Stunning Pottery Of The Southwest Tribes

Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!

I spent the last two posts showing off the amazing basketry skills of the Apache and other tribes and I've always loved the pottery of the Southwest tribes so I thought I'd share some of them today.

The most significant pottery makers were the Hopi, Zuni, Navajo and Pueblo tribes.

Unlike the basket weavers, whose best and most complex work is no longer being made, the pottery designs and quality has not gone away. In fact, more fabulous pieces and designs are being made everyday.

These antique pieces look just like the modern ones:

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Potters these days are using the same ancient techniques and designs of the ancient Anasazi people who were masters of the art.

The Anasazi were the famous "Cliff Dwellers" who built great cities in the walls of canyons and cliffs in the Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado.

Their buildings still stand today after nearly a thousand years.

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By the way, the cities were abandoned and the reason why has been an unsolved mystery. They can be visited at the Mesa Verde National Park and the Canyon De Chelly National Park.

The good news is that they left behind alot of pottery and the same patterns are still produced today. The variety is almost endless, here are a few of them along with vintage photos:

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Much of the time the women carried the pots on their head as demonstrated by this young Indian maiden:

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One of my favorites, this is a seed jar with a lid:

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This is an unusual photo from about 1890 because most potters were female, apparently not all though:

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I really like this photo because the Navajo or Hopi woman has a pleasant countenance and it looks like it would be very hard to balance that shape of pot on a person's head. It's also interesting that of all the pottery I've seen of that style, that particular one seems to have no designs on it at all:

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A simple but elegant design on this antique jar:

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What struck me about this photo is that this is a very strong woman. Unfortunately I don't know what tribe she is:

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I have at least one more post with great pottery and vintage photos coming tomorrow.

Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy
Texas

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