Old Effigy Vessels
July 05, 2011 until August 31, 2011
The 19th century was one that must have seemed overwhelming for New Mexico’s Pueblo Indians. The Santa Fe Trail from Missouri to Santa Fe opened in 1821 bringing traders and trade materials unfamiliar to the Natives. At that time, New Mexico was part of Mexico. It was not until 1848 that it became a part of the United States. As a part of Mexico, the Natives were inundated with former Spaniards traveling the Camino Real from Mexico City to Santa Fe, again bringing in trade goods of unfamiliar properties.
As a territory of the United States, the Natives found that rules and regulations, under which they were controlled, switched first from the King of Spain, then to the Mexican government and finally to the government of the United States. Following all these changes came another one—the arrival of the train in 1880.
The potters at Cochiti Pueblo reacted to these invasions in a most intriguing manner. From about 1870 to 1920, they made pottery figurines in mockery of the new invaders. As they were exposed to Spanish merchants, carnival workers, entertainment groups and vaqueros, they began to fashion figurines of them. The Santa Fe merchants aggressively marketed these with some success, but unfortunately they were considered “tourist items” and were shunned by museums. Very few ended up in museum collections at that time. Fortunately, collectors appreciated the humor and collected them. Otherwise, we would not have any of these wonderful pieces today.
Figurative pottery from New Mexico pueblos basically did not exist before a tourist market developed. Virtually none have ever been discovered in excavations and certainly none with human characteristic. The development of human figures and effigy vessels can most probably be traced to the influence of Santa Fe merchants. Cochiti potters produced maybe thousands of effigy vessels and decorated them with ceremonial symbols such as clouds and lightning perhaps to make them appear to be ceremonial in nature thus increasing their desirability to the vulnerable tourists.