A red seed pot decorated with a sgraffito turkey and geometric design made by Joseph Lonewolf of Santa Clara
Joseph Lonewolf, Santa Clara, A red seed pot decorated with a sgraffito turkey and geometric design
Joseph Lonewolf
Santa Clara
$ 1600
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A red seed pot decorated with a sgraffito turkey and geometric design
2 in L by 2 in W by 2 in H
Condition: Excellent
Signature: Joseph Lonewolf 100A with his wolf head hallmark
Date Created: 1974


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Every box is required. We will get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you!

We keep all your information private and will not sell or give it away for any reason, EVER!

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Joseph Lonewolf

Santa Clara
Sgraffito Mimbres animal designs on a red seed pot

Joseph Lonewolf was born into Santa Clara Pueblo in January of 1932. Both his parents, Camilio Sunflower Tafoya and Agapita Silva were well established potters. Joseph's mother taught him to work with clay at an early age, then his father taught him to sculpt the clay. From his earliest years he made miniature incised pots and gave them to his friends and family.

Joseph spent a number of years working as a mechanic and precision machinist in Colorado before returning to Santa Clara and dedicating himself to becoming a master potter in 1971. He was encouraged by his sister, Grace Medicine Flower, and worked some with his father at first before producing exquisite, finely incised miniature pots. His pottery was soon referred to as "pottery jewels," owing to their very delicate cameo-like appearance. A book was published in 1974 entitled "The Pottery Jewels of Joseph Lonewolf," one of the first books ever highlighting a single Native American artist.

Joseph has also been credited as the innovator of two-tone pottery (red and black) using a single-fire process. Previous methods of producing two-tone pottery required two firings. Joseph also pioneered the use of different colored slips on his pottery, often using red, yellow, orange, green, sienna, purple, black, brown and buff slips he discovered in the soils of Colorado. His wife Kathy once said that when Joseph was riding in the car (she always drove) that he could not only tell what color the passing dirt could produce but he could do it at 30 miles per hour. He always made his pots using the traditional Santa Clara techniques of hand-coiling and ground-firing.

Joseph's designs were all one of a kind, incorporating elements of nature, ancient Mimbres designs and contemporary Santa Clara styles. After firing, he inspected all his pots carefully before adding his name, his wolf's head hallmark, and a number and date to the bottom of each. Anything that didn't pass that inspection was immediately destroyed. Joseph always had dozens of pieces in various states of completion. After his passing his studio shelves were lined with these pots. Just recently his daughter Rosemary, a skilled potter in her own right, decided that she may take on the responsibility of finishing some of his pieces.

In 1976 Joseph, his father Camilio, his sister Grace and his daughter Rosemary were featured in a show at Tanner's Indian Arts Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ. Also in attendance for that show was Rosemary's husband, painter Paul Speckled Rock, and Joseph's other daughter Susan with her husband, painter Mike Romero. Back in Santa Fe, the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian recognized Joseph's work with an exhibition in 1977. Other gallery shows in Vail, Colorado Springs and Las Vegas followed quickly. In 1981 Joseph's pottery was featured in major exhibits in three other major museums: the Native American Center for Living Arts in Niagara Falls, NY, the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis, IN, and the Heard Museum in Phoenix, AZ. 1984 saw Joseph and his father Camilio doing a show at the Indian Jewelry Center in Sacramento, CA. In 1985 it was a show at the Sid Deusch Gallery in New York and in 1986 it was a show at McGee's Indian Den in Scottsdale again.

In 1994 Joseph participated in a show at the Four Winds Gallery in Pittsburgh, PA, along with Michael Naranjo, Roxanne Swentzel and Mike Bird. Later that year he enjoyed a solo gallery show at Andrea Fisher Fine Pottery in Santa Fe. In 1996 Joseph returned to the Four Winds Gallery in Pittsburgh with Virgil Ortiz, Roxanne Swentzell, Mike Bird and others. King Galleries of Scottsdale had a show featuring Joseph and his sister Grace Medicine Flower in 1998. That same year pieces made by Joseph and Grace were part of the "Harris Collection" show at the Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe, NM, along with pottery made by Tammy Garcia, his aunt Margaret Tafoya, his father Camilio Tafoya, Maria and Julian Martinez, Popovi Da, Tony Da, Teresita Naranjo and others.

Joseph taught his methods and techniques to his three children, Susan Snowflake Romero (Lonewolf), Rosemary Apple Blossom Lonewolf and Greg Lonewolf, before he passed on in 2014.

