Martha Suazo

Santa Clara Pueblo

Martha Suazo was a potter from Santa Clara Pueblo. She grew up in a family of potters, learning as she got older. Then, while she was at school in Fort Worth, TX, she met and married Art Cody (also known as Haungooah).

Art was a Kiowa man who was born at Fort Lawton, OK. After they were married, he moved to her home at Santa Clara. At Santa Clara, Martha encouraged Art to get involved in making pottery. He responded by enrolling in ceramics classes at the Institute for American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. He excelled at the artistry of designs and became one of the first artists at Santa Clara to get into sgraffito. Very quickly he and Martha earned a number of awards for their work.

Martha and Art made pottery miniatures together for almost a decade. Then one day in 1981 as she was walking in the vicinity of the Santa Claran ancestral home at Puyé, she was struck and killed by lightning.