Zuni Olla Maidens 4

As part of the museum's Native American Heritage Month Ceramics of the Southwest program, the Zuni Olla Maidens perform dances and songs that pay homage to their female ancestors, who labored to get water for daily sustenance by balancing large olla jars on their heads. The Zuni Olla Maidens are known for the Pottery Dance, in which they move in carefully choreographed steps with delicate painted pottery jars balanced on their heads. The group, led by Loretta Beyuka and Juanita Edaakie, are all related by blood and are citizens of the Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico. This is the fourth of five presentations they gave that was live webcast and recorded at the Potomac Atrium of the National Museum of the American Indian on November 14, 2015.