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Rosita de Herrera, Ohkay Owingeh, A polychrome Potsuwii-style wedding vase carved and painted around the body with a four-panel feather, kiva step and geometric design, plus micaceous clay above and below the carved band
Ohkay Owingeh
$ 1400
shsj4f312
A polychrome Potsuwii-style wedding vase carved and painted around the body with a four-panel feather, kiva step and geometric design, plus micaceous clay above and below the carved band
6 in L by 8.25 in W by 12.5 in H
Condition: Very good with some minor stains
Signature: Rosita De Herrera San Juan Pue. N.M.
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Rosita de Herrera
Ohkay Owingeh
San Juan
Rosita de Herrera was born into Ohkay Owingeh in 1940. Her mother was Tomasita Reyes Montoya. Tomasita was one of the seven Ohkay Owingeh women who redefined San Juan pottery in the 1930s. Some ancient Tewa pottery had been found on Ohkay Owingeh land on the west side of the Rio Grande and it was dated by archaeologists to have been made just prior to the arrival of the Spanish in New Mexico. They based their definition on that pottery and it became known as Potsuwi'i Incised.
They settled on decorating redware pots with a matte design band that featured the old incised designs, similar to a lot of ancient rock art found across the Southwest. Rosita and her sister, Dominguita Sisneros, grew up learning to make that style of pottery from their mother. Eventually, a second version was innovated, adding deep carved geometric designs with other colors, while keeping the polished deep red bands around the base and rim.
Rosita was active in the marketplace by the early 1970s. She mostly made incised and carved polychrome buff-on-red bowls in both Potsuwi'i styles, and some incised blackware bowls in a more recent Ohkay Owingeh style. She taught her son, Norman de Herrera, how to make pottery, too.
Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan)
Ohkay Owingeh Mission
In 2005 San Juan Pueblo officially changed its name back to the original name (before the Spanish arrived): Ohkay Owingeh (meaning: Place of the strong people). There are numerous ancient pueblos in the countryside around today's primary village of Ohkay Owingeh that have been archaeologically excavated and dated, but none of those excavations have yielded a date for the establishment of the village on the east side of the Rio Grande that was discovered by Don Juan de Oñaté in 1597.
The people of Ohkay Owingeh speak Tewa, and may have come to the Rio Grande area from southwestern Colorado or from the San Luis Valley in central Colorado. There is an archaeological record that possibly tracks their ancestors as they moved downstream through the valleys of the Ojo Caliente and Chama Rivers to the Rio Grande in the 1300 and 1400s. There is also an archaeological history showing there were Tanoan groups living in the area for hundreds of years before that.
Spanish conquistador Don Juan de Oñate took control of Ohkay Owingeh in 1598, renaming it San Juan de los Caballeros (after his patron saint, John the Baptist). He established the first Spanish capitol of Nuevo Mexico across the Rio Grande in the village of Yugue-Yunqué, an area he renamed San Gabriel. In 1608, the capitol was moved south to an uninhabited area that became the Santa Fe we know today.
After 80 years of progressively deteriorating living conditions under the Spanish, the tribe participated in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 (one of the revolt's ringleaders, Popé, was an Ohkay Owingeh shaman) and helped to expel the Spanish from Nuevo Mexico for 12 years. However, when the Spanish returned in 1692, Popé had died, that tribal unity had collapsed and the individual pueblos were relatively easy for the Spanish to reconquer.
Today, Ohkay Owingeh is the largest Tewa-speaking pueblo (in population and land) but few of the younger generations are interested in carrying on with many of the tribe's traditional arts and crafts (such as the making of pottery, weaving of baskets and knapping of flint). The pueblo is home to the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Council, the Oke-Oweenge Arts Cooperative, the San Juan Lakes Recreation Area and the Ohkay Casino & Resort. The tribe's Tsay Corporation is one of northern New Mexico's largest private employers. With the tribe's modern foray into casino operations, the younger members of the tribe say it's much easier to make a living flipping burgers, dealing cards or working security jobs than pursuing the production of traditional arts and crafts. This has become a problem everywhere there are Indian casinos, no matter who the tribe is.
Ohkay Owingeh at Wikipedia
Pueblos of the Rio Grande, Daniel Gibson, ISBN-13:978-1-887896-26-9, Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2001
The Story of
the Wedding Vase
as told by Teresita Naranjo of Santa Clara Pueblo
Helen Naha
Hopi
Wilma Baca Tosa
Jemez Pueblo
Margaret Tafoya
Santa Clara Pueblo
The Wedding Vase has been used for a long, long time in Indian Wedding Ceremonies.
After a period of courtship, when a boy and girl decide to get married, they cannot do so until certain customs have been observed. The boy must first call all his relatives together to tell them that he desires to be married to a certain girl. If the relatives agree, two or three of the oldest men are chosen to call on the parents of the girl. They pray according to Indian custom and the oldest man will tell the parents of the girl what their purpose is in visiting. The girl's parents never give a definite answer at this time, but just say that they will let the boy's family know their decision later.
About a week later, the girl calls a meeting of her relatives. The family then decides what answer should be given. If the answer is “no” that is the end of it. If the answer is “yes” then the oldest men in her family are delegated to go to the boy's home, and to give the answer, and to tell the boy on what day he can come to receive his bride-to-be. The boy must also notify all of his relatives on what day the girl will receive him, so that they will be able to have gifts for the girl.
Now the boy must find a Godmother and Godfather. The Godmother immediately starts making the wedding vase so that it will be finished by the time the girl is to be received. The Godmother also takes some of the stones which have been designated as holy and dips them into water, to make it holy water. It is with this holy water that the vase is filled on the day of the reception.
The reception day finally comes and the Godmother and Godfather lead the procession of the boy's relatives to the home of the girl. The groom is the last in line and must stand at the door of the bride's home until the gifts his relatives have brought have been opened and received by the bride.
The bride and groom now kneel in the middle of the room with the groom's relatives and the bride's parents praying all around them. The bride then gives her squash blossom necklace to the groom's oldest male relative, while the groom gives his necklace to the bride's oldest male relative. After each man has prayed, the groom's necklace is placed on the bride, and the bride's is likewise placed on the groom.
After the exchange of squash blossom necklaces and prayers, the Godmother places the wedding vase in front of the bride and groom. The bride drinks out of one side of the wedding vase and the groom drinks from the other. Then, the vase is passed to all in the room, with the women all drinking from the bride's side, and the men from the groom's.
After the ritual drinking of the holy water and the prayers, the bride's family feeds all the groom's relatives and a date is set for the church wedding. The wedding vase is now put aside until after the church wedding.
Once the church wedding ceremony has occurred, the wedding vase is filled with any drink the family may wish. Once again, all the family drinks in the traditional manner, with women drinking from one side, and men the other. Having served its ceremonial purpose, the wedding vase is given to the young newlyweds as a good luck piece.
Tomasita Reyes Montoya 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.
- Tomasita Reyes Montoya (1899-1978) and Juan Reyes Montoya
- Dominguita Naranjo (Sisneros)(1942-) and Juan Sisneros
- Jennifer Sisneros and Alfred E. Naranjo (Santa Clara)
- Alfred J. Naranjo
- Jeannette Teba and Steven Teba Sr.
- Steven Teba Jr.
- Veronica Teba
- Jennifer Sisneros and Alfred E. Naranjo (Santa Clara)
- Rosita de Herrera
- Norman de Herrera
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.
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