Zuni Olla Maidens

Zuni Olla Maidens is a New Mexico historical marker in McKinley County.

NM Highway 53 -- mile marker 17 -- Pueblo of Zuni -- near Black Rock and Pueblo of Zuni

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The Zuni Olla Maidens are an all-women’s group renowned for their skill and ability to balance fragile water jars or ollas on their heads. Historically, Zuni women collected water in ollas from nearby springs for everyday use. Today, they perform in parades and community events, walking with water jars placed on their heads while singing their own compositions and those traditionally sung by Zuni men.

The Historic Preservation Division notes that its marker spreadsheet may be out of date and in places inaccurate, and that it does not know where every marker now stands. These pages carry the spreadsheet’s record; a marker listed here may have moved or may no longer stand. the program’s page ↗

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1886 · Wingate, New Mexico (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1892 · Wingate, New Mexico (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1925 · Arizona, New Mexico (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1927 · State of New Mexico. General Land Office. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1954 · Gallup, New Mexico (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)

Arizona, New Mexico, 1925, covering the location of Zuni Olla Maidens, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Arizona, New Mexico, 1925, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

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The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyThat would be an error, and we can pass it to the program.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

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Marker data: Official Scenic Historic Markers program, New Mexico Historic Preservation Division, Department of Cultural AffairsMarker texts come from the Division’s published marker spreadsheet, reproduced with the Division’s written permission. Where that spreadsheet records a coordinate, the pin is the Division’s own; where it records only a highway and mile marker, an address, a junction or a named place, or where its coordinate contradicts its own highway, mile and county, the pin is ours, resolved on public road and place data and marked approximate.

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