A polychrome jar with a pie crust rim and decorated above and below the shoulder with bands of deer-with-heart-line, mountains, forest and geometric designs made by Anderson Peynetsa of Zuni
Anderson Peynetsa, Zuni, A polychrome jar with a pie crust rim and decorated above and below the shoulder with bands of deer-with-heart-line, mountains, forest and geometric designs
Anderson Peynetsa
Zuni
$ 1900
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A polychrome jar with a pie crust rim and decorated above and below the shoulder with bands of deer-with-heart-line, mountains, forest and geometric designs
13 in L by 13 in W by 10.75 in H
Condition: Excellent
Signature: A. Peynetsa Zuni, N.M.
Date Created: 2024


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Anderson Peynetsa

Zuni
Anderson Peynetsa of Zuni Pueblo
Polychrome classic Zuni shape decorated with deer, heart line and geometric design

Anderson Peynetsa was born to Charles and Wilma Peynetsa of Zuni Pueblo in 1964. Like his sisters Agnes and Priscilla, Anderson learned to make pottery the traditional way when he took Jennie Laate's class at Zuni High School (he actually got into the class while in 8th grade). He became one of Jennie's star students and he's been making pottery ever since, participating in shows at the Tucson Fine Arts Museum, Eight Northern Pueblos Arts and Crafts Show at Ohkay Owingeh (NM), the Heard Museum in Phoenix, the Zuni Show at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff and at the Santa Fe Indian Market.

Anderson's favorite styles are the water jar and the duck pot (with owl and parrot variations). His pottery sizes vary from just a few inches high and in diameter to 18" tall and 16" across. His favorite designs to paint are his signature "Walking Deer with Heart Line" design, traditional Zuni patterns and other geometric designs. He told us he gets his inspiration from seeing what others are doing in the art, pottery and jewelry worlds at Zuni Pueblo.

Anderson also says he was inspired by Jennie Laate to help rebuild the legacy of pottery making at Zuni Pueblo and he's always surprised at the impact he has had on the pueblo. And he always recommends learning to make pottery the traditional way, especially for the meditational and healing aspects of the process.

Zuni Pueblo

A view of the Zuni Pueblo Welcome sign
Welcome sign at Zuni Pueblo

In 1540 the Zunis fought a major battle with the forces of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado. Coronado was new in the neighborhood and didn't know (or care about) the local customs. He first approached Hawikuh (the main Zuni pueblo) near the end of a four-day religious festival. The Zunis had spilled a line of corn meal across the ground before the entrance to the pueblo, meant to signify to the Spanish that they shouldn't cross the line yet. Coronado seems to have interpreted that line of corn meal as an act of war and immediately ordered his soldiers to attack.

Coronado was almost killed in the fighting but his soldiers did finally prevail. As Coronado and his men brought horses and sheep with them, they were probably the first such livestock the Zunis had ever seen. The "gold" the Spaniards had been told they'd find turned out to be Sikyatki Polychrome bowls and jars, yellow clay gifts from the Hopis to the Zunis.

Coronado did attack all seven of the Zuni villages of the time, taking their stores of food and destroying their crops while looking for gold. Then he demanded to know where the gold was. They didn't know what he was talking about, gold was unknown to them. That's when the Zunis gave him a guide from the eastern Plains, someone who'd somehow made his way as a lone traveler to Hawikuh. While he was promoted as a guide to Coronado and his men, he was instructed by the Zunis to take Coronado into the Plains and get him lost there. When Coronado finally realized that, more than a year later, he ordered the guide executed, then turned his men around and headed back to Zuni and Mexico.

When he passed by Zuni in 1542, he left three Mexican Indians and Esteban, a Moorish slave, behind with the tribe. Esteban apparently shortly assaulted a woman in the village and was immediately killed. The others most likely informed the tribal leaders of the extent of the Spanish domain in Mexico and the power they exercised there.

In their travels, Coronado and his men also left behind many European diseases, diseases which decimated whole villages across the Southwest, especially the Southern Tiwas. Except for a couple passing exploratory expeditions, though, everybody was left alone until Don Juan de Oñe arrived in the 1620s. By that time, so many Zunis had died there were only two Zuni villages left. 1628 is when the Franciscan friars arrived. At first the Zunis were friendly with the priests but the forced labor requirements and forced religious conversions wore that welcome out quickly. They manipulated the people into constructing a mission church at Hawikuh in 1629. Relations had changed drastically for the worse by the time of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. That's when the Zunis killed the priests and burned the missions, but they preserved the relics and icons the priests had brought from Spain.