Some Exhibits that Featured Pieces by Joseph

  • Choices and Change: American Indian Artists in the Southwest. Heard Museum North. Scottsdale, Arizona. June 30, 2007-2013
  • Crafted to Perfection: The Nancy & Alan Cameron Collection of Southwestern Pottery. Rockwell Museum of Western Art. Corning, New York. November 22, 2007 - May 18, 2008
  • Home: Native People in the Southwest. Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. May 1 - September 2005
  • The Collecting Passions of Dennis and Janis Lyon. Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. May 1 - September 2004
  • Every Picture Tells a Story. Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. September 20, 2002 - 2005
  • Hold Everything! Masterworks of Basketry and Pottery from the Heard Museum. Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. November 1, 2001 - March 10, 2002
  • Sharing the Heritage: American Indian Art from Oklahoma Private Collections. Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. University of Oklahoma. Norman, Oklahoma. June 9 - September 11, 1994
  • The Seven Families of Pueblo Pottery. Simply Santa Fe. Santa Fe, New Mexico. August 16 - 30, 1990
  • Celebrating the Spirit: Contemporary Native American Art. Felicita Foundation for the Arts. Mathes Cultural Center. Escondido, California. October 21 - November 30, 1985
  • American Indian Art in the 1980s. The Native American Center for the Living Arts. Niagara Falls, New York. 1981
  • Joseph Lonewolf, Camilio Sunflower Tafoya, Pho-Sa-We; Presenting a New Collection of Their Incomparable Pottery Creations. Galeria Capistrano. San Juan Capistrano, California. September 26-28, 1980
  • Joseph Lonewolf, Grace Medicine Flower. Adobe Galleries. Las Vegas, Nevada. March 24-26, 1977
  • The Joseph Lonewolf Family Show. Tanner's Indian Arts. Scottsdale, Arizona. November 20 - 23, 1975
  • 1975 Scottsdale National Indian Arts Exhibition. Safari Hotel Convention Center. Scottsdale, Arizona. March 12-15, 1975
  • Tony Begay Memorial Show. Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. February 2-17, 1974. Note: exhibition and auction to benefit the children of Tony Begay; includes artwork by Tony Begay and many of his Indian artist friends
  • 1972 Scottsdale National Indian Arts Exhibition. Safari Hotel Convention Center. Scottsdale, Arizona. March 29 - April 2, 1972
  • 1970 Scottsdale National Indian Arts Exhibition. Executive House. Scottsdale, Arizona. February 28 - March 8, 1970

Some Awards Earned by Joseph

  • 1989 Gallup InterTribal Ceremonial. Best of Category Pottery, Contemporary Miniature
  • 1987 Gallup InterTribal Ceremonial. Classification IV - Contemporary, any object: Second Place
  • 1975 Scottsdale National Indian Arts Exhibition. Section C - Crafts, Classification VIII - Pottery, Division B - Adaptions: First Place
  • 1972 Scottsdale National Indian Arts Exhibition. Section C - Crafts, Classification VIII - Pottery, Division B - Adaptions: First Place
  • 1970 Scottsdale National Indian Arts Exhibition. Section B - Crafts, Classification VIII - Pottery, Division B - Adaptions: Honorable Mention

Santa Clara Pueblo

The Puye Cliff Ruins
Ruins at Puye Cliffs, Santa Clara Pueblo

Santa Clara Pueblo straddles the Rio Grande about 25 miles north of Santa Fe. Of all the pueblos, Santa Clara has the largest number of potters.

The ancestral roots of the Santa Clara people have been traced to the pueblos in the Mesa Verde region in southwestern Colorado. When that area began to get dry between about 1100 and 1300, some of the people migrated to the Chama River Valley and constructed Poshuouinge (about 3 miles south of what is now Abiquiu on the edge of the mesa above the Chama River). Eventually reaching two and three stories high with up to 700 rooms on the ground floor, Poshuouinge was inhabited from about 1375 to about 1475. Drought then again forced the people to move, some of them going to the area of Puye (on the eastern slopes of the Pajarito Plateau of the Jemez Mountains) and others to Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo, along the Rio Grande). Beginning around 1580, drought forced the residents of the Puye area to relocate closer to the Rio Grande and they founded what we now know as Santa Clara Pueblo on the west bank of the river, between San Juan and San Ildefonso Pueblos.

