Santa Fe Indian Market

Our trip to Santa Fe last week was the best one yet. We've gone there several times in August with our family, the best time of the year to leave our gardens and to drive through gorgeous Colorado and New Mexico scenery. We've always loved the Indian Market itself, and all the associated art openings at the many excellent Santa Fe galleries, as well as the many great scenic drives in every direction from Santa Fe.
The highlight of our trip was on Saturday before noon on the first day of the market, when we met Vernida Polacca Nampeyo, a Tewa/Hopi potter, at her booth on Palace Ave. beside the Plaza.


Judy spotted the Hopi pot from a ways off. You could say it pulled us to it, and as with all wonderful works of art it just kept pulling on us, becoming more and more attractive, even now. It was small, 3 1/2" by 5 1/2", with a beautiful, simple polychrome design and was very reasonably priced. She graciously accepted a check from us, carefully perusing my Colorado driver's license. It was very busy and we didn't stay to talk with her, but I got her address and promised to send her a picture of her pot.


It was a thrill to meet the actual creator of a Hopi pot. Vernida is a Tewa and lives in Polacca, a village near in Arizona on the Hopi reservation, and is a great granddaughter of Nampeyo herself, the most honored of Tewa/Hopi potters.
In the excellent book "Hopi-Tewa Pottery, 500 Artist Biographies" by Gregory Schaaf (yes, they had super book booths in the market, and we got a few--mostly cookbooks) is a photograph of a 1906 seed jar by Nampeyo that is very similar to ours, with an "Eagle Tail Feather Skirt" design and "fine line migration patterns featuring curling wave-like designs with parrot tail tips." These, plus "negative stars," are Vernida's favorite designs.
The book tells about the great migrations of the Tewa clans from southern Colorado into New Mexico following the Rio Grande, establishing pueblos at Nambe, Picuris, Taos and many more locations. The route of the Tewa led to the Hopi where the Tewa warriors protected the Hopi from attacks by the Spanish, Utes, Navajos and many others. The earliest pottery in this area dates to 300 B.C.
Our family in Farmington, Arizona, Emli and Paul Jaeger, who located between Mesa Verde and the Hopi reservation will love this story about the Tewa and Hopi. We've spent much time together in Mesa Verde and other locations in the Southwest, wondering where the people who lived there went to, and why they left. Maybe if they migrated, it may not be such a great mystery. Frank Waters in "The Book of the Hopi" emphasized the moral imperative for Indian people to complete their migrations as the Hopi did.
Next: The El Camino Real, featuring all the rest (almost) of my extant paintings!