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Zia Pueblo has existed at the same location for over 700 years. It is located in a heavily volcanic area of Northern New Mexico, situated near Santa Ana Pueblo, Jemez Pueblo, and about 30 miles northwest of Albuquerque. The spelling of the pueblo's name originally was Tsia, but corrupted to Zia in the 20th century.

The potters of Zia have consistently produced outstanding vessels, made particularly strong by the use of crushed powdered lava for a tempering agent. They spent considerable effort in providing beautiful decoration executed in precise detail on the vessels made for their own use and those made for trade to the people of Jemez Pueblo for crops from the Jemez fields.

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We have designated this bowl to be historic because we believe it to pre-date circa 1940.  It is unusual in a couple aspects-it expands upward from a round shape to a square shape and it has a wiped-on red band on the interior rim in lieu of placing such under the decorated section on the exterior.  It is a wonderful bowl in both shape and design.  The rim was black but the color has mostly abraded away from use.  There are double framing lines at the rim and near the underbody.

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Delores Juanico is a daughter of Marie S. Juanico (1937 - ) who was her mentor.  Marie had learned pottery principals from her mother, Delores Sanchez, who lived to the age of 103. Young Delores carries on the tradition from her grandmother and mother of making the finest Acoma pottery.

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Three quarters of a century, from 1880 to the 1950s, saw an immense change in pueblo pottery in most of the pueblos and that includes pottery from Acoma Pueblo.  When the transcontinental railroad passed through New Mexico Territory in 1880, it made a stop at Laguna Pueblo to give the tourists a chance to see the highly touted Indians of the area.  Potters from Acoma Pueblo would load their wares on burros and take the trip to Laguna to sell to the train travelers.  It did not take long for the potters to realize that their magnificent large and beautiful pottery was not practical for travelers to handle, so the potters began making smaller items for that purpose.

Following World War I, the railroad moved its tracks from Laguna over to the Acoma villages, thus greatly facilitating the Acoma potters and devastating those at Laguna.  In the 1930s, Route 66 was built along the former railroad route giving potters from both pueblos another outlet to set up stands along the highway to sell their wares.  Converting Route 66 to Interstate 25 ended that procedure, however.

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Visitors to the gallery often ask "what is the meaning of that decoration?"  Our usual response is that it probably has no meaning.  That seems better than saying, "I don't know".  Most likely, many designs are repetitive from generations of use in a family and the later generations using those designs do not know their meaning, if there is a meaning.  It is just a design that their mother and grandmother used so they continue using it.

To the older generation, there may have been meaning to designs chosen and the meaning may have been reserved for specific vessel shapes.  A design used on a chile bowl would be different from one used on an olla.

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This chile bowl has the most marvelous dark patina that developed over decades of use.  The exterior was slipped in Santo Domingo cream slip from the rim to the underside so there is no red bottom as seen in many bowls.  That makes this really special in my opinion.  The simple design was planned to allow the most cream slip to be exposed and the dark brown paint to be at a minimum. This is an exceptional bowl that could easily predate the 1940s.

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Kewa pottery is slipped with cream colored clay on which the design is painted.  In this bowl, it appears that an orange or yellow slip was used for the interior and exterior of the bowl, however, it was the firing temperature that turned the cream slip to an orange color.

The design is a double row of black triangles enclosed with an upper and lower framing line. The rim is black and has a line break that continues through the design on the vessel wall.

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This chile serving bowl does not have the appearance of having been used for serving food at the pueblo prior to it being sold.  When chile bowls have been used for serving red or green chile stew, they absorb a wonderful patina that is neither red nor green, but a warm and smooth oily look.  The interior of the bowl soaks up the essence of the contents and the exterior picks up the oil from one's hands.  The clay is porous so it absorbs easily.

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Phyllis Leno (1943-present) is a daughter of famous Acoma matriarch Juana Leano.