In 1598 Spanish colonists from nearby Yunque (the seat of Spanish government near San Juan Pueblo) brought the first missionaries to Santa Clara. That led to the first mission church being built around 1622. However, the Santa Clarans chafed under the weight of Spanish rule like the other pueblos did and were in the forefront of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. One pueblo resident, a mixed black and Tewa man named Domingo Naranjo, was one of the rebellion's ringleaders. When Don Diego de Vargas came back to the area in 1694, he found most of the Santa Clarans on top of nearby Black Mesa (with the people of San Ildefonso). An extended siege didn't subdue them so eventually, the two sides negotiated a treaty and the people returned to their pueblo. However, successive invasions and occupations by northern Europeans took their toll on the tribe over the next 250 years. The Spanish flu pandemic in 1918 almost wiped them out.

Today, Santa Clara Pueblo is home to as many as 2,600 people and they comprise probably the largest per capita number of artists of any North American tribe (estimates of the number of potters run as high as 1-in-4 residents).

Today's pottery from Santa Clara is typically either black or red. It is usually highly polished and designs might be deeply carved or etched ("sgraffito") into the pot's surface. The water serpent, ("avanyu"), is a traditional design motif of Santa Clara pottery. Another motif comes from the legend that a bear helped the people find water during a drought. The bear paw has appeared on their pottery ever since.

One of the reasons for the distinction this pueblo has received is because of the evolving artistry the potters have brought to the craft. Not only did this pueblo produce excellent black and redware, several notable innovations helped move pottery from the realm of utilitarian vessels into the domain of art. Different styles of polychrome redware emerged in the 1920's-1930's. In the early 1960's experiments with stone inlay, incising and double firing began. Modern potters have also extended the tradition with unusual shapes, slips and designs, illustrating what one Santa Clara potter said: "At Santa Clara, being non-traditional is the tradition." (This refers strictly to artistic expression; the method of creating pottery remains traditional).

Santa Clara Pueblo is home to a number of famous pottery families: Tafoya, Baca, Gutierrez, Naranjo, Suazo, Chavarria, Garcia, Vigil, Tapia - to name a few.

Harvest, Santa Clara Pueblo c. 1912 Courtesy Museum of New Mexico Neg. No. 4128

Santa Clara Pueblo c. 1920 Courtesy Museum of New Mexico Neg. No. 4214
Map showing the location of Santa Clara Pueblo
For more info:
at Wikipedia
Pueblos of the Rio Grande, Daniel Gibson, ISBN-13:978-1-887896-26-9, Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2001
Upper photo courtesy of Einar Kvaran, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

Seed Pots

Acoma, Hopi, Isleta, Jemez, Laguna, San Felipe, San Ildefonso, San Juan, Santa Clara
Seed pot jar
Sandra Victorino
Acoma Pueblo
Micaceous black Hopi seed pot
Preston Duwyenie
Hopi
Santa Clara Pueblo seed pot
Camilio Tafoya
Santa Clara Pueblo



It was a matter of survival to the ancient Native American people that seeds be stored properly until the next planting season. Small, hollow pots were made to ensure that the precious seeds would be kept safe from moisture, light and rodents. After seeds were put into the pot, the small hole in the pot was plugged. The following spring the plug was removed and the seeds were shaken from the pot directly onto the planting area.

Today, seed pots are no longer necessary due to readily available seeds from commercial suppliers. However, seed pots continue to be made as beautiful, decorative works of art. The sizes and shapes of seed pots have evolved and vary greatly, depending on the vision of Clay Mother as seen through the artist. The decorations vary, too, from simple white seed pots with raised relief to multi-colored painted, raised relief and sgraffito designs, sometimes with inlaid gemstones and silver lids.



Seed pot with sgraffito design and silver lid

Debra Duwyenie
Santa Clara Pueblo
Jemez Pueblo seed pot

Dominique Toya
Jemez Pueblo
Acoma Pueblo seed pot

Lucy Lewis
Acoma Pueblo

Margaret Tafoya Family Tree

Disclaimer: This "family tree" is a best effort on our part to determine who the potters are in this family and arrange them in a generational order. The general information available is questionable so we have tried to show each of these diagrams to living members of each family to get their input and approval, too. This diagram is subject to change should we get better info.

Note: Sarafina (Gutierrez) Tafoya was the sister of Pasqualita Tani Gutierrez.

