Pueblo Watercolors

Celebrate National American Indian Heritage Month with Pueblo watercolors from the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Pueblo is a Spanish term meaning "town" or "village." When Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado ventured into the Pueblo Indian region (now Arizona and New Mexico) in 1540, he called the Indians who lived in permanent towns "Pueblo" Indians to differentiate them from their nomadic neighbors such as the Apache and Navajo.

Before European explorers and settlers brought paper into the Southwest, Pueblo Indian artists painted images on pottery and on walls of ceremonial rooms called "kivas." Today, some Pueblo painters record their culture on paper. Animal Designs is a watercolor, but the artist uses designs that decorated traditional Pueblo pottery.

Can you recognize any of the animals shown here? What parts of the pictures give you clues? See more Pueblo Indian watercolors in our online Teachers' Guide.

Source: Andrew Connors. Pueblo Indian Watercolors: Learning by Looking, A Study Guide (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art, 1993). Also available online at http://americanart.si.edu/education/guides/pueblo/main.html

Pictured: Awa Tsireh, about 1895–about 1955, Animal Designs, about 1917–20, watercolor on paper, 20 1/16 x 26 1/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Corbin–Henderson Collection, Gift of Alice H. Rossin.