Jemez Pueblo, is the last remaining Towa-speaking pueblo.  The last remaining families at Pecos Pueblo, once the largest and wealthiest in New Mexico left to join their linguistic relatives at Jemez in 1847.  This ended a strong Pecos cultural influence, especially in their pottery designs and techniques.  Pecos had been the last historic period pueblo to utilize glazed designs in their pottery making, and except for an occasional experiement, the techniques is not produced today at Jemez.  By the early 1700's, Jemez had, in fact, lost most of their pottery tradition.  Jemez people traded with neighboring Zia and Santa Ana for their pottery needs, and until a reliable bridge was constructed in the early 1930's, making travel to Jemez easier, no Jemez pottery was produced.  As trade grew with Spanish Communities such as San Isidro, and Bernalillo Jemez people rediscovered pottery as a source of trade revenue and began making very simple, paint decorated pottery.  While their earlier pottery was not considered particularly noteworthy, they persevered in developing their techniques and decoration motifs.  Many of their early influences were their neighbors, but by the 1960's, distinctive styles had emerged from the Jemez culture and mountain location.  Today, working in several different styles, Jemez pottery provides an exceptional value among high quality pieces from other pueblos, particularly in polished and incised sgraffitto and polished and painted wares.  Many of their artists are highly respected  and their work is avidly collected.  Some of the most active families in pottery at Jemez are the Toyas, the Fraguas, the Gachupins, the Tafoyas and the Chinanas.

Zia Pueblo, by contrast, has developed their distinctive buff slipped , polychrome decorated pottery almost completely cut off from other design influences since the mid 1700's.  Today, traditional Zia pottery remins one of the most unchanged pottery forms still created.  Many strong stylistic trends exist in their pottery, chief among these is a very strong reliance on the Zia traditions, which impart a very sturdy, rather thick walled jar or vase of very pleasing , symmetrical shape.  One of the most important ways Zia pottery differs from their neighbors is the use of hand ground basalt stone as temper for their hand dug clay.  This creates a working mixture that is very time-consuming to prepare, but is very strong when fired. 

Zia potters rarely polish their pottery to a high shine, preferring a softly sanded, gently polished buff slip background which is then decorated with their traditional symbols including the Zia bird -- roadrunner, and rainbow arcs.  Flower forms and cloud points are also commonly used as is the ZIA symbol, their sacred symbol for the sun, adopted by the State of New Mexico as the main element in the state flag.  A few of their potters still produce the large, water jar ollas up to 24" in height, and their work is prized by collectors of traditional pottery.  In addition to the traditional styles, Marcellus Medina, following in the tradition first created by his father and mother, carefully decorates his wife Elizabeth's pots with highly detailed studies of ceremonial dancers, animals and other cultural motifs.  Originally using acrylic paints and mediums over gessoed pots, he is now using traditional colored, natural pigments finely ground and prepared, over finely slipped surfaces.  His family's pottery remains the high point of Zia pottery.  Besides the Medina family, the Herreras and Aragon families produce beautiful, prize winning pottery.