Before 1850, the pottery of Santo Domingo and Cochiti Pueblos, two Keresan-speaking groups, was indistinguishable.  It was virtually the same and was generally referred to as Kiua Polychrome.  With the arrival of the transcontinental rail line in 1880, the similarity began to diverge.  Cochiti, more than 16 miles from the rail line, and Santo Domingo, adjacent to the rail line, began to diverge in pottery styles.  Cochiti retained its traditions and Santo Domingo began to respond to the needs of the outside world.

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Many collectors enjoy adding pottery to their collection if it evidences ethnographic use, that is they want an item that was actually used at the pueblo before being sold to an outsider.  Many historic jars and dough bowls were used at the pueblo before leaving for the consumer market, but very little contemporary pottery falls into that category.  The exception is small serving bowls.  Many chile bowls that were used extensively or minimally at the pueblo from the last half of the 20^thcentury eventually appear on the commercial market.  Perhaps that is because replacing a small bowl for pueblo use is easier that replacing a water jar or dough bowl or perhaps it is because such small bowls are more affordable.

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Tina Garcia was a granddaughter of Severa Tafoya (1890-1973), who was a sister of Van Gutierrez of Lela and Van fame.  Tina's mom, Lydia Tafoya, was from Santa Clara Pueblo and her father, Santiago Garcia, from Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo.  Tina sometimes signed her pottery with the names of both pueblos.

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Joy Navasie is among the most famous of Hopi-Tewa potters. She learned the skill from her famous mother, Paqua Naha, the first Frog Woman, who had developed white-slipped pottery in the mid-1950s. Joy Navasie picked up the tradition and continued it until her retirement in 1995. Her daughters are now continuing the tradition.

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After the arrival of the railroad in the American Southwest, Fred Harvey opened a chain of hotels along the route and marketed these places as exotic destinations. The art and architecture of these hotels were intended to reflect the vision Harvey had created as typically "Southwestern." The souvenirs sold at his restaurants and hotels were made to appeal to the esthetic of the traveler. Small items which were easy to carry were most popular.

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Letter openers were popular items for tourists traveling along the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in the mid-20^th Century. Some featured fancy designs that the Fred Harvey encouraged his artists to make. Others were the creative expressions of the individual. Traditionally Navajo silversmiths used silver to highlight the beauty and radiance of an individual stone.

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The Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, also known as the Santa Fe Railroad, arrived in New Mexico in 1880.  Shortly after, the Fred Harvey Company set up hotels at various locations along the route and promoted the American Southwest as an exotic destination. The company sold handcrafted souvenirs made by the local Native American people. Textiles, pottery, baskets and silverwork were sold in gift shops in the hotels and restaurants.  This enterprise provided new opportunities for the indigenous people to make a living.

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Tony Da started his art career as a painter at a very young age and continued painting throughout high school and afterwards.  It was not until he lived with his Grandmother, Maria Martinez, that he became a potter.  He moved in with Maria in 1966 and began the process of making pottery under her tutelage.  His timing was perfect, as the 1960s was a period of great interest in pueblo pottery.

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Crucita Gonzales Calabaza (1921-1999) Blue Corn was one of the greatest ceramists of all time. She made pottery for over 60 years. Her house was located across the plaza from that of Maria Martinez but there was no competition between the two artisans. She was one of the most honored of 20^th-century potters. She received the 1981 New Mexico Governor's Award (New Mexico's highest artistic award!) and she was acclaimed for her artistic accomplishments in the Wall Street Journal and in AMEPNKA, a Soviet Union journal. She won awards at numerous State Fairs, Santa Fe Indian Market, and other exhibitions.

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This child-size water jar was most certainly made for local use at the pueblo.  It dates to the late 1800s and, at that time, very little pottery of this style was being made for sale.  Mr. Seligman, at the Santo Domingo Trading Post at that time, purchased pottery to sell to travelers on the AT&SF train which made a daily stop in front of his trading post.  He was very particular of the quality of pottery he purchased and this one would have been too crudely painted for his tastes.

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The Arapaho are a tribe of Native Americans historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. The Arapaho language, Heenetiit, is an Algonquian language.

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In the early 20^th century, many artists moved to Santa Fe for health reason, mostly tuberculosis, and the New Mexico air was a curative and many survived to paint for many decades.  Others were not so lucky.  In 1938, Alfred Morang came to Santa Fe for a cure for his tuberculosis.  He was already a well-trained artist at that time, having painted in Maine and Massachusetts.  It was not his health that took his life but a fire in his studio while he was asleep.

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In 1918, Leon Gaspard and his wife settled in Taos, New Mexico. A late comer to the art scene in Taos, he was received coolly at first until "Buck" Dunton made him his friend. Painting and traveling, Gaspard was able to establish himself as an important painter of the West.

Gaspard had been born in Russia and was a respected European painter long before he came to America. His first one-man show while still a student in Paris resulted in the purchase of 35 Paris sketches by a New York collector.

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Maria Priscilla Romero credits her mother, Maggie Chalan, and her mother-in-law, Teresita Romero, with teaching her the rudiments of pottery making. She has been an active potter since 1979.

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Animals, birds and other natural objects are often presented as imagery in Hopi basketry.  Here, a wonderful rendition of a turtle is presented.

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Occasionally, members who work together will co-sign the finished items.  That is the case with this jar.  Mary Cain was a daughter of Christina Naranjo and it is most likely that Mary greatly assisted her mom with this jar.  Christina was 89 when she passed away in 1980 so it is likely that she needed assistance in polishing pottery as it is a laborious affair.  Mary Cain was 95 when she passed away in 2010 but would have been considerably younger at the time this jar was made.  The jar is co-signed with the names of both mother and daughter.

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Helen Naha was a Hopi-Tewa of the Spider Clan.  She was a self-taught potter who developed her own designs and styles primarily based on prehistoric pottery shards from the Awatowi ruins.

She and Joy Navasie (Frog Woman) were sisters-in-law.  Helen married Joy Navasie's brother, Archie Naha. Helen was known for her stark black-on-white Hopi pottery early in her career and for exquisite polychrome pots in later times. Her signature is comprised of a feather design.

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The original location of Santa Ana Pueblo was close to Zia Pueblo and pottery from the two villages was quite similar in materials, technique and construction.  In the mid-1700s, the pueblo acquired land near Bernalillo, just north of Albuquerque, for better farming.  This change in location effected a change in pottery as well.  Santa Ana abandoned using lava as a tempering agent and started using river sand found close to the new village, which they had named Ranchitos.  The old village is still maintained by a caretaker and is open for the annual feast day.

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Hakto is a Hopi Katsina imported from Zuni Pueblo during the last 100 years. At Zuni, he is known as Yamuhakto and he always accompanies the Salako Katsinas. At Hopi, he appears only with the Sio Salako Katsinas. It is appropriate that this Katsina imported from Zuni Pueblo only accompany the Sio Salako Katsinas at Hopi because the Sio Salako also was imported from Zuni Pueblo. The Zuni name refers to "carrying wood on his head." The pair of marks on the side of the head is referred to as perspiration marks.

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José Angela Aguilar, sometimes known as Joe Aguilar, was the son of Susana Aguilar-a well-known potter-and is known to have painted pottery for his mom.  He was the husband of Rosalie Simbola Aguilar, originally from Picuris Pueblo and also a potter, for whom he also painted pottery.  He was an exceptional painter.  Kenneth Chapman included him on a list of fifteen men who painted pottery at San Ildefonso before 1940.  His son, Alfred Aguilar, said that his father formed pots, as well as painting them.

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