Artful Elegance
Located in the Pojoaque Pueblo, La Mesita Ranch Estate is imbued with Pueblo art and history
Located in the Pojoaque Pueblo, La Mesita Ranch Estate is imbued with Pueblo art and history.
The Pueblo of Pojoaque north of Santa Fe, New Mexico, was first occupied around 500 CE and its population reached its peak in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. In the traditional Tewa language it is called Po-suwae-ge, “water gathering place.” In 1680 there was a Pueblo Revolt against the Spanish invaders who were driven out. The revolt took a toll on the Pueblo and by the time of the Spanish reconquest 11 years later, the Pueblo had been abandoned.
In 1706 a few families returned to resettle the Pueblo, and in 1860, President Abraham Lincoln granted the Pueblo a land grant. However, by the end of the century, the Pueblo was abandoned again after it was devastated by drought and small pox.
In 1934 the commissioner of Indian affairs called members of the Pueblo back to the land or their claim to the land would be lost. Fourteen people returned and were awarded land grants. Today the population is about 2,000 and the tribal lands are the site of Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino, the Towa Golf Club and the Poeh Cultural Center.
Hidden in a corner of the Pueblo’s sovereign lands is La Mesita Ranch Estate, whose history parallels that of the Pueblo.
Clarence Mott Woolley (1863-1956) worked with J.P. Morgan to form the American Radiator Company and became its president in 1902. In 1924 he built the company’s headquarters in New York City, which inspired Georgia O’keeffe to paint her iconic Radiator Building—night, New York, 1927, now in the collection of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Woolley was a patron of the arts, supporting the Detroit Institute and Poetry Magazine and was a trustee of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His daughter
worked with a noted ethnomusicologist to make fieldrecordings of Pima Indian songs.
Early in the 20th century he acquired La Mesita Ranch and 140 acres on what had been tribal land. In the 1930s he hired John Gaw Meem (1894-1983) to design three homes on the property. Meem designed buildings in a Spanish-pueblo Revival Style that became perhaps better known as Santa Fe Style. The family kept La Mesita until 1959. By the late 1980s it had fallen into ruin. It was purchased by a woman who restored the buildings and added an equestrian complex and Olympic-size pool, which are an integral part of the resort today. In 2008, the Pueblo of Pojoaque purchased the property, which was always their ancestral land, and it returned to the Pueblo’s Tribal Land Trust.
La Mesita means “little mesa.” On top of the little mesa are the ruins of what is thought to be part of the original Pueblo of Pojoaque. It is deemed by the Pueblo as a sacred site and is off-limits to non-tribal members.
The ranch and its 140 acres are managed by the Pueblo of Pojoaque. Its buildings are decorated with paintings, sculpture and pottery from Pojoaque
and other Northern New Mexico Pueblos. Deborah Newman is its executive director. She says, “The art is most definitely the ‘wow’ factor at La Mesita. When touring a potential guest, the collection of art is always one of the key factors in a client’s decision to stay with us. It sets the stage for the guest experience. The Estate boasts an extraordinary collection.”
The art has been assembled from the collection of the Poeh Cultural Center and from elsewhere on the pueblo as well as from gifts. When Newman took over the property, Pojoaque Gov. Joseph Talachy encouraged her to take pieces to La Mesita that had been in offices. She carried them to the ranch piece by piece as she began to return its buildings to their homelike atmosphere. “It’s now extremely cozy, not a sterile estate,” she says.
“I feel so proud to work for a Pueblo that has such a rich tradition of art in so many different mediums,” she continues. “The Pueblo art in La Mesita is not housed in Plexiglas as it might be in hotels or museums. It is on the shelves, walls and on dining room tables. It is seen everywhere within the five residences, from decorative war sticks on the walls, to katsinas in beautiful armoires. It is approachable, and this creates a guest experience that is unparalleled. The Pueblo of Pojoaque reveres its art and is, indeed, so very proud that so many pieces are housed and featured at La Mesita Ranch Estate for all of our guests from near and far to enjoy. La Mesita is, indeed, the gem in the crown that the Pueblo of Pojoaque wears so proudly.”
The La Mesita collection ranges from contemporary photographs by Michele Tapia-browning (Santa Clara) to a large stone buffalo by the Pueblo’s former governor, George Rivera. Explaining her use of photography, Browning says, “To me, as a contemporary Pueblo woman artist, Pueblo imagery is so meaningful and powerful that it can no longer be limited to only traditional forms…the imagery that I use in my digital art and fashion design is readable and understood on a variety of levels by varying viewers.” She also designed the uniforms for Buffalo Thunder Resort.
The art also ranges over time from a painting by Julian Martinez (San Ildefonso, ca. 1885-1943), best known for his work with his wife, potter
Maria Martinez, to the painter Mateo Romero (Cochiti) who brings a contemporary outlook to his representations of the traditional ceremonies of the Pueblo. “My paintings are based in abstract expressionist references,” he says. “Bold colors slash across canvas, hot colors vibrate next to cold, drips and smears hover over the surface. Action painting references abound in stabbing, gestural marks. Artists like Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell are companions along this urgent pathway of color and surface.” He and his brother, Diego, were presented with the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture’s 2019 Native Treasures Living Treasures award. Today, he lives at Pojoaque Pueblo. An exhibition of the brothers’ work, The Brothers Chongo: A Tragic Comedy in Two Parts, will be at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture through March 30, 2020.