Western New Mexico University Alum Lynisha Dishta (MAT ’24) is a member of an all-women music and dance group, the Zuni Olla Maidens, which was recently awarded a highly prestigious National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts. The Zuni Olla Maidens are one of only ten individuals or groups awarded the nation’s highest honor in folk and traditional arts this year.
The group was founded by Dishta’s great-grandmother, and it has remained a family affair ever since. The members of the group are Dishta’s aunts and cousins.
The Zuni Olla Maidens perform social dances with water jars, or ollas, balanced on their heads. They dance in traditional regalia, including the turquoise jewelry that Zuni jewelers are known for, and they use drums, rattles and wooden rasps to accompany their songs. The group pays homage to the ancestral women of Zuni, who have traditionally been the ones to collect and carry water in ollas for their families.
The pots that the dancers balance are made and blessed specifically for each woman. They are concave on the bottom to help them stay balanced, but they are nonetheless heavy, said Dishta, and it takes time to develop the ability to perform the dances. “It is really all about posture and balance,” she said.
The members of the group serve as cultural ambassadors for the community, preserving traditions while also educating the broader public about Zuni culture. They have performed widely in the United States and Canada, including dancing at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC, and the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque.
Dishta said that it is an honor to be able to travel nationally and internationally to share Zuni music and dance. “I feel good about sharing our culture,” she said. “It makes me feel good that others want to know about us. It makes me feel like I am representing my tribe and my culture in a way that not everybody else has an opportunity to do.”
“We promote our language and our songs, our dances—it is something we do not want to lose,” she added.
The group has existed for more than 70 years, said Dishta, who joined the Olla Maidens when she was nine years old. “It is unique that we are all women and we are all family,” she said.
Dishta said that when her aunt, who is one of the leaders of the group, called a meeting to let the group know about the fellowship, the members did not at first know what the meeting was about. “But when we got the news that it was a national award, we cried, we laughed—it was a great time.”
“I feel very honored and very grateful,” she said about winning the fellowship, adding, “We have been very busy since we had won.”
The group will travel to Washington, DC, in September to receive their medals of honor. Dishta said that her one regret is that her grandmother, Cornelia Bowannie, who is in her 80s, is no longer able to travel, so she will not be present at the award ceremony. Bowannie led the group for decades. “She is a huge influence on all of us,” she said, “and she is why we even became a part of the group. … I am really close with my family.”
Winning the National Heritage Fellowship with the Zuni Olla Maidens is not Dishta’s only large achievement this year. In May, she became the first in her family to earn a graduate degree when she received her Master’s of Arts in Teaching from WNMU.
Even though she has a number of family members that are educators, including some that are also Olla Maidens, Dishta did not always expect to teach. As an undergraduate, she aimed to become a community advocate. But after a time working as a substitute teacher at Ramah Middle School / High School, she discovered that she could enter the Alternative Licensure program at WNMU and become licensed.
Becoming a teacher was especially attractive to Dishta because it allowed her to spend more time with her son. “I am a single mom, so I thought about the schedule,” she said, describing her reasoning at the time. “If I become a teacher, I will get the breaks off with my kid. I would get summers off and enjoy that time with him. So I decided to seek the position as a P.E. teacher and go the route of the Alternative Licensure program. That is when I enrolled at WNMU.”
In both the Alternative Licensure program and the MAT program, Dishta was able to complete all of her course work online. “It was very convenient,” she said, “but also overwhelming at times. … It takes a lot of time, especially being a single mom and working full time. But with the support of my family, I was able to get through it.”
Now that she has graduated, Dishta plans to continue teaching in Ramah, where she can remain close to her family. “It is really cool that we have a whole bunch of women in our group that are educators,” she said. “I look up to them for inspiration. They give me advice whenever I am stuck. It is nice to have people who can relate to what I am dealing with [as an educator].” And, of course, she will continue to dance with her award-winning family group.