Zuni Art
Artifacts documenting Zuni Indian art dates back to about 700 A.D. The Zuni, once they adapted a settled, less nomadic existence, fabricated weaved baskets and pottery. They also made fetishes carvings and necklaces for rituals and trade. In addition, its peoples constructed edifications in villages, including city centers with plazas. These structures, in the Zuni River Valley, became common during the “Pueblo period.” The Zuni, as skilled crafts people, developed their jewelling and pottery skills, and eventually traded with the Spaniards and other new inhabitants of the region.
Today the Zuni deal in jewelry, pottery, baskets, and carvings, as tourists visit the Zuni, their ancient villages, and wares. Sales of pottery and traditional arts provide a major source of income for many Zuni people today.
Zuni Fetishes
Frank Hamilton Cushing wrote an entire book entitled, Zuni Fetishes. These idyllic figures appeared around 650 A.D. Many tribes carved them, but those of the Zuni were especially valued and traded to other tribes at a relatively high cost.
Zuni fetish pieces include the coyote, the buffalo, the owl, the raven, the turtle, the mountain lion, and the snake.N28
Zuni Pottery
Zuni women made pottery for food and water storage and decorated it. They used coiled rolls of clay to make their pottery and, later, smoothed the finish with clay slip, a fine, watery clay mix.N29
Baskets
Zuni baskets, like those of other tribes of the region, may include geometric features and bright colors. In addition, animal figures also adorn their baskets.
Zuni art has a special importance. Experts know little about the Zuni origins, and the linguistic difference between this tribe and others of the regions has been one of many factors that make them unique among the Native Americans. We are fortunate that their artisans today share the ancient Zuni knowledge with us.N30
Carving and Silversmithing
The Zuni silversmith, Lanyade, learned the trade from the Navajo smith, Atsidi Chon, and the rest of the Zuni smiths learned from him. Since the 1870s they have crafted fine jewelry, and only a decade later they began setting turquoise in silver. Today it remains an important livelihood for the tribe, and many jewelers now incorporate stone inlay into their artwork. Needle point and petit point techniques set oval-shaped stones with pointed ends into the silver, giving Zuni pieces a distinct look from those of many other tribes. Stones of turquoise, onyx, and coral are common themes, and they produce rings, earrings, cuffs, bracelets, and necklaces from silver.N31
Contributing Author – Jeffery Bacon
From the Library: Adair, The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths (1944)
1944 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1944, not today.
Adair (1944) dated the metalwork that came before silver at Zuni:
“The use of these metals goes back thirty or forty years before the introduction of silver, that is, to about 1830-40.”
— Adair (1944), p. 121 [1]
Lanyade told Adair (1944) whom he taught:
“Finally I did teach one man to make silver. That man was a friend of mine by the name of Balawade.”
— Adair (1944), p. 125 [1]
Adair (1944) dated the first Zuni stone setting:
“It seems to have been about 1890 when the Zuñi first mounted the stone in their jewelry.”
— Adair (1944), p. 128 [1]
These are an outside observer's records from about 1940 of what Zuni people told him; the Zuni people are the authority on their own beliefs.
According to Adair (1944, p. 148), the Zuni had carved turquoise for hundreds of years, shaping small bits of blue stone into animals like the larger fetishes, and in his day men and women of the pueblo still wore such necklaces as heirlooms handed down for generations. [1]
Of the carved-stone jewelry that grew up at Zuni after about 1920, Adair (1944) wrote:
“While the work is done by the two Indian craftsmen, these pieces are really the result of the labor of three men, the lapidary, the smith, and the trader, for the trader is the one who suggests the form of the finished piece to the craftsmen.”
— Adair (1944), p. 148 [1]
According to Adair (1944, p. 148), some of these designs were copied from illustrations in the annual reports of the Bureau of American Ethnology, and Knife-Wing became a popular one, because wholesale traders and curio dealers found a ready market for silver set with the figure, which white buyers called a thunderbird. [1]
From the Library: Baxter, Encyclopedia of Native American Jewelry (2000)
2000 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2000, not today.
Baxter (2000) wrote:
“There is documentation to support the belief that one silversmith, Keneshde, was the first Zuni to set turquoise on a piece of silver jewelry around 1890.”
— Baxter (2000), p. 192 [2]
According to Baxter (2000, p. 192), early Zuni jewelry was often a collaboration in which a Navajo smith cast the silver piece, by sandcasting or another method, and a Zuni lapidary set the stones. [2]
Baxter (2000) recorded:
“Della Casa Appa (1889-ca. 1963) is recognized as the first woman to make jewelry in the village.”
— Baxter (2000), p. 192 [2]
From the Library: Tryk, Santa Fe Indian Market (1993)
1993 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1993, not today.
Writing in 1993, Tryk summarized:
“While the Navajos concentrated on ever-improving silver techniques, the Zunis developed skills in inlay work.”
— Tryk (1993), p. 74 [3]
Tryk (1993) on channel inlay:
“They also developed channel inlay, where they set individual pieces of turquoise or other stones into channels of silver.”
