5 minute read
West by Southwest Ernie Bulow
THE ZUNI POTTERY GIRL SINGERS
THE SPIRITUAL HEART OF CEREMONIAL
here was one
Tgroup not on the program for that first Ceremonial in 1922. Legend has it that Zuni performer Lonkeena took his wife and another woman to Gallup at the last moment. It took two days by wagon, with a layover around Cousins. The ladies were to march carrying large water jugs (ollas) on their heads, an activity seen all over the Pueblos from early times. They don’t actually have water in the jugs when they dance.
Water carriers were possibly the most photographed subject in the Pueblos in the early days. Every tribe made pottery jars and everyone carried water from the spring, well, reservoir, pool or pond. Few homes had running water until well after WWII.
Lonkeena (no other name) and Mrs. Lonkeena (her Zuni name was too difficult to pronounce) created the act based on an every day activity. Young girls learned to balance the heavy jugs on their heads, leaving hands free for climbing ladders. Just one of the many tasks to be mastered as a girl matured into womanhood in traditional Pueblo life. Lonkeena was aware of how popular this sight was to tourists who spent miles of film to record it.
At the turn of the last century, Edward Curtis photographed in Zuni. He took several photos of the water carriers, several of which he turned into highly collectable post cards.
It is not recorded if those first two ladies sang as they marched, but to make an eve-
MR. & MRS. LONKEENA
Ernie Bulow
West by Southwest
by Ernie Bulow
CURTIS OLLA MAIDENS DAISY’S GROUP WITH FROG BOXES (L. TO R.) Daisy Hooee, Nora Leekity, Marie Qualo, Bessie Laconselo, Rose Gasper, Crystal Sheyka, and Irene Chavez.
DAISY HOOEE ON DRUM--ELEANOR AHYITE ON RIGHT
ning presentation of the act they had to present a talent. They added singing to the balancing act and with the fabulous costumes had an instant hit. Besides Mrs. Lonkeena’s group, soon Della Appa also had a crew. Della was made famous as the first lady silversmith in Zuni. It is hard to sort out the exact chronology of the various ensembles. Another famous group was led by Thelma Sheche.
They marched and sang until the Forties when Daisy Hooey (a Hopi/ Tewa married into Zuni) organized a group and added dancing to their routine. Somewhere about here, the name changed from Zuni Girl Singers to Olla Maidens. [Hereabouts the Ls are often pronounced.]
A member of that group said that one number was called the fruit dance. Baskets of fruit were substituted for the wa-
MODERN OLLA MAIDENS, CORNELIA BOWANNIE R.
THELMA SHECHE’S GROUP. (L. to R.) Anita Concho, Kletsu, Dora Weeka, Thelma, Sara Leekya, Nathan Lasiloo, and Margaret Lalio
ter jars and at the end of the number, the apples and oranges were passed out to the audience.
Traditionally the ladies sometimes carried large serving bowls instead of the pots. A newspaper report said this was to invoke rain. Everything was to invoke rain. During major dance events in Zuni the ladies carry these bowls on their heads filled with all kinds of traditional foods for the dance participants.
The Zuni women will queue up in long lines and walk to the kivas to make their offerings. This carries on the tradition since water doesn’t have to be carried from the spring these days.
A nineteen-fifty-seven newspaper article noted: “Few spectators understood why the Zuni pottery maids carried shallow bowls on their heads in the parade Friday…” Adding, “This was done for the success of the Ceremonial— weather wise.” The water jugs were considered a prayer for rain.
Daisy’s group sang songs about water animals, obviously symbolic of the water sources. In the frog songs, they each had a small wooden box and a notched wooden rasp. The sound of the rasp scraping the edge of the box was very much like the loud croaking of a frog.
The Hopis have a variety of rasp/sounding board configurations that take place during dances. I have seen the notched stick used with a large gourd as an amplifier. Frog boxes and their songs are popular today.
The Olla Maidens didn’t just perform at Ceremonial. They traveled all over the country to dance and sing for appreciative audiences. There were many groups over the years, sometimes several competing choruses at the same time. A few of the performers were only active for a few years— Lola Hechiley, a poster girl for the group, told me she was only active one season. Yet the picture they took of her appeared in magazines and newspapers for years.
The famous jeweler Eleanor Ahyite first danced with the Olla Maidens when she was fourteen years old. That would have been in 1930. She continued to dance well into an advanced age. Eleanor is in her nineties now and doesn’t perform any more, but she still makes her signature row bracelets. Thelma Sheche is another of the longtime group leaders. For a time the Zuni governors marched with the maidens and some, like Conrad Lesarlley, were often photographed.
When Ceremonial founder Mike Kirk tried promoting a similar extravaganza in Albuquerque he started another “Olla Carrier” group from the Pueblo of Isleta, but apparently the act never caught on.
The Zuni Pottery Girl Singers have never missed a Ceremonial.
