Rowland, Richard

This pottery was made by Oregon artist Richard Rowland using clay gathered at Tule Canyon, Texas. Fragments of bone and deer antler were added during firing. Rowland’s anagama dragon kiln was fueled with mesquite from the Llano Estacado and beaver sticks from Cache Creek, Oklahoma. Pots such as these were used in a reconciliation ceremony between the Comanche Nation and Texas Tech University. The pots in this collection are prototypes; the pots used in the ceremony were given to Comanche Nation College. The ceremony took place at the Medicine Park Ceremonial Grounds near Lawton, Oklahoma, on Sept. 9, 2007. Participants in the ceremony included Wallace Coffey (chairman of the Comanche Nation), Dr. Kim Winkelman (president of Comanche Nation College), Comanche war widows, students from Comanche Nation College, TTU President Jon Whitmore, Senior Vice Provost James Brink, Barry Lopez, and Dr. Clint Chambers. The materials for the pottery were gathered at Tule Canyon, Texas, the site of Colonel Randall Mackenzie’s slaughter of over one thousand Comanche horses, ending the Comanche resistance to U.S. military forces.

From the guide to the Comanche Pots Collection, R33. 1., 2007, (Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Texas Tech University)