The Zia symbol
A stolen Indigenous emblem becomes New Mexico’s identity
An uncomfortable truth for New Mexicans is that our state symbol — the iconic four-pronged sun which appears on the state flag and most iterations of New Mexico license plates and decorates the floor of the State Capitol building — was appropriated from the Indigenous people of Zia Pueblo.
In 1925, a white anthropologist called James Stevenson from Kentucky was conducting ethnologic studies among several Native American communities in New Mexico for the newly established Bureau of American Ethnology. Stevenson began studying the Zia Pueblo, working extensively with them and eventually winning their trust. During that time, they permitted him to attend secret spiritual ceremonies, during which the four-pronged sun symbol was used. Stevenson supposedly asked to buy one of the pots he saw decorated with the symbol, and when the Pueblo declined, he went ahead and stole it.
The Zia symbol is a sun with four lines of rays emanating out of four sides, symbolising the four cardinal directions. According to the Zia Pueblo website, “The number four is a sacred number to the Zia, representing the four cardinal directions, the four seasons of the year, the four stages of life, and the four sacred obligations one must develop: a strong body, a clear mind, a pure spirit, and a devotion to the welfare of others.”
The symbol’s appeal is obvious: its simplicity and its connections to the desert sunshine are an easy marker for the lands of New Mexico. But only in learning the sacred meaning contained in this symbol for Indigenous people to whom it belongs can we really understand it. It is a powerful icon of the connection between people, life, Earth, sky, animals and the cyclical nature of the universe, themes that Indigenous Peoples the world over have consistently held sacred over millennia while White Europeans shunned our inherent place as part of nature and the cosmos in favor of hyper-rationalism and extractive capitalism.
The stolen Zia pot somehow ended up in the private collection of cubist painter Andrew Dasburg, who lived in Santa Fe at that time, and this is where another anthropologist, Harry Mera, first saw it. At the time, New Mexico — which had officially become a state in 1912 — was holding a competition for the design of its new state flag. Mera and his wife decided to use the symbol in submitting an entry to the contest. They won and the flag was adopted by the New Mexico Legislature. Thus began the story of the Zia symbol’s widespread appropriation.
All of this happened in the 1920s, at a time when Indigenous people had no rights in the United States. While the Indian Citizenship Act was enacted on June 2, 1924, technically granting legal citizenship to Native Peoples born in the US, the right to vote was decided by each state. Native Americans were banned from voting in New Mexico until 1948, an eventual right granted only after the considerable efforts of a retired Marine Corps Colonel from Isleta Pueblo named Miguel Trujillo Sr.
After being turned away from a voting booth in Valencia County, Trujillo sued the State of New Mexico in US District Court. Finally in August that year, three judges at the District Court in Santa Fe sided with Trujillo, stating that it was a violation of the 14th and 15th amendments to the US Constitution and was discrimination on the grounds of race. Trujillo died in 1989 and though he is a hero of Native American civil rights, most New Mexicans like me still never hear his name in school. Read more about Miguel Trujillo Sr in this Santa Fe New Mexican article from 2018.
So it would be 23 years before Native Peoples would be given the basic human right to vote in New Mexico, yet the Zia symbol was hastily stolen and used as our state symbol. None of this will surprise any Native American person or anyone familiar with the history of oppression and violence perpetrated against Indigenous Peoples in the United States and across the world.
The symbol’s use has been widespread across the state, for much of the time against the will of the Zia people, and the symbol was eventually entered into the public domain for free use by anyone. It is no wonder that the Zia people remained reluctant to entertain outsiders — unlike several of New Mexico’s other 18 Indigenous Pueblos, Zia less often opens its doors to the public for feast days, events or tours.
In 2000, the original pot was finally repatriated to Zia Pueblo, and after careful negotiations involving the late former governor Bill Richardson, the use of the Zia symbol was finally accounted for and resolved with the Pueblo, 75 years after it was stolen.
This morning, as I was browsing online for a New Mexico-related t-shirt, I started to think about the Zia symbol and its appropriation, and whether it could ever be ethical to buy merchandise with the symbol as a measure of state pride.
Happily, Zia Pueblo now operates its own store online selling all sorts of merch containing the symbol, with partial proceeds going directly to the Pueblo to support the Zia Youth Scholarship Foundation. Their website states they’ve raised $67,000 so far. There is also a form to fill out to request permission to use the symbol — an important step for any New Mexican business, organization or individual wishing to utilize the four-pronged sun in their artwork, marketing or otherwise.
So if you see me wearing a shirt bearing the Zia symbol, it was purchased directly from the Zia Pueblo shop. Go buy something: ziapueblo.co.
