In 2022, I and another Hopi Archaeologist, April Sewaquaptewa, were asked to contribute an essay for the 400+ page book titled, “Native American Art from the Thomas W. Weisel Family Collection”. In addition to many beautiful color plate photos of the fine art, the book contains essays and writings from museum curators and conservators, as well as Indigenous artists and scholars. It’s actually a very interesting gathering of stories that tell how collectors, museums and Indigenous peoples, find respectful ways to work together in regard to the exhibition and interpretation of Indigenous art and history. I encourage you to check it out if you have the chance.

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Ceramic wares are key elements in the development of both ancestral and modern Pueblo cultural identities. They hold pivotal roles in how Pueblo cultures created and maintained connections with groups near and far, facilitating the trade of resources and ideas across wide geographic regions. The importance that ceramics hold within Pueblo culture cannot be understated, both as ideological vessels that embody cultural metaphors and as objects that helped develop highly specialized economic systems that still hold true to the present day.

This essay focuses on four types of ancestral ceramics: Mimbres, Four Mile Polychrome, Chacoan, and Hopi Yellow wares, including San Bernardo and Sikyátki Polychromes. Brief historical overviews are provided for each cultural group associated with these ceramics, including regions of manufacture and connections with present-day Pueblo tribes.

Mimbres

What archaeologists identify as the Mogollon cultural tradition covers a landscape consisting of deserts, high plateaus, and mountains extending throughout present-day central Arizona, west-central and southern New Mexico, western Texas, and northern Chihuahua and Sonora, Mexico. Within the larger Mogollon tradition archaeologists identify smaller “branches,” of which the Mimbres is perhaps the most famous. Other branches include the Jornada, Point of Pines, Forestdale, and Reserve.

The Mimbres cultural landscape is primarily concentrated in the areas of southwestern New Mexico, south into northern Mexico, and slightly over into southeastern Arizona. Spanish for “little willow,” the name Mimbres was given to the main river that runs north to south through Mimbres territory. Mimbres ceramics are among the earliest pottery traditions to emerge in the Southwest, beginning around 200 CE. The fluorescence of Mimbres culture between 1000 and 1130 is designated as the Classic Period, during which time many of the now-renowned black-on-white ceramics were produced.

The Classic Period was also marked by the construction of large settlements, apartment-style villages that would become hallmarks of subsequent Pueblo culture. Following this period, Mimbres life slowly underwent social and cultural changes in response to ideological and climactic shifts, with populations eventually leaving the region around the thirteenth century. Those that left the Mimbres regions joined relatives further south, at the growing center of Paquime, and north to existing Pueblo communities such as Hopi and Acoma.

Mimbres black-on-white ceramics of the Classic Period are one of the most recognizable pottery types of the Southwest. Their highly detailed designs depict scenes of daily life and may allude to ritual activities as well. The combination of complex geometric patterns and elaborate images of fish, birds, and other zoomorphic forms, some portrayed in surreal combinations, are a hallmark of Classic Period ceramics. Such wares also show the earliest known depictions of katsina symbology, bearing close resemblance to the historic and modern-day expressions of this ritual tradition still practiced by some pueblos, including Hopi, Zuni, and Acoma. Contemporary Pueblo people view these designs as evidence that the katsina traditions extend much further back in time, and that these spirit beings have always been a part of Pueblo culture. Unfortunately, the uniqueness of these ceramics makes them one of the most looted pottery types for subsequent sale via private collections or on the black market.

Four Mile Polychrome

White Mountain Red Wares represent a ceramic tradition within the region encompassed by the hills and mountains of eastern Arizona and western New Mexico, with the Mogollon Rim bisecting west to east the general area of manufacture. Included in this family of ceramics, Four Mile Polychromes have an even narrower range of production, and, much like Mimbres ceramics, they are associated with the development of larger ancestral village settlements such as Four Mile, Pinedale, and Show Low. Four Mile Pueblo, from which the polychrome derives its name, is located near the present-day community of Snowflake, Arizona, while other contemporaneous settlements were located within and surrounding the forested areas of the White Mountains.

