Santa Clara Pueblo

Nancy Tanin was born in 1965 and has been making pottery since 1977.  She was taught by her grandmother Rose Sisneros. She secializes in traditional deep carved bowls and animal figurines. She gathers her materials from the Santa Clara Reservation and fires her pottery outdoors. Her work is very high quality.  Her mother, Ninakoteen passed away when she was very young and she was raised by her grandmother, Rose Sisneros. Her Great Grandmother is Ohje-gee. She is the wife of Keith Tanin, who is the grandson of Mary Cain. She told us that her grandmother took potting very seriously and wanted her grandchildren to give it the proper respect. We she was a small child she would take pottery chards from the firing pit and her grandmother would throw rocks at her and chase her away. She had a good laugh over that!