Sandia, Natalie

Descended from many generations of Acoma and Jemez potters, Natalie Sandia is a member of the Jemez Pueblo Eagle clan. Her parents were Wilbert and Geraldine Sandia. As part of growing up, Natalie traveled around the country with her father, selling and delivering her mother’s pottery. For her, it was a time of hands-on learning of the packing, transporting and marketing of Pueblo pottery, all the business aspects. Then she finished high school and learned to make pottery herself.

In learning from her mother, she said it wasn’t her mother telling her to do this or do that. Instead, her mother told her to look at her pieces and see how they look, and do they feel right. If something was off, she learned how to rebuild it and fix it.

To the end of his life, she always continued traveling and making sales calls with her father. She said it was hard to continue after he passed, so she stopped traveling and marketing for a while. Then slowly, she made some pieces and began traveling and selling on her own.

It was Natalie who created the Jemez Pueblo Pottery Mug for the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center’s Pueblo Pottery Mug series (one from each of the 19 Indian Pueblos in New Mexico).