Populations grew within this region during the early 1300s, with decline and subsequent depopulation occurring through the early 1400s. As groups left the area, some undoubtedly joined other Pueblo groups with which they had existing ties established through trade, intermarriage, and similar worldviews. The pueblos of Hopi and Zuni are geographically close to the region of Four Mile Polychromes, and demographic research shows a marked increase in populations at those communities during the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. This correlates with oral histories of both Pueblo groups, as well as others, that speak to the integration of clans migrating from southern regions.

While there are beautifully decorated black-on-white vessels associated with the ceramic production of these regions, Four Mile Polychromes are the most recognizable and, as such, highly sought after by looters. What sets apart this particular ceramic style is the use of bright reddish backgrounds that highlight black designs and encircling bands usually outlined with white. Vessel forms are predominantly bowls featuring bold, usually centered, geometric patterns, scrolls, stylized birds, and F-shaped hooks that are unique to this type. Another unique design element is “mask” symbology that indicates, like Mimbres ceramics, the Pueblo katsina religion, making it a marker of cultural continuity between ancestral Pueblo groups and their present-day descendants, who still reside in areas of New Mexico and Arizona.

Chacoan

Chaco Canyon, located in present-day northwestern New Mexico and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, served as the dramatic backdrop for the development of Cibola White Wares, which includes “Chacoan” ceramic such as Tularosa, Reserve, and Gallup black-on-white types. The production of Cibola White Wares extends well beyond the massive Great Houses that Chaco Canyon is known for, covering a region from the northern San Juan Basin of New Mexico to the Upper Gila River drainages in the south, and from the White Mountains of Arizona east to the Acoma-Laguna area of New Mexico.

The earliest developments of Chaco Canyon began to emerge in the fifth century AD, as shown by the establishment of two large pithouse villages at the east and west ends of the canyon. By 900, Chacoan society began to expand its influence across the greater Four Corners region of the American Southwest. The Chacoan world, as it is sometimes referred to, continued to grow throughout the 1000s, then experienced a slow decline beginning in the 1100s. Over the course of these centuries, Chaco culture developed a highly organized social structure, evidenced by the construction of roads, line-of-sight signaling systems, and, most notably, monumental Great Houses such as Pueblo Bonito and Chetro Ketl and Great Kivas like Casa Rinconada. The large-scale public-works planning demonstrated through these efforts indicates a high degree of knowledge of social dynamics, engineering principles, mathematics, and celestial observations.

However, by the 1200s much of Chaco Canyon’s population, and its influence, shifted north to other settlements such as Aztec Ruin, located along the banks of the Animas River, and Salmon Pueblo, situated along the San Juan River. Although Chacoan worldviews continued to be expressed through massive architecture and ritual performance at these new villages, ultimately the prestige of Chaco culture was destined to be laid to rest here. As clans migrated on, they carried with them remnants of the ceremonial practices established and developed within the Great Houses and Kivas, resurrecting certain aspects of these traditions in their new homes of Hopi, Zuni, Acoma, and many other pueblos.

Some archaeologists believe that most of the pottery unearthed within the Great Houses were actually made elsewhere and then imported by the populations that inhabited the area of Chaco Canyon. While all types of ceramics are found at these sites, including corrugated gray wares and red wares, it is the black-on-white wares that stand out due to their design work of geometric shapes with bold, black framing lines that are then filled in with precise, fine-line hatchure work, known as the Dogoszhi style. These designs patterns are often complex and symmetrical, accentuating vessel shapes including large globular ollas of the Tularosa style and tall cylindrical jars that were used to consume a drink derived from cacao.