— Tryk (1993), p. 74 [3]
According to Tryk (1993, p. 75), at Zuni, always famous for its fetish carving, Leekya Deyuse began in the 1940s to carve tiny birds and animals to string on necklaces, a new art form his family members and artists at other pueblos followed. [3]
Tryk (1993, p. 108) wrote that an Indian Market booth featuring owl figurines was probably a Zuni artist's, though owls were not the only pottery Zuni artists made. [3]
Writing in 1993, Tryk added:
“Potters also make white-slipped jars and bowls with black and red deer and rainbird designs, images that go back to the tribe's distant past.”
— Tryk (1993), p. 108 [3]
From the Library: Bunzel, The Pueblo Potter (1929)
1929 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1929, not today.
These are an outside observer's records from the mid-1920s of what Zuni potters told her; the Zuni people are the authority on their own designs and beliefs.
Writing in 1929 about the Zuni pottery she studied in 1924 and 1925, Bunzel described its colors:
“Zuni decoration is essentially a black on white style. Red is used so sparingly that it does not affect the general black and white aspect.”
— Bunzel (1929), p. 28 [4]
Bunzel (1929) reported what had become of the Zuni food bowl by the mid-1920s:
“The bowl is practically extinct at Zuni. The medium-sized food bowl is no longer seen, and its place has been taken by platters and soup plates of white manufacture.”
— Bunzel (1929), p. 20 [4]
Zuni potters disliked crowded designs, Bunzel (1929) found; one told her:
“I do not like to have the whole jar covered with paint. If I use large designs, I leave large spaces between, so that it won’t look dirty.”
— Bunzel (1929), p. 20 [4]
According to Bunzel (1929, p. 24), the deer, the bird and the other picture-like designs on Zuni jars of the 1920s were younger than the spiral and cloud-step patterns. She found the deer used freely on Zuni pottery of the 1870s and concluded that these designs were newly developed in that period. [4]
Bunzel (1929) recorded what Zuni potters called the line painted between a jar's neck and body:
“It is called onane, road, the usual Zuni term for the span of life. It is identified not with the life of a being inhabiting the pot, as Cushing claims, but with the life of the potter. For this reason, it is always left unjoined.”
— Bunzel (1929), p. 69 [4]
According to Bunzel (1929, p. 94), the Zuni potter said in 1924 that women painted the deer so their husbands might have good luck in hunting, and that because deerskins had grown too expensive to buy, they liked to have pictures of the deer in their houses. [4]
In 1924, Bunzel (1929) recorded that at Zuni:
“Pottery is not ordinarily made for sale. However, a new or slightly used water jar, twelve inches high, brings the owner two or three dollars.”
— Bunzel (1929), p. 5 [4]
Writing in 1929, Bunzel recorded where Zuni potters got their clay in the mid-1920s:
“At Zuni, clay for pottery is secured at a considerable distance from the village from a place on the top of Corn Mountain where a dark gray shale abounds.”
— Bunzel (1929), p. 6 [4]
Bunzel (1929) described the temper Zuni potters mixed into the clay:
“The tempering material is pulverized potsherds. Fragments of broken household pottery or sherds from neighboring ruins are ground to a fine powder on the metate and mixed with the fresh clay.”
— Bunzel (1929), p. 6 [4]
Bunzel (1929) on where the slip went on a Zuni jar:
“At Zuni, only the upper part of jars is slipped, that is, the part above the mold. Elsewhere jars are slipped over their whole outer surface.”
— Bunzel (1929), p. 11 [4]
Field Notes by Mateo James
This article says the rest of the Zuni smiths learned from Lanyade and that turquoise setting began about a decade after the 1870s. In Lanyade's own account to Adair, he taught only one man, Balawade, and the other early smiths learned from Balawade; Adair put the first Zuni stone setting at about 1890. I show both as printed.
I notice that the 1993 account quoted here says the deer and bird designs on Zuni pottery go back to the tribe's distant past. Bunzel (1929, p. 24), who studied Zuni pottery in 1924 and 1925, judged those same designs to be recent, younger than the spiral and cloud-step patterns, and thought they took shape around the 1870s. I show the accounts side by side, each with its own source.
Sources
- Adair, John. The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths. The Civilization of the American Indian Series. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1944. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1944.
- Baxter, Paula A., with Allison Bird-Romero. Encyclopedia of Native American Jewelry: A Guide to History, People, and Terms. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 2000. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2000.
- Tryk, Sheila. Santa Fe Indian Market: Showcase of Native American Art. Photography by Mark Nohl; introduction by Allan Houser. Santa Fe, NM: Tierra Publications, in cooperation with SWAIA (Southwestern Association on Indian Affairs), 1993. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1993.
- Bunzel, Ruth L. The Pueblo Potter: A Study of Creative Imagination in Primitive Art. Columbia University Contributions to Anthropology, vol. VIII. New York: Columbia University Press, 1929. Public domain (U.S. publication before 1931). Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1929.
