumped together in both the anthropological and historical writings as though they are a single cultural group, they are linguistically and culturally divergent. The Pueblos speak six mutually unintelligible languages and occupy more than 30 villages in a rough crescent more than 400 miles in length.
Pueblo pottery is one of the best known American Indian art forms. In his chapter on prehistoric pottery in I Am Here: Two Thousand Years of Southwest Indian Arts and Culture, Stewart Peckham writes:
“Pueblo pottery has earned for itself and its makers the interest and respect of specialists in the fields of archaeology, ethnology, art history, and museology around the world.”
For many centuries, Pueblo people have made and used a wide variety of pottery containers, including bowls, jars, cups, ladles, and canteens. Stewart Peckham reports:
“Pueblo pottery served countless daily household functions: jars, bowls, and dippers were used for storing, cooking, and serving food, carrying and storing water, and even storing personal belongings.”
Pueblo potters also produced figurines, effigy vessels to be used for religious purposes, pipes, and prayermeal bowls. The pottery is often highly decorated and traded throughout the region.
Traditionally, women were responsible for forming and firing the pottery vessels. In an article in American Indian Art, Dwight Lanmon reports:
“Pottery making in the pueblos was generally the work of women (or men living as women), with mothers and grandmothers usually teaching their descendants the techniques of the craft.”
While women also did most of the decorating, it was not uncommon for men to paint vessels made by women.
Pueblo pottery making is not complicated with regard to materials or construction. It involves three basic materials: earth, water, and fire. In his chapter on historic and contemporary Pueblo pottery in I Am Here: Two Thousand Years of Southwest Indian Arts and Culture, Rick Dillingham reports:
“To produce serviceable wares with minimal technology, the potter must cooperate completely with the materials. Attempts to push beyond the limits of the materials will result in failure.”
Pueblo pottery is traditionally formed with a coil technique in which coils of clay are circled around the base of the pot to form the walls of the vessel. Steward Peckham describes this coiling technique this way:
“Vessel walls were constructed of bands or ropes of clay laid one on top of another and pinched together to build a pot to the desired size and form.”
The walls of the pot are then smoothed and shaped with pieces of gourd called kajepes. Once the basic form is completed, the pot is left to dry. In a semi-dry state, the pot is then scraped with a gourd scraper which removes any irregularities and further refines its shape. A red slip is then applied with a piece of soft buckskin. The pot is burnished with a stone before the slip has dried. This step gives the pot a glossy finish.
In order to promote even drying and to minimize warping, temper is added to the clay. Temper may include sand, pulverized rocks, and ground potsherds. Temper varies according to region—and the type of clay and other materials available in the region—as well as to the personal preferences of the potter. Rick Dillingham writes:
“Through trial and error a potter will come up with a favorable clay mixture which is then generally preferred, with minor variations, by other local potters, giving that pueblo its distinctive blend.”
In some areas, such as the Hopi mesas, sand naturally occurs in the mined clay and therefore the potters rarely need to add additional temper. At Taos and Picuris, the clay is naturally tempered with inclusive mica and the result is a very durable war suited for cooking. At Zuni, the potters generally use ground potsherds: this means that pottery which might be hundreds of years old is incorporated into the new pottery. At Santo Domingo and Cochiti, volcanic tuff, usually called “sand” is used for temper, while at Zia and Santa Ana, potters use a water-worn sand.
The process of firing the potter is described by Rick Dillingham:
“The firing of pottery is a short process, taking only a few hours, but careful monitoring of the firing is exhausting and those hours are intense. The ware is stacked on grating, made from old pottery sherds and specially made pottery baffles, to allow for even air circulation and heating.”
According to Karen Kahe Charley and Lea McChesney, in an article in American Indian Art:
“Firing brings an artist’s inner thoughts and feelings, contributed with her breath to the formation of a new being through the long duration of her labor and now distilled within the pot’s interior, to the surface and sets them as the public feature of her work.”
The methods of firing vary among the pueblos.
Pottery varies among the Pueblos according to differences in raw materials, technology, and aesthetics. Each of the Pueblos has its own distinctive decorative styles. In addition, within a Pueblo the work of a particular potter, or the potter’s family, can sometimes be recognized.
Pueblo pottery since the later 1800s has become renown as collectable artwork and this has created some conflicts with traditional Pueblo culture. The collectors who buy Pueblo pottery, almost all of whom are non-Indian, want to know who made the piece and therefore a signature on the pot is important to them. In an article in American Indian Art, Dwight Lanmon and Francis Harlow note:
“Traditional Pueblo culture views the individual as a vital part of the whole, and personal recognition has largely been shunned. This attitude changed slowly in the 1900s and recognition of the work of individual potters has now become commonplace.”
Santo Domingo
The native name for this Tewa-speaking pueblo is Ka’po whose meaning is unknown.
The designs used by Santo Domingo potters tend to be geometric but include some bird and floral elements.
Cochiti
The name Cochiti is the Spanish version of Katyete whose meaning is unknown.
In his book Cochiti: A New Mexico Pueblo, Past and Present ,Charles Lange reports:
“Cochití pottery has traditionally been black-on-cream, often combined with brick-red surfaces on the exterior bottoms and the complete interiors of bowls and ollas.”
Cochiti designs often include free-floating elements and ceremonial motifs such as clouds and lightning.
Zuni
The name Zuni is the Spanish corruption of the Keresan word Sunyi. The native name for the pueblo is A’shiwi which means “the flesh.”
With regard to Zuni pottery designs, Rick Dillingham reports:
“The design most associated with Zuni is a semirealistic deer motif with a line leading from the heart to the mouth. This is most often called the ‘heart-line’ deer.”
San Ildefonso
The native name for this Tewa-speaking pueblo is Pokwoge which means “where the water cuts down through.”
The most famous San Ildefonso designs are the black-on-black designs pioneered by María and Julian Martinez. Rick Dillingham writes:
“The Black-on-black technique involves an initial overall polishing of the vessel with red slip. Then, using a thinned mixture of slip, designs are painted over the polished surface. Before the firing the jar is a matte red-brown on polished red, and after the firing the more recognizable matte and polished black.”
Santa Clara
The native name for this Keresan-speaking pueblo is Kiuwa whose meaning is unknown.
Carved black pottery was introduced at Santa Clara about 1924-1926 by Serafina Tafoya. Rick Dillingham writes:
“At the time it was first made it must have seemed quite innovative, but now it is mainstream traditional Santa Clara pottery.”
Zia
The name Zia is the Spanish corruption of the Keresan word Sunyi. The native name for the pueblo is A’shiwi which means “the flesh.”
Zia pottery is distinctive because of the use of a ground basalt temper. With regard to design, Rick Dillingham reports:
“Zia pottery designs are very distinctive in the use of bird motifs and the undulating ‘rainbow’ band, encircling many jars with bird and floral motifs.”
Zia designs are sometimes similar to those used in Acoma and Laguna.
Indians 101
Twice each week—on Tuesdays and Thursdays—this series present American Indian stories. More from this series:
Indians 101: Southwestern Pottery in the Maryhill Museum (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Southwestern Jewelry and Beadwork (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Southwestern Baskets in the Maryhill Museum (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Zuni Fetishes (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Pueblo astronomy
Indians 101: Hopi Indians as tourist attractions in the early 20th century
Indians 101: The Hopi Reservation in the 19th century
Indians 101: The Pueblos, 1700 to 1725