International studio (41.1910)

Ceramic Art of the Pueblo Indians

hearted, unpretentious squaw, who sits on the floor
of her dwelling molding her vessels of clay or
adorning them with her wonderful lines, and rising
now and then to stir the mutton stew as it cooks
upon the fire or lift the baby out of reach of
the flame. Though her work, in the words of
Dr. George A. Dorsey, "has gone far and wide
over the curio-loving world," she is apparently
unconscious that her gift is anything out of the
common, and has all the shy modesty that dis-
tinguishes the women of her race. The Moqui
ware is very distinct from other Pueblo pottery, both
in form and decoration. The most common shapes
are a low, flat bowl and a shallow, wide-spreading
water jar, both adorned with remarkable designs in
red and black on a white ground—designs fre-
quently suggested by the masks of the Katchinas, or
dancers of the Moqui religious ceremonials. The
best Moqui ware is particularly appealing in its
color—the white ground upon which the decoration
is laid being distinguished by a soft, creamy tone,
flushed usually with red.

In marked contrast to the work of Moqui is the
pottery of Zufii, the largest of the Pueblo towns,
whose interesting and wonderful life has been the

CANTEENS AND WATER BOTTLES OF ACOMA,
MOQUI AND ZUNI

subject of much valuable literature by the late poet-
ethnologist, Frank H. Cushing. A feature of the
Zufii decoration is the frequent incorporation of
realistic animal forms in the design—deer, ducks,
frogs, butterflies, tadpoles. As with the Moqui
ware, the colors used by the Zufiis are customarily
red and black upon a white surface, but a notable
exception is a red ware upon which the decoration is
laid on in white. The color would appear to be an
integral feature of any particular form or decoration
■—that is, given a particular design, it should be
painted on in one particular color established by
tradition. A woman of Zufii whom the writer en-
gaged to make a few characteristic jars for him was
greatly disturbed because he criticized the color she
had employed in the adornment of one. She had
used black where to his American eye red would
have been more effective. She explained that red
was impossible in that design, the Zufii potters
from the days of the ancients had painted it in black
and, therefore, only black was right. If red was
wanted the design must be changed!

Flower forms are rarely used by the Zufiis, though
a very striking design sometimes met with is a con-
ventionalized sunflower. The potters of Acoma
Pueblo, on the contrary, whose work is noteworthy
for its exceptional lightness, have made rather a
specialty of floral and leaf adornment, and some
suggestion of plant life is introduced into almost
every design. This is the more remarkable, as their
town is built upon a bare rock that rises almost per-
pendicularly three hundred feet from a great sandy
plain—a singularly barren, inhospitable situation,
where there is scarcely earth enough to afford a
flower a foothold. In the Indian's art work, how-
ever, he loves to preserve the suggestion of that
which is most dear and precious to his poetic mind;
so from his standpoint it is entirely fitting that the
leaves and flowers of the plain and mountain,
brought from a distance to this rock-founded village
of the sky and employed in many secret religious
rites, as well as in the public dance ceremonials,
should find representation on the pottery.

Intermingled with these on the Acoma ware are
the vertical or slanting parallel lines, which in
Pueblo symbolry represent the falling rain, and the
terraces and steps which conventionalize the clouds
of heaven. A peculiar checker-board design is also
not uncommon in the Acoma work, but its especial
significance is unknown to the writer. Bird forms
were common in the older work of the Acomas, as
well as other Pueblos, though now less frequent.
As a bird in flight is the embodiment of airy light-
ness the adornment of the water vessels with the

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