Tewa Red and the Puebloan diaspora: The making of Ledbetter Red

Abstract

In the 17th and early 18th centuries, Native American potters in the vicinity of the Scott County Pueblo (14SC1) in western Kansas produced a local copy of unpainted Tewa red ware known as Ledbetter Red. We examine the red-slipped unpainted ceramics from 14SC1 and two nearby sites, 14SC304, and 14SC409, using macroscopic data on slip and paste attributes, petrographic data on inclusions, and oxidation data on slip and paste colors to compare Ledbetter Red with Tewa Red and with the ancestral Apache ceramics native to the study area, and also to evaluate differences in Ledbetter Red between sites. Changes in the execution of Ledbetter Red between earlier (14SC1) and later (14SC304 and 14SC409) sites may represent the work of newly arrived Puebloan potters and then their descendants raised in ancestral Plains Apache territory. Although some Tewa Red traits were deemphasized or abandoned in Ledbetter Red over time, the red slip was maintained and actually improved in quality in later examples. The highly visible red color might have been symbolically the most important aspect of Ledbetter Red bowls, reflecting the ethnic and historical complexity of these protohistoric Plains communities.