Native American Storytellers ~ Singing Mothers
"The
inventor of the Storyteller form is Helen Cordero of the Cochiti
Pueblo, New Mexico, though the tradition of figurative pottery
predates Helen by many centuries. In their excellent book,
"The Pueblo Storyteller', Barbara Babcock, and Guy and
Doris Monthan date figurative pottery in the Southwest to perhaps
as early 300 B.C. and certainly as early as 400 A.D. among
the Anasazi, the predecessors of today's Pueblo Indians.
Helen
Cordero was born in 1915. In the 1950s she was making "Singing
Mother" figures. These were sitting female figures holding
one or two children on their laps. They were quite popular and
were made by many Cochiti potters. In 1964, Helen Cordero made
the innovation which would prove to be a milestone in figurative
pottery. Instead of the traditional female figure, she modeled
one after her grandfather, Santiago Quintana. The grandfather
storyteller, his mouth open and five children clinging to him,
was an endearing figure and the public sought more. We have
learned that Helen Cordero believes that the true storyteller
is a male figure, and that female figures are properly called
"Singing Mothers." As their creator she certainly
is an authority on the subject of storytellers, but the form
she began has taken on a life of its  own.
More and more people are making storytellers, at Cochiti, the
surrounding pueblos, and even from other peoples like the Navajo,
Blackfoot, and Hispanics. The term "storyteller" has
become generic and is used to describe not only male figures,
but females, clowns, mudheads, frogs, owls, turtles, coyotes
...nearly any figure that has an adult figure surrounded by
or covered with children.”
From
"Storytellers and Other Figurative Pottery" by Douglas
Congdon-Martin. Published by Schiffer Publishing, Atglen,
Pennsylvania. A wonderful book that we highly recommend
to those interested in Storytellers. This book can be ordered
by clicking the title of the book as found on our Learn
More page. Click
here.
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the links below to see work by these artists. |
