Little Pale cloud at age 3 was always busy but today, now that breakfast was done, she sat watching Antelope Woman working at the clay. The fire was still burning after breakfast and pots baking in the oven were making their magical transformation from leather hard mud to stone. Meanwhile Antelope Woman continued massaging the clay, working it into ropes, turning it into coils, pressing it together and shaping it into an "olla,” another big jar – big enough to store grain or seeds to supply the family with food through winter.
The Hand-Made Rock of Civilizations
Winter was coming. The chill in the air was relieved for Pale Cloud by the warmth of the fire and kiln. This was the scene she had known since she first opened her eyes. Its familiarity was as warm as a loving hug. It would be at the core of her life experiences for all the years she walked with her people.
An indigenous people to survive on the harsh land, are required to use their intelligence every moment for their survival. As you look at this photo you see the entire house has its origins in natural earth building (Adobe, Cob, Rammed Earth.) The earth became shelter, security, the supplier of food, and the source of life, death, burial, religious ceremony, and clays for pottery.
And Pottery became the utensils of daily living, cooking, carrying water, washing and storing food
The world of the South Western peoples is unthinkable with an absence of pottery. Pottery stored and cooked food, celebrated beauty, honored memories, and became integral with religious ceremonies. Who could live without pottery?
Various historians and archeologists argue when the first pottery was fashioned among the North American indigenous people. Some will tell you it began after Iranian and Chinese pottery was being developed in 5500 BC. But carbon dating of pottery among the ancient peoples whose land and breath we share today indicates pottery was first made in North America around 30,000 years ago.
Pottery does not change with time. It essentially has become stone. The designs of the pottery and the artwork thereon give evidence of people, culture, their locations and their movement.
Where did the “Native American’s” come from? There is some theory they came across a land bridge from today’s Siberia. There is other evidence some of their ancestors were wanderers across the Pacific as far away as Thailand. And there is evidence they came from South and Central America. Pottery helps us find clues.
The native people inhabited six physiographic areas:
1. The Great Plains of the Midwest
2. The Mississippi River lands
3. The arid Southwest
4. The West Coast seaside
5. The colder Northeast
6. The warmer Southeast
About 2000 years ago, those who began to settle into a more agricultural life
style developed pottery shapes to meet functional needs such as cooking, holding
water, or storing seeds.
A cooking bottom might be shaped to fit on heated rocks for cooking.
Water jars were made with indented bases so that they could sit comfortably on
the heads of water gatherers and large storage vessels were made for
grains and water with lids to keep dirt and animals out of them.
Individual Indian villages developed their unique shapes and decorative styles.
The men were hunters or perhaps warriors. The women became the gardeners, seed
gatherers and pottery makers.
Earliest vessels were made solely for utilitarian purposes, with little
consideration for artistry. Early pottery was unadorned, except by the action of
the shaping of the clay with little attention paid to art or symmetry.
Decorative designs may have had meaning or
religious significance, but traditionally only those showing true interest and
great respect are privileged to know the secrets of the Native People’s sacred
traditions, ceremonial rituals and symbols. Even today, the real meanings of
designs on pottery carry their secrets.
Indian tribes have always embraced life, nature, birds and other animals,
humans, mother earth and The Creator. Whether realistic or abstract they formed
the basic elements of Indian designs for all utilitarian and ritual pottery.
Many primitive pieces of pottery show texture marks, indicating that they may
have been made in baskets, leading historians to believe that fired clay pottery
developed because the Indians lined their woven baskets with clay and when the
baskets were put in the fire they burned away leaving the clay pot intact.
The
Southwest: Pueblo and Navajo Cultures
Southwestern Indian culture has changed little over the centuries. it remains vital and timeless.
The Southwest can boast the oldest continuous record of habitation on the continent outside of Mexico.
By the beginning of the Christian era, three primary southwestern cultures were
forming: Hohokam (probably the antecedents of today's Pima and Papago Indians in
Arizona), Mogollon (of which the Mimbres culture was the highest achievement),
and Pueblo (which climaxed in the eleventh century in the Four Corners area of
Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico).
Most of these ancient cultures vanished by the twelfth century, but the Pueblo
and Navajo cultures continue today.
One of the greatest expressions of ceramic art in the world is the Southwestern
pottery made in the existing twenty pueblos in New Mexico and Arizona, and by
the Navajos in Arizona. The continuity of these Indian cultures is assured by
the continuous maintenance of their belief systems.
Mimbres burial bowl, c. A.D. 1000-1150; the center of this bowl is broken to
allow the deceased’s spirit to escape.
History tells a tale
fraught with pathos. The Pueblo Indians survived the Spanish conquest, and the plagues that
spread from the white man's diseases.
Even to this day the Pueblo people struggle for survival. Their communities have preserved their traditions and customs. Clay vessels have been made for storage and household use in these stationary societies for at least 2,000 years. Each pueblo has developed a style of form and decoration reflecting needs and beliefs.
These varying styles have been historically documented and attributed to
particular pueblos since the Spanish conquest.
Pueblo Indians prospected clays from their own secret ancestral clay sources.
Most pots were smoothed to create burnished backgrounds for designs, which were
painted with pigments made from dyes of boiled plants or finely ground metallic
rocks. Brushes were cut and shaped from the chewed ends of twigs or yucca
fronds.
