Santa Ana
About 40 miles southwest of Santa Fe, between San Felipe and Zia, live the Santa Ana people who call themselves “Tamaya.” Old Santa Ana Pueblo is located on the north bank of the Jemez River. Here on a sandy mesa, surrounded by volcanic mesas, the village is the center of their 17,360 acre territory. Before the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, the ancestral pottery of Santa Ana and Zia Pueblo was a polychrome glazeware of reddish brown clay and crushed black basalt temper. Beginning in the 17th century, a transition began from glossy Kotyiti glazes to matte painted pottery dubbed Puname Polychrome, featuring mineral black outlines, buff oranges and reds, on a white, stone-polished slip. This style was carried forward into the 20th century by Santa Ana potters Victoriana Gallegos, Tonita Hilo and Crescencia Lujan. Through the mid-20th century, Santa Ana pottery was preserved by Rose Armijo, Crescenzia Martinez, Dora Montoya, Elvira Montoya, Eudora Montoya, Clara Paquin and Bertie Pasqual. Crescenciana Peña and her daughter Lolita, along with Eudora Montoya used to sell their pottery at Coronado Monument in Bernalillo, NM. By the 1960s, Eudora courageously held on to their pottery traditions. In 1972, Eudora created a class to teach Santa Ana pottery making. She was encouraged by Nancy Winslow, a non-Indian woman from Albuquerque. Seventeen students participated the first year in the revival project. Their efforts helped to keep Santa Ana-style pottery alive.
Source Information: Volume Four, American Indian Art Series, Southern Pueblo Pottery, 2,000 Artist Biographies, by Gregory Schaaf, Ph.D.
