Pueblo de Cochiti

Outstanding cottonwood and aspen ceremonial drums and remarkable terra cotta Storyteller dolls are major features of the arts at Cochiti Pueblo. Cochiti drum makers have long provided instruments from hollowed trees and hand tanned leather to ceremonial drummers throughout the Southwest. Large pottery vessels by Cochiti and nearby Kewa or Santo Domingo potters followed a parallel course until about 1830, when the Cochiti potters began a 20-year evolution away from the Kewa Polychrome to their own distinctive style known as Cochiti Polychrome. The initial differences are seen mainly in the designs with Cochiti Polychrome designs lighter and finer, often isolating motifs so they appear unrelated to one another. Secular Cochiti Polychrome pottery also often contains sacred symbols such as clouds, rain, lightning, serpents, mammals and humans, all of which were/are strictly forbidden to Santo Domingo potters. Since the late 20th Century, pottery figures, including the Storyteller dolls, made famous by Cochiti artist Helen Cordero in the 1980s, have been popular among Cochiti artists. Still today, many Cochiti animal figures take their inspiration from Ringling Brothers Barnum and Baily circus animals since, in the 1920’s a Ringling circus train derailed near the Cochiti Pueblo and the Circus was taken in by the villagers for several days.

For Directions, information about hours, admission fees and programs go to:
https://cochiti.org/visiting/