Melchor, Santana

Santa Melchor was a potter from Santo Domingo Pueblo. She lived from 1910 to 1978. After learning how to make pottery the traditional way from her mother, Maria Garcia, she was active as a potter from the late 1920s until she passed on. She was one of the few who kept the Santo Domingo pottery tradition alive in a time of hardship. She mostly made polychrome jars, bowls and owls but was especially known for her large polychrome storage jars. As with most artists at Santo Domingo, she also made some jewelry.

Santana was one of the women who flew to Washington DC in 1974 to tour the pottery vaults at the Smithsonian Institute. They also met and had lunch with then-First Lady Pat Nixon, wife of then-president Richard M. Nixon.