Marie Zieu Chino, Acoma Pueblo Pottery Matriarch

Marie Zieu Chino was one of the Acoma Pueblo Matriarch potters who made important contributions to the art of pottery making in the period following World War II. Chino was born at Acoma Pueblo in 1907 and was making pottery as early as the 1920s.

She was known to be a patient and generous teacher to her children Carrie Chino Charlie, Rose Chino Garcia, Grace Chino, Vera Chino Ely, Patrick Chino and Jody Chino and other students. When teaching she would first allow her students to fill in the lines. When she thought a student ready, she would let them paint the whole pot.  Many of her students have gone on to become prize winning potters themselves.  She won her first award at Indian Market when she was only 15 years old.  Some of her pieces were among the prizewinners at the first Southwest Indian Fair in 1922. 

Marie Zieu Chino (1907-1982) is considered one of the significant ceramicists at Acoma and was the matriarch of a very talented family of potters. She is best known for her fine line black on white pottery.  Along with Lucy Lewis and Sarah Garcia she led the revival of the ancient pottery forms of the Ancestral Pueblo potters.   She was one of the women who was inspirational in the movement to revive the use of ancient Mimbres designs on contemporary Acoma pottery.  Marie signed her pottery as Marie Z. Chino.

TAGS: Acoma Pueblo, pottery making, Carrie Chino Charlie, Rose Chino Garcia, Grace Chino