This small Acoma Pueblo jar features a combination of polychrome geometric, monochrome fine line, and bas-relief decorations.

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I have not located biographical information of Tina Kie but searching the internet, I found several small bowls about the size and shape of this one, but not with a handle and face.

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This beautiful Arts and Crafts Wood Single Candlestick holder or Mission Candleholder was purchased around 1999. It is unsigned and so we don't know who the maker is, but it is from the Arts and Crafts time period.

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This is an exceptional Hopi Tasap Katsina doll carved from a piece of cottonwood root. Tasap is a Hopi representation of a Navajo God. There are Hopi versions of katsinam that honor and depict other tribes, such as the Navajo, Havasupai, Comanche, Zuni and other Pueblos.

This is the Hopi version of what the Navajo katsinam might look like. These katsinam are not borrowed from the Navajo, as they are unique to the Hopi. They have the same purpose and functions as all the Hopi Katsinam. They are messengers and/or intermediaries to the rain gods. Since they are katsinam in every respect, they are afforded the same reverence and dignity during their visits.

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Pottery from Cochiti and Santo Domingo Pueblos more closely resembles eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Rio Grande Tewa-speaking pueblos than it does that of its other Keresan-speaking neighbors.  The most probable reason is their more isolated location than the other Keresan Pueblos-San Felipe, Santa Ana, Zia, Laguna, and Acoma. Brody 2008

Unlike other Pre-Columbian North American societies, New Mexico pueblo potters routinely painted designs on utilitarian wares-water jars, storage jars, bowls, and canteens. Why? Perhaps because there was no early tradition of painting on paper and canvas, only on cave walls.  Painting on pottery was a way to demonstrate one's artistic talent on something visible every day in the home.

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This chile serving bowl does not have the appearance of having been used for serving food at the pueblo prior to it being sold.  When chile bowls have been used for serving red or green chile stew, they absorb a wonderful patina that is neither red nor green, but a warm and smooth oily look.  The interior of the bowl soaks up the essence of the contents and the exterior picks up the oil from one's hands.  The clay is porous so it absorbs easily.  The surfaces of the bowl are stone polished so the bowl is secure from disintegration.

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Robert Tenorio is indisputably one of the finest potters of the 20th century from Kewa Pueblo. He has never stopped experimenting, learning, and trying. He has tried numerous plants as a source for the black paint, and he has tried numerous clays for the cream slip. Some work, some don't, but he never tires of trying.

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Plains Indians are usually divided into two broad classifications which overlap to some degree. The Northern group became a fully nomadic horse culture during the 18th and 19th centuries, following the vast herds of buffalo, although some tribes occasionally engaged in agriculture. These include the Blackfoot, Arapaho, Assiniboine, Cheyenne, Comanche, Crow, Gros Ventre, Kiowa, Lakota, Lipan, Plains Apache (or Kiowa Apache), Plains Cree, Plains Ojibwa, Sarsi, Nakoda (Stoney), and Tonkawa.

The Southern group of Plains Indians were semi-sedentary, and, in addition to hunting buffalo, they lived in villages, raised crops, and actively traded with other tribes. These include the Arikara, Hidatsa, Iowa, Kaw (or Kansa), Kitsai, Mandan, Missouria, Omaha, Osage, Otoe, Pawnee, Ponca, Quapaw, Wichita, and the Santee Dakota, Yanktonai and Yankton Dakota. Both groups included people indigenous to the region as well as those who were pushed west by population pressure linked to the ever-westward expansion of white culture.

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The Lakota are the western-most of the three Sioux groups, occupying lands in both North and South Dakota. The Lakota were originally referred to as the Dakota when they lived by the Great Lakes, however, because of European settlement they were pushed away from the Great Lakes region and later called themselves the Lakota which became part of the Sioux.

Today, the Lakota are found mostly in the five reservations of western South Dakota: Rosebud Indian Reservation, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Lower Brulé Indian Reservation, Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, and Standing Rock Indian Reservation.

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