When we first see an olla, the Spanish name for a clay pot used in older times by Southern California Native American people, we notice immediately how beautifully round it is.
Cahuilla olla by Rehueria Riglera, collected from Florence Lugo, Cahuilla, in 1917, courtesy of National Museum of the American Indian.
Beautiful art … but also downright useful. This offers smart technology from prehistoric times:
The round shape makes use of all space to hold life’s most essential medicine: water.
You can set the vessel on its stand (often woven from yucca), at any angle. That enables quick access to the water within, at whatever level.
When you pour from an olla, there’s no lingering fluid caught in a bottle neck. You get every precious drop.
As we think in this summer heat wave about carrying water, storing water, and the human need to stay close to life-giving water, this week, we’re talking about ollas.
Olla by Antonia Casero (Antonia Casera), Cahuilla, collected in 1917, courtesy of the National Museum of the American Indian.
Mixing Earth, Air, Fire, and Water
Traveling back in time:
Collected from Florence Lugo (Cahuilla) in 1917, Courtesy of the National Museum of the American Indian.
“Ka-wo-mal is the [Cahuilla] word for a tinaja or water olla,” anthropologist David Barrows wrote.1 The Serrano is pahat, according to linguist Kenneth Hill. (Pa' is the word for “drink.”) C. Hart Merriam recorded O-roó-sar in 1903 from his
Tongva consultant, Mrs. J.V. Rosemyre. 2 Please TELL US the words in other Native American languages.
The earth that made this earthenware from Native homelands was never ordinary. Lucile Hooper reported in 1918 about the Cahuilla,3 “There were two types of clay used. One they called tesnit, which was the best quality; the other was ulish. I was told they found this clay in the mountains. The clay is first ground to a fine powder; water is then added. It is then patted into shape between a small smooth stone curved on one side and known as a paikwal, and a wooden paddle. Rolls of clay are built on to the top of the shaped vessel as needed. The paikwal is used on the inside of the bowl and the wooden paddle on the outside. The clay of the bowl must be kept wet all the time so that it will not crack. After it has the desired size and shape, it is smoothed down with the paikwal and with the hands, which are first dipped in water. The completed pot is then placed in the sun to dry for one day, and next placed in a pit and burned with cow manure. This also takes one day. If ornamentation is desired, it is painted before baking with red ochre from the mountains.”
Collected from Francisco Lugo (Cahuilla, ca. 1847-ca. 1940) in 1917, courtesy of the National Museum of the American Indian.
In her 2004 Cahuilla cultural memoir, 4 Katherine Siva Saubel told how her father described his mother’s artistry of mixing sand and mud together into a perfect combination, so, “Pé' pé' kill mípa' chávipi' míyaxwe', yáqa'.” (“It would never come apart, he said.”)
Paul Schumacher, an archaeologist of the 1800s, watched Cahuilla pull “the white, fine, dense clay which so effectually discolors the water of that river [the Whitewater River] at the head of the desert, the beginning of Coahuila Valley. The clay, after being cleared of all rocky and light substances, is preserved in dried lumps for use.”5
Cahuilla jar circa 1900s, courtesy of the National Museum of the American Indian, donated in 1948 to MAI by Altha J. Wilson (1894-1965) of the Indianoya Indian Trading Post (Palm Springs, California)
The kiln was an underground pit in which the pottery was baked for several days, when the pit was opened and the fired vessels removed, he said.
Ancient Arts Remembered
Olla by the late David Largo (Cahuilla) on display in Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s Gathering Hall. (Pat Murkland photo)
Tony Soares and the late David Largo come immediately to mind as those who have revived and shared the art of this beautiful and useful paddle earthenware pottery in recent decades. Thank you!
A treasured memory of the late David Largo at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center in Banning, sharing the traditional use of paddle and hand in the shaping of a Cahuilla olla. (Pat Murkland Photo)
Visit the National Museum of the American Indian online collection of ollas HERE.
Join Us!
Join our reunion on Aug. 14, 2021, of our community saving Southern California’s Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts.
Help support our 501(c)3 Dorothy Ramon Learning Center! Please join us at the Dragonfly Gala. If you cannot join us, we welcome your donation.
News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center loves to hear from our community: EMAIL. Subscribe, share! Thank you! Pat Murkland, Editor. July 21, 2021.
Barrows, David Prescott, The Ethno-Botany of the Coahuilla Indians of Southern California, [2d printing 1977] © 1967 Malki Museum Inc., Malki Museum Press, pp 26-27.
Appendix I in McCawley, William, The First Angelinos: The Gabrielino Indians of Los Angeles, © 1996 William McCawley, Malki Museum Press and Ballena Press.
Hooper, Lucile, in Studies in Cahuilla Culture, A.L. Kroeber and Lucile Hooper, “The Cahuilla Indians” (reprint from Berkeley and Los Angeles, Calif. University of California, 1920, Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, v. 16) 1978, Malki Museum Press, p 359 (85).
Sauvel (also spelled Saubel), Katherine Siva, and Eric Elliott, “My Paternal Grandmother Making Pottery,” in 'Isill Heqwas Wáxish: A Dried Coyote’s Tail, Malki Museum Press, 2004, Book 2, pp. 936-938.
Schumacher, Paul, “The Method of Manufacturing Pottery and Baskets Among the Indians of Southern California,” in Some Last Century Accounts of the Indians of Southern California, ed. Robert F. Heizer, Ballena Press Publications in Archaeology, Ethnology and History No. 6, © 1976 Ballena Press. Originally published by Paul Schumacher as “Twelfth Report of the Peabody Museum,” Harvard University, pp. 521-525, 1880. Editor’s Note: Sadly, Schumacher, like other archaeologists from his era, excavated many artifacts from Native American graves, especially from the Channel Islands, and sent them to organizations such as the Peabody Museum and Smithsonian Institute. (Ref. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, 31 (1), 2011, pp. 105-109.)