Santa Clara Pottery | Andrea Fisher Fine Pottery

Harrison Begay Jr.

Dineh/Santa Clara

A squarish black-on-black jar carved with multiple figures and geometric designs

Harrison Begay Jr. was born in the Jeddito Canyon area, near Keams Canyon on the Navajo Nation. He was a painter before he married Marie John of Santa Clara Pueblo and moved to her home there. At Santa Clara, his wife and his mother-in-law taught him the traditional Santa Clara way to make pottery.

Harrison likes to carve his pieces. In the early years of his pottery career he mostly carved typical Santa Clara designs. Then he started carving designs based on the Dineh spiritual pantheon and on petroglyphs he found out in the countryside.

Harrison has earned a number of awards for his work over the years. Lately he's been experimenting with using matte paint on parts of his polished-and-carved pieces and varying his firing effects to deliver different colors of pottery at the end. Harrison has taught his son, Daniel, and his daughter, Jamie, how to make pottery, too.

Some Exhibits that featured Harrison's work

Crafted to Perfection: the Nancy & Alan Cameros Collection of Southwestern Pottery. Rockwell Museum of Western Art. Corning, New York. November 22, 2007 - May 18, 2008
Private Reception and Showing: Harrison Begay, Jr. and Daniel Begay. Texas Star Bank. McKinney, Texas. November 24-26, 2006
American Indian Festival and Market. Dallas, Texas. October 28, 2001
Native New Mexico, Inc. Santa Fe, New Mexico. August 16, 2001
Blue Rain Gallery. Chicago, Illinois. March 23-25, 2001
Grand Opening, David V. Draper Gallery. Santa Fe, New Mexico. June 9, 2000
Blue Rain Gallery. Ellipse Arts Center. Arlington, Virginia. March 26-28, 1999
New Works in Clay by Jody Naranjo and Harrison Begay. Faust Gallery. Scottsdale, Arizona. December 4, 1999
New Works by Hubert Candelario, Linda Tafoya-Oyenque, Russell Sanchez, Harrison Begay. Gallery 10. Scottsdale, Arizona. March 28, 1996

Some Awards Harrison has Won

2024 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification IIC, Category 701 - Carved or Incised, Black or Red, Under 8 inches, Honorable Mention
2023 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification IIC, Category 701 - Carved or incised, black or red, under eight inches, First Place
2019 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C - Traditional burnished black or red ware, incised, painted or carved, Category 701 - Carved or incised, black or red, under 8": Second Place
2019 Heard Museum Guild Indian Art Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C - Carved, native clay, hand built, fired out-of-doors: Second Place. Awarded for artwork: "Yei, Hummingbird & Dragonfly"
2014 Heard Museum Guild Indian Art Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C - Traditional, native clay, hand built, carved: Honorable Mention. Awarded for artwork: "Morning Prayer"
2004 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C - Traditional pottery, carved or incised, in style of San Juan, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara, Category 1006 - Miscellaneous (can include vases, pitchers, ladles, canteens, boxes, plates, etc.: Third Place
2003 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C - Traditional pottery, carved or incised, in style of San Juan, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara, Category 1001 - Jars: Second Place
2003 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C - Traditional pottery, carved or incised, in style of San Juan, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara, Category 1006 - Miscellaneous (can include vases, pitchers, ladles, canteens, boxes, plates: Second Place
2001 American Indian Festival and Market, Dallas, Texas, Pottery: Best in Class, First Place and Honorable Mention
2001 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C - Traditional pottery, carved or incised, jars, Category 1001 - Jars: First Place
2001 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C - Traditional pottery, carved or incised, jars, Category 1005 - Miscellaneous (can include all vase forms, pitchers, ladles canteens, plates, boxes: Third Place
2001 Santa Fe Indian Market: Special Award in Pottery
2000 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C - Traditional Pottery, carved or incised (in the style of San Juan, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara & other tribal styles), Category 1002 - Jars (over 7" tall): First Place
2000 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C - Traditional Pottery, carved or incised (in the style of San Juan, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara & other tribal styles), Category 1002 - Jars (over 7" tall): Third Place
2000 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification VII - Pottery, Division B - Traditional, native clay, hand built, unpainted: Honorable Mention. Awarded for artwork: "Yei (Man and Woman)"
1999 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C - Traditional Pottery, carved or incised in the style of San Juan, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara & other tribal styles, Category 1001 - Jars (up to 7" tall): First Place
1999 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C - Traditional Pottery, carved or incised in the style of San Juan, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara & other tribal styles, Category 1002 - Jars (over 7" tall): First Place
1999 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C - Traditional Pottery, carved or incised in the style of San Juan, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara & other tribal styles, Category 1009 - Miscellaneous, including canteens: Third Place
1999 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C: Best of Division
1998 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification - Pottery, Division J - Pottery Miniatures, Category 1605 - Traditional forms, other bowls: Third Place
1996 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C -Traditional pottery, carved or incised in the style of San Juan, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara, other tribal styles, Category 1004 - Bowls (over 7" in diameter): Second Place
1996 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division J - Pottery Miniatures, 3" or less in height or diameter, Category 1605 - Traditional forms, other bowls: First Place
1995 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Traditional pottery, carved, Category 1103 - Bowls (up to 7 inches in diameter): Third Place
1995 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division K - Pottery miniatures, 3" or less in height or diameter, Category 1705 - Traditional forms - other bowls: First Place

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Santa Clara Pueblo

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:
Santa Clara Pueblo 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