Archaeologists still debate the role Chaco Canyon held within the larger Pueblo world. Was it a religious pilgrimage destination for thousands of Pueblo inhabitants across the Southwest? Perhaps it was the nexus of a major trading network with connections to cultures of Mexico and Mesoamerica? Or was it a capital center in its own right, holding a position of power expressed through esoteric ritual? In reality, Chaco Canyon was likely a combination of all of these and more. For contemporary Pueblo tribes, Chaco remains an enigmatic part of their collective oral histories and a source of continued validation and meaning.

Hopi Yellow Ware: San Bernardo and Sikyátki

Hopi Yellow Ware (also known as Jeddito Yellow Wares) is exclusive to the Hopi Mesa region of northeastern Arizona, specifically among the First Mesa villages of Walpi and Sikyátki, the latter now unoccupied but the namesake and origin of Sikyátki Polychrome (1375–1625). To the east of these villages, on Antelope Mesa, the large pueblos of Awat’ovi and Kawai’ka’a were home to many skilled potters of the yellow ware tradition, leading to the development of San Bernardo Polychrome (1625–1700).

Yellow wares appeared circa 1300 and by the 1400s began to be fired with local coal deposits, which resulted in much higher temperatures that produced ceramics rivaling the finest porcelain. (Such wares often ring very clearly when gently tapped with a fingernail.) Like the other ceramic types discussed, their appearance mirrors a known influx of clans into Hopi society. Within Hopi oral tradition, the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was a time when many clans were in the process of completing centuries-long migrations and “becoming Hopi,” resulting in dramatic socio-cultural developments.

In the formalization of what we now know as Hopi culture, incoming clans brought and introduced new ceremonies, technologies (some expressed in ceramic manufacture), medicines, and agricultural diversity. The acceptance of farming, particularly corn, became a foundation of what the Hopi lifeway. At its height during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Awat’ovi (“Place of the Bow,” named for the Bow Clan’s leadership role) was the largest village in the Hopi Mesas, featuring over four thousand rooms in two large room blocks as well as numerous kivas, reflecting the vast ritual knowledge possessed by its members.

The 1500s were a tumultuous and traumatic period for Hopi culture, with the sudden arrival of the Spanish in 1540. For the next two centuries, the protracted interaction between the two cultures would have lasting effects on the psyche of the Hopi people. The most damaging event occurred in 1700 with the destruction of Awat’ovi by other Hopi villages due to Awat’ovi’s growing acceptance of Catholicism, which many traditional Hopis viewed as a corruption of Hopi culture. The Spanish influence resulted in the appearance of motifs on San Bernardo ceramics such as Maltese crosses, arabesques, and rosettes. There is a notable absence of katsina faces and related symbology, as these traditions were suppressed by the Spanish.

Widely traded throughout the Southwest and beyond, Hopi Yellow Ware was admired for its highly polished, bright yellow shades and elaborate designs including abstract birds and combinations of geometric patterns painted in reds, blacks, and whites. Vessel forms include bowls and wide-shouldered jars that often push the clay materials to their limits. Sikyátki Polychromes are hallmarks of this vessel form, and this style of ceramic continues to be made by modern Hopi and now Tewa potters with many of the same materials and symbology used since their inception.

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Due to space constraints, we are not able to fully delve into the landscape metaphors expressed through ceramics. However, for modern Pueblo descendants, ancestral lands are inextricably connected with deep memories that cumulatively manifest the meaning of a “cultural landscape.”  This phrase refers to more than just geographic points on a map; more significantly, it refers to the associated histories of the ancestors who once occupied these areas. In this sense, we are able to trace the origins of who we are as Pueblo people and how we came to be. Our history is literally written upon the land.

Indigenous people not only relate to discrete places but to entire regions, which these ceramics represent. Therefore, interpreting scientific research of ceramics through our Indigenous-Pueblo lens, we find validations of oral histories and are able to “track” the migrations of our ancestors. This is the value we find while viewing artifacts such as the ceramics included in this collection. Our understandings of the groups who made them inevitably evoke discussions about the endurance of our Pueblo traditions, while serving as reminders of our continued cultural evolution.