Voices in Clay: Pueblo Pottery from the Edna M. Kelly Collection

Western Folklore, Spring 2002 by Griffin-Pierce, Trudy

Voices in Clay: Pueblo Pottery from the Edna M. Kelly Collection. By Bruce Bernstein and J. J. Brody. (Oxford, OH: Miami University Art Museum, 2001. Pp. 115, foreword, acknowledgments, introduction, illustrations, map, photographs, bibliography. $49.95 cloth, $24.95 paper)

The ancestors of today's Pueblo people began to make pottery about 2000 years ago, and by 600 C.E. they had begun to paint designs on their serving and storage vessels. Over time, as climatic fluctuations triggered massive resettlements, these people from the Colorado plateau of the northern Southwest spread out, establishing the Hopi Pueblos of Arizona, the Zuni and Acoma Pueblos of Western New Mexico, and the Pueblos of the middle Rio Grande valley. Developing mutually unintelligible languages and different cultures, Pueblo people also created distinctive styles of painted pottery that became emblematic of their regions and villages.

The Voices in clay exhibition of 116 works of Pueblo ceramics from the Edna M. Kelly collection at the Miami University Art Museum ran from August, 2001 to January, 2002. This catalog of the exhibition is not only a descriptive record of a superb Pueblo pottery collection, but, even more significantly, it is a dialogue among three outstanding contemporary Pueblo potters and three curators. While scholars J. J. Brody, Tony Chavarria, and Bruce Bernstein contribute historical and cultural context, the potters bring another dimension to the pots, which "are considered to be offspring of the potters" who created them as well as "beings with lives and minds of their own" (p. 9).

Through the participation of an all-male panel of potters and curators in what is traditionally a woman's art form, this remarkable catalog brings out an overlooked aspect of Pueblo culture: adaptation and constant change. Especially in contrast to the more dramatic changes in Navajo culture, Pueblo culture is usually perceived by outsiders to be a continuation of "a way of life that goes back hundreds of years" (p. 10). Tony Chavarria of Santa Clara Pueblo identifies this "ability to adapt . . . to anything, to outside influences . . . in their environment, internal or external" as "the real strength [of the Pueblo people]" (p. 10).

Curator Bruce Bernstein observes that this choice of male participants "gave the session a decidedly Outside the Pueblo world' flavor" (p. 9), but it also emphasizes the truth of Tony Chavarria's words about the Pueblo ability to change and adapt in response to outside influences. The lives and cultural heritage of the three potters demonstrate different dimensions of this adaptive ability. Robert Tenorio comes from Santo Domingo Pueblo. Although Santo Domingo is known as one of the most conservative Rio Grande pueblos, not only has Tenorio become a respected potter, but he has also "has been very much responsible for a renaissance of pottery making in his village" (p. 9). The history of Hano, Steve Lucas's village, provides a powerful example of the Pueblo ability to adapt: the Tewa people migrated from the Santa Fe area after the Pueblo Revolt in 1680; additionally, Nampeyo, the famous potter who revived the pottery-making tradition at First Mesa, is one of Lucas's ancestors. San Ildefonso potter Elvis Torrez comes from a long line of potters, including Tonita Roybal, yet the shift in gender roles says much about the adaptive nature of Pueblo culture. Finally, curator Tony Chavarria especially embodies the dynamic nature of Pueblo society: in his position as curator of ethnology at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, he is forced to constantly balance his Santa Clara Pueblo identity with the objectivity required by his profession.

Above all, by adding the essential voices of native people to those of scholars, this exceptional narrative contributes to the new movement in the interpretation of indigenous material cultures. As W. Richard West, Jr., Director of the National Museum of the American Indian, has pointed out, "for much of our recent history, non-native scholars and others have been the principal interpreters of our lives and lifeways." While recognizing the contributions of these scholars, West emphasizes that "multiple viewpoints" are "essential to sound scholarship" because those who tell the story are the ones who create the public perception of the past (West 1994). The real strength of this catalog lies in the interaction of Pueblo potters and curators, each of whom brings his own unique experiences to a deeper understanding of pottery-making, pottery usage, and pottery meaning in their cultural contexts.

Work Cited

West, W. Richard, Jr. 1994. Foreword to All Roads Are Good: Native Voices on Life and Culture, edited by Terrence Winch. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press in Association with the National Museum of the American Indian.

TRUDY GRIFFIN-PIERCE

University of Arizona

Tucson, Arizona