Maria Montoya Martinez

Her pots carry a history in their signatures. Edgar Hewett's 1908 excavations brought her ancient sherds to copy, and by 1918 she and Julian had their matte-on-polished black, fired by smothering the flames with manure. The early pieces are unsigned. From the 1920s she signed Marie, a name a Santa Fe Indian School director told her Anglo buyers would know, then Marie + Julian, Marie + Santana after Julian died in 1943, and Maria/Popovi with her son. From 1959 Popovi Da added the firing date, to tell her work from forgeries.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Maria Montoya Martinez, (Povika, Pond Lily) (ca. 1886-1980) San Ildefonso Pueblo Maria Martinez was a self-taught potter who helped elevate Pueblo pottery to a respected art form. She and her husband Julian were successful polychrome potters and together revived black pottery. Their work improved the economic conditions of the community. Recognized internationally, Maria was an innovator with strong spiritual and cultural awareness. Her skills and techniques have been carried on successfully by subsequent generations.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fuller Lodge — 10 mi
  The upright-log dining hall of a boys' ranch school, which fed and housed the Manhattan Project after the Army bought the school in 1942.
• Bandelier National Monument — 11 mi
  Rooms carved into soft volcanic tuff in Frijoles Canyon, named for a Swiss scholar who was led there in 1880 by a man from Cochiti Pueblo.
• El Santuario de Chimayó — 13 mi
  A small adobe shrine on the High Road to Taos, built around 1816 over earth that pilgrims still carry away in hope of healing.
• Palace of the Governors — 17 mi
  The long adobe on the north side of the Santa Fe plaza, called the oldest public building in continuous use in the country, though its own founding date is in dispute.

More markers nearby

• Pueblo of San Ildefonso — steps away
• Jémez Mountains — 0.9 mi
• Feliciana Tapia Viarrial (1904-1988) — 5.9 mi
• Los Alamos — 7.3 mi