San Juan Pueblo-Ohkay Owingeh,  means “Village of the Strong People”. The language spoken by the San Juan Pueblo is Tewa. The first contact they had with the Spanish was in 1598, when Juan de Onate arrived on a survey exploration. The Spanish were impressed by the friendly people of the San Juan Pueblo. Onate named the pueblo San Juan de Caballeros (Saint John of the Gentlemen). The pueblo is located 30 miles north of Santa Fe, New Mexico it has been continuously inhabited for over 700 years. There are more than 100 of its original buildings that still survive (Gibson, Daniel, 2001).

Famous potters for Ohkay Owingeh are Leonidas C. Tapia, Reyecita A. Trujillo, and Rosita Cata.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gibson, Daniel. Pueblo of the Rio Grande:  A Visitors Guide. Tucson, AZ: Rio Nuevo Publishers. 2001.

Last Monday Jeanne Brako the Curator of Collections from the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College in Durango stopped by to visit the Luther Bean Museum.  I meet Jeanne when I went on my first museum trip. Since her area of expertise is textiles her visit turned into a work session.  Jeannie showed us how to prepare our textiles for freezer treatment and also gave us some valuable tips on how we can better store our textiles. In June two of the museum committee members Linda and Tawney traveled to Fort Lewis to work with Jeanne. They were shown how to hang textiles without causing damage to it.

Jeanne is not just my friend now, but “our” friend. Thanks friend for all your help.