    Sarafina Tafoya (1863-1949) & Geronimo Tafoya
    • Margaret Tafoya (1904-2001) & Alcario Tafoya (d. 1995)
      • Mary Ester Archuleta (1942-2010)
        • Barry Archuleta
        • Bryon Archuleta
        • Sheila Archuleta
      • Jennie Trammel (1929-2010)
        • Karen Trammel Beloris
      • Virginia Ebelacker (1925-2001)
        • James Ebelacker (1960-) & Cynthia Ebelacker
          • Jamelyn Ebelacker
          • Sarena Ebelacker
        • Richard Ebelacker (1946-2010) & Yvonne Ortiz
          • Jason Ebelacker
          • Jerome Ebelacker & Dyan Esquibel
            • Andrew Ebelacker
            • Nickolas Ebelacker
      • Lee Tafoya (1926-1996) & Betty Tafoya (Anglo)
        • Linda Tafoya (Oyenque)(Sanchez) (1962-)
          • Antonio Jose Oyenque
          • Jeremy Rio Oyenque
          • Maria Theresa Oyenque
        • Melvin Tafoya
        • Phyllis Bustos Tafoya
      • Mela Youngblood (1931-1990) & Walt Youngblood
        • Nancy Youngblood (1955-)
          • Christopher Cutler
          • Joseph Lugo
          • Sergio Lugo
        • Nathan Youngblood (1954-)
      • Toni Roller (1935-)
        • Brandon Roller
        • Cliff Roller (1961-)
        • Deborah Morning Star Roller
        • Jeff Roller (1963-)
          • Jordan Roller
          • Ryan Roller
        • Susan Roller Whittington (1955-)
          • Charles Lewis
        • Tim Roller (1959-) & Clarissa Tafoya
        • William Roller
      • LuAnn Tafoya (1938-) & Sostence Tapia
        • Michele Tapia Browning (1960-)
          • Ashley Browning
          • Mindy Browning
        • Daryl Duane Whitegeese (1964-) & Rosemary Hardy
          • Samantha Whitegeese
          • Tina Whitegeese
      • Shirley Cactus Blossom Tafoya (1947-)
      • Meldon Tafoya
        • Andrea Tafoya
        • Crystal Tafoya
        • Melissa Tafoya
    • Christina Naranjo (1891-1980) & Jose Victor Naranjo (1895-1942)
      • Mary Cain (1916-2010)
        • Billy Cain (1950-2005)
        • Joy Cain (1947-)
        • Linda Cain (1949-)
          • Autumn Borts-Medlock (1967-)
          • Tammy Garcia (1969-)
        • Douglas Tafoya
        • Marjorie Tafoya Tanin
      • Teresita Naranjo (1919-1999)
        • Stella Chavarria (1939-)
          • Denise Chavarria (1959-)
          • Joey Chavarria (1964-1987)
          • Sunday Chavarria (1963-)
      • Cecilia Naranjo
        • Sharon Naranjo Garcia (1951-)
        • Judy Tafoya (1962-) & Lincoln Tafoya (1954-)
      • Mida Tafoya (1931-2024)
        • Sherry Tafoya (1956-)
        • Phyllis Tafoya (1955-)
        • Robert Tafoya
        • Ethel Vigil
          • Kimberly Garcia
    • Camilio Tafoya (1902-1995) & Agapita Silva (1904-1959)
      • Joe Tafoya & Lucy Year Flower (1935-2012)
        • Kelli Little Kachina (1967-2014)
        • Myra Little Snow (1962-)
        • Forrest Red Cloud Tafoya
        • Shawn Tafoya (1968-)
      • Joseph Lonewolf (1932-2014) & Katheryn Lonewolf
        • Greg Lonewolf (1952-)
        • Rosemary Apple Blossom Lonewolf (1954-) & Paul Speckled Rock (1952-2017)
          • Adam Speckled Rock
        • Susan Romero
      • Grace Medicine Flower (1938-)
    • Dolorita Padilla (1897-1960) & Alberto Padilla (1898-)
    • Tomacita Tafoya Naranjo (1884-1918) & Agapita Naranjo
      • Nicolasa Naranjo (c.1910-) & Jose G. Tafoya
        • Howard Naranjo & Linda Naranjo

Some of the above info is drawn from Pueblo Indian Pottery, 750 Artist Biographies, by Gregory Schaaf, © 2000, Center for Indigenous Arts & Studies

Other info is derived from personal contacts with family members and through interminable searches of the Internet.