Glaze was almost never used for a coating, nor was the potter's wheel used for
making pottery.
The railroad greatly affected Pueblo pottery culture, bringing curious and
inquisitive tourists within reach of the artists.
Because of this, a great deal of Pueblo pottery was made for sale as souvenirs.
Trading posts led to development of fairs and markets, notably in Gallup and
Santa Fe, promoting Indian pottery.
Shops specializing in the sale of pottery
sprung up all over the Southwest. For collectors these historical notes are
important in developing the collection and using such information to explain
history and sociological archeology.
Beginning in the 1920s, the best women potters were encouraged to sign their work, and soon they were the subject of much public acclaim from the outside world.
María Martinez, a.k.a. Poveka, a celebrated potter of San Ildefonso pueblo, was the first to sign her pottery in the 1920s. Before then, many Indian tribes, like the Acoma, considered it a distasteful show of ego to sign one’s work. Other esteemed potters of the 20th century include María’s husband, Julian, and son Popovi Da; Margaret Tafoya, Nathan Youngblood, and Joseph Lonewolf of Santa Clara pueblo; the Victorinos of Acoma pueblo; and Hopi potter Antoinette Silas Honie.
San Ildefonso pottery is traditionally black-on-red ware or polychrome on white or grayish clay, featuring geometric designs. Martinez developed a technique to produce black-on-black pottery and also popularized feather and water serpent motifs with her work. Santa Clara pottery tends to be made of undecorated black clay, with fluted rims and a bear-paw design pressed into the pot.
Traditional San Juan potters also preferred plain vessels, but theirs were red. Potters at Taos, Picuris, and Nambe, however, used a brown clay with sparkling fleck of mica, making painted decorations unnecessary. Santo Domingo pottery, with its cream-colored slip and red base, features rich black paint with geometric, animals, or floral motifs, whereas similar Cochiti pottery has clouds, rain, and lightening, as well as human and animal forms that other tribes considered taboo for non-ceremonial pots.
Acoma pottery tends to slipped in white and painted in black, or black plus hues of red. The popular Acoma designs include complicated geometric patterns as well as flowers and birds. Acoma potters Marie Z. Chino and Lucy M. Lewis introduced a revival of prehistoric designs including Hohokam flute-playing fertility god Kokopelli, “picture” designs from the Mimbres-region of Mogollan, and the Zuni “deer in his house" motif.
Though influenced by the Zuni, Hopi pottery came into its own in the 1920s, when Nampeyo reintroduced a style used in the ancient Hopi village of Sikyatki. This pottery ranges from orange to cream, depending on how it was fired, after which it's painted with mineral black, reddish orange, and white in asymmetrical designs of birds, and feathers. The Hopi are noted for their small-mouthed squat jars with flattened shoulders.
Other tribes like the Tesuque and Jemez abandoned their traditional pottery styles in favor of brightly colored tourist trinkets using poster paints and acrylics. A good way to identify these pieces is to consider whether the paint color could have actually come from the ground.
Since the 1920’s Indian women artists have come to national attention thanks to the endorsement of art and history museums. Some of the most beautiful pottery work in the world comes from New Mexico.
From these roots, great artistic traditional families developed. Newly
famous Pueblo pottery matriarchs, such as Nampeyo of Hano and Maria Martinez,
realized the monetary potential of pottery as they also recognized the demise of
their old ways due to drought and encroaching modernization.
These women and others like them showed their people that pottery could be a
source of income to 
help sustain their way of life. Pueblo culture
and pottery culture have developed a symbiotic relationship.
Navaho tribal background is an important source of inspiration for decoration.
The Yei bichai,
representing the mythical Holy People, are particularly prominent subjects in
Navajo art. These appear often on pots by the Navajo women, but they always
leave a portion of the design unfinished so the Yei spirit can escape.
Today, most Navajo potters live in the Shonto-Cow Springs area of Arizona.
Santa Fe is home to many pottery galleries
and a few teaching facilities. The climax of the year for these shop owners
occurs in August.
Santa Fe Indian Market is an annual art market held in Santa Fe, over two days
on the weekend after the third Thursday in August and draws an estimated 100,000
people to the city from around the world.
The Market was first held in 1922 as the Indian Fair and was sponsored by the
Museum. In 1936, the
New
Mexico Association on Indian Affairs took over the event.[1]
It is now organized by the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA)[2] and
showcases work from about 1,200 of the top Native American(American Indian)
artists from various tribes across the country.[1]
The market features pottery, jewelry, textile weavings, painting, sculpture,
beadwork, basketry, and other traditional and contemporary work. It is the
oldest and largest Native American art showcase in the world with considerable
economic impact.
Artists display their work in booths around the Santa Fe Plaza and adjacent
streets, selling directly to the general
public. In order to participate, all artists must provide proof of enrollment in
a federally recognized tribe, and their work must meet strict quality and
authentic materials standards. Art experts judge the work and distribute awards
and prize money in various categories.
On the evening before the Market's opening, members of SWAIA may attend a
preview of representative works by the artists as well as the winners in each
category. It is a way for potential buyers to see the winning artworks as well
as what will be sold the following day. Many buyers make a point of arriving
downtown very early in the morning, and it is not unusual to find artists having
sold out within a few hours.
sNewdell
See These Links for recommended Pottery galleries.
Santa Fe Clay Studio & Classes
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