Indian Pottery

The Navajo Reservation, consisting of fourteen million acres of high plateau stretching from northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico into southeastern...See more » The Navajo Reservation, consisting of fourteen million acres of high plateau stretching from northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico into southeastern Utah, is guarded by four sacred mountains: Blanca Peak, Mount Taylor, the San Francisco Peaks, and Mount Hesperus. The Navajo nation is the largest Indian group in the United States, with a population of two hundred thousand. Traditional Navajos live in round log-and-clay hogans and have "summer houses" made of branches and twigs, neither of which have water or electricity. Many are in the vicinity of Chinle and Canyon de Chelly, where many Navajo weavers raise their sheep. Clans are very important in Navajo life, and are the source of some of the emotions, remembrances, and cultural ties that influence pottery designs. Tuba City, the tribal headquarters on the east side of the Grand Canyon, and springs in vicinities to the south, have sufficient clay in nearby locations for potters to gather. Unlike the Hopi, the Navajo were not traditionally artistic potters, although Navajo women have been making pottery for hundreds of years for their own household and ceremonial use. A few of them turned into artist potters when the railroad crossed America, and have begun to be a force in the Indian pottery market much like Hopi artists, who have long been successful. In this century, Navajos have achieved notoriety in weaving, silversmithing and jewelry making, basketry, and painting; probably more than in any other Indian culture, Navajo potters are enveloped in surrounding aesthetic inspirations. Navajo potters often mix several clays together, for varying physical and chemical as well as aesthetic qualities. Unlike many other tribes, Navajos do not grind up old pot shards to mix into the raw clay powder for temper, lessening the shrinkage and breakage during firing. Navajos feel that old pottery shards belong to the Anasazi, their forefathers, and should not be removed from the ground. The style of early Navajo pottery is in contrast to most pots made in other Indian villages in the United States. Fabricated in the coil and pinch manner of old societies, the work was bonfired and then a unique treatment was used. Before the pot had cooled, hot melted pitch from piñon trees was poured or rubbed in a thin coating over the vessel, inside and out. This unusual technique distinguished the look and aroma of Navajo pottery. Traditional pots were undecorated for centuries, except for textures that occurred in the fabrication, or the application of small symbols made of the same clay. Navajo tribal society was tightly controlled, and medicine men imposed restrictive behavior regulations upon the women making pottery. Possibly, the discipline imposed on Navajo women shows in the conservative nature of their pots. In the 1880s, the railroad crossed America and the first whiteman run trading posts came to the Navajo reservation. Use of cash money instead of the barter system brought the Indians access to the white man's cooking products made of metal and plastic, diminishing the need for utilitarian pottery and undermining native tradition. Navajo women still made pottery for ceremonial use and the lack of large quantities of this type of pottery along with the whiteman's cooking utensiles, reduced the need for making any other kind of pottery. At the same time, while artistic pottery from the southwestern pueblos was reaching a high degree of popularity, the traders rejected the traditional Navajo pottery, calling the dark-brown, pitch-coated utilitarian wares "mud pots." Tourist markets for Navajo blankets and jewelry were more profitable than the market for this kind of pottery. Another change occurred when curators from nearby museums began to notice a few emerging clay artists, who were taking traditional Navajo techniques to new levels. Rose Williams was the first traditional Navajo potter to break into the museum markets and fairs in the 1950s. She built cylindrical jars two to three feet tall, a quite exceptional size for handbuilt bonfired pottery. Her daughter, AliceSee less »