The tribe built a village near their fortress at Dowa Yalanne (atop a large mesa) and prepared to defend their people and way of life against the return of the Spanish army. When Don Diego de Vargas arrived with troops in 1692, he attacked the fortress twice and failed. Then he negotiated with the Zuni war chief and was allowed to ascend to the top of Dowa Yalanne and pass through the village. He saw many relics from the destroyed missions there. With that knowledge, he arranged a peace between the Spanish and the tribe. Between 1693 and 1700 the tribe consolidated all their small villages into what is now the Pueblo of Zuni.

The railroads arrived in New Mexico in the 1880s and right behind them came the first Anglo traders. Over the next 50 years Zuni pottery turned more and more to what the traders wanted. With the push into mass production, the quality fell off. The end result was the value of Zuni pottery fell way off and the potters tired of what they were doing. Pottery making dropped off in the 1940s until only ceremonial vessels were being made. Catalina Zunie was teaching pottery making at the Zuni Day School through this time period but the Zuni pottery revival didn't really begin until Daisy Hooee began teaching ceramics at Zuni High School in the 1960s and 1970s.

An accomplished Hopi-Tewa potter with an excellent pedigree, Daisy applied herself to learning about Zuni pottery and became a consummate Zuni potter. She retired from teaching at the high school in 1974. Jennie Laate, an Acoma woman who married into Zuni and learned the Zuni way from Daisy Hooee, took over teaching the classes. Many of today's well known Zuni potters thank Jennie Laate for her teaching and inspiration. She taught until 1990 when she turned the classes over to her student, Noreen Simplicio. Noreen taught the classes for 2 years, then Gabriel Paloma took over.

Josephine Nahohai brought traditional Zuni pottery designs back into the community in the 1980s. Les Namingha has also recently been using more traditional Zuni shapes and designs in his Zuni revival pottery. Today, because so many Zuni potters learned their craft at Zuni High School, they mostly also use electric kilns for firing their works. Other than that, they all use the same traditional methods of gathering and processing the clay, making their pottery and painting their designs, traditional processes that are practiced in virtually the same way in all the pueblos.

Zuni Pueblo location map
For more info:
at Wikipedia
official website
Photo courtesy of Ken Lund, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 2.0 Generic

Zuni Teaching Tree

Disclaimer: This "teaching tree" is a best effort on our part to determine who the potters are in this group and arrange them in a generational order.

The pottery tradition at Zuni almost died out until Daisy Hooee (granddaughter of Nampeyo of Hano, Hopi-Tewa) took on the job of teaching pottery at Zuni High School in 1960. She was recruited for the job by Catalina Zunie, a Zuni potter who had spent several years just trying to get pottery on the school curriculum. Daisy also spent a year working with Catalina to become a consummate Zuni potter herself before she started teaching.

There have been several teachers at Zuni High since then and for some students, learning from their parents (who were former Zuni High students) has helped to strengthen the tradition. This diagram is subject to change should we get better info.

    Daisy Hooee Nampeyo taught 1960-1974
    • Shirley Benn
    Jennie Laate taught 1974-1990
    • Carlos Laate
    • Gabriel Paloma
    • Agnes Peynetsa
    • Anderson Peynetsa & Avelia Peynetsa
      • Anderson Jamie Peynetsa
      • Dominic Laweka
    • Priscilla Peynetsa & Daryl Westika
      • Gaylon Westika
    • Paula Quam
    • Brian Tsethlikai and Yvonne Nashboo
Noreen Simplicio - learned from Jennie Laate, taught 1990-1992
Gabriel Paloma - learned from Jennie Laate, took over class from Noreen Simplicio in 1992

Some of the above info is drawn from Southern Pueblo Pottery, 2000 Artist Biographies, by Gregory Schaaf, © 2002, Center for Indigenous Arts & Studies

Other info is derived from personal contacts with family members and through interminable searches of the Internet and cross-examination of the data found.