Deer-with-heart-line

About the Deer-With-Heart-Line Design

The "deer-with-heart-line" pattern may have been developed by the potters of ancient Hawikuh. We don't know, but whenever it was developed, a Zuni Pueblo potter known as We'Wha taught it to Arroh-ah-och of Laguna Pueblo in the 1890s and Arroh-ah-och took it back to Laguna and painted it there.

Some potters at Acoma Pueblo were painting the image of a deer in the 1880s but no one painted the deer-with-heart-line design until Lucy Lewis asked for and received permission from the Pueblo of Zuni. Some members of her family have been painting it since but the design hasn't spread through the community like it has through Zuni.

The "heart line" has multiple meanings: it's a prayer of thanks for good health and abundance for the spirit of the deer and good hunting for the hunter.

When the "deer-with-heart-line" pattern appears under the center of a rainbow with mountain and forest symbols on either side, that is "deer-in-his-house," a prayer for abundance and prosperity for all in the environment.

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