Cora Durand

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Cora L. Durand (1902–1998) was a Picuris Pueblo potter who kept the traditional hand-built micaceous pottery alive. She began pottery in the 1950s after returning to Picuris when her husband, Roland Durand, died in a car accident. Durand was born in Picuris and raised by her father, Miguel Lopez. She and Roland had four children.

Before becoming a potter, she worked many jobs, including for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Picuris Pueblo Day School, the Taos Pueblo Indian Hospital, and two boarding schools in Towaoc, Colorado, and Holbrook, Arizona. After her husband’s death, she returned to Picuris and started making pottery. Her pieces were practical and designed to be used, following the long tradition of hand-built micaceous pottery in Picuris and Taos. She mined clay locally in Picuris and was influenced by potter Juanita Martinez.

Durand’s work gained national attention. She represented the Picuris Pueblo pottery tradition in a 1974 Smithsonian Institution exhibition and later exhibited at the Bond House Museum and Cultural Center in 1987, the Arizona State Museum’s 1994 American Indian Pottery Fair, and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in 1996. By the 1990s, she was one of the last Picuris potters, and she passed on her skills to her grandson Anthony Durand, who began learning from her at age seven.

Durand stayed active in the community, volunteering at the Picuris Catholic Church and the Picuris Valley Home Extension Club. She died on January 23, 1998, and was buried in the Picuris Cemetery. A New Mexico historic marker honors her contributions to preserving Picuris pottery, alongside Virginia Duran and Maria Ramita Martinez.