Many aspects of Navajo culture changed when the United States began to move west. One of these changes centered on the ceramic making of Navajo women. Women had always provided pots for cooking and ceremonial uses. The dominant white culture forced the women to abandon pottery making for utility purposes (although certain bowls were continuously made for ceremonial use) and make their pottery pleasing to the eye. The whites supply the major demand for this pottery today. This site takes a look at the changes that came about because of Anglo influence and the effects it had on Navajo pottery. Biographies of eleven Navajo women (and men) who are among the more noted potters today are also given
Fortunately, the fighting with the whites was to short to have any detrimental effects on the making of Navajo pottery. Their exile was likewise too short to make cause any notable changes in the pottery. When the Navajo returned home they encountered s omething that they hadn't had in a very long time, relative peace. Peace allowed for trade to begin between the Navajo and the whites. Trains also contributed to an active trade. Among the items being traded were metal pots, pans, cups and bowls. All of these items replaced the old utility pottery of the past. A demand quickly arose for the highly decorative Pueblo pottery, but there was no interest in the utility ceramics of the Navajo. The limited demand for ceramics to be used in religious ceremo nies was not enough to keep many potters in business. Fewer and fewer girls were learning the ancient trade. By 1940 the trade was nearly obsolete. Most of the women who knew how to make pottery were very old, and very few young women wanted to learn.
If itj wasn't for the efforts of a few women in the 1950's, the knowledge of pottery making may have been lost for the Navajo. Women in the Shonto/Cow Springs region southwest of Kayenta continued to make pottery largely for ceremonial needs. Many of to day's potters still come from this area. During the 1940's and 1950's they kept the trade alive until the tourist market began to take hold. The pottery began to change during the 1950's as a limited tourism trade started up. The pottery changed even m ore dramatically changed during the 1960's.
Paving of reservation roads and increased tourism to the Grand Canyon contributed significantly to the revival of Navajo pottery production. An interest in southwestern native art and the demands of a few Anglos largely determined what types of ceramics were produced. The pottery remained unpainted, but the potters began to experiment with new forms and decorations. As these changes continued, the pottery employed in ceremonial uses went relatively unchanged. Painted pottery began to appear in the 197 0's and is still made by a few contemporary potters. Painting shows the influence of Puebloan potters. The types of pottery produced also changed as Anglos became major consumers. By 1970 and 1980 there were far more vases, flower pots, coffee mugs, an d pencils made than skillets and coffee pots. Since the arrival of Anglo consumers and the new demand for pottery, many more young women (and some men) are learning the trade. The craft and added income has been welcomed by many Navajo women.
Eleven different potters, and a little of their history, will be described in the rest of the site. The potters are; Rose Williams, Alice Williams Cling, Helen Herder, Faye Tso, Betty B. Manygoats, Jimmy and Clara Wilson, Silas and Bertha Claw, Stella Cl aw, Louise Goodman, Lorena Bartlett, and Kate and Mary Lou Davis
Rose Williams
Rose Williams is perhaps the most active of Lok'aa'-dine'e women, who
are so prominent in pottery making today. Rose was a mature women when
she learned to make pottery from her niece, Helen Herder. She has helped
many women become proficient in the cra ft over the last two decades. Rose
specializes in making very large jars. Few other potters are willing to
undertake such a risky endeavor with no assurance that the jar will come
out of the firing intact. Her work is derived from traditional shape and
decorations from cooking jars. Influences of her daughter, Mary Cling can
be seen in many of her pieces.
Alice Williams Cling
Alice comes from a family of potters. She began to learn after coming
home after graduating from high school in 1966. Admittedly she was not
a very promising beginner, but with patience her unique style emerged.
Her work is noted to be simple in form a nd having sheen soft surfaces.
Through trial and error wazzu she has perfected a technique that combines
stone burnishing with carefully restrained use of pitch. The result is
very innovative, but clearly Navajo. She rarely adorns her work but sometime
s experiments with texture. In 1978 her work, along with many other contemporary
American artists, was featured in the vice-presidential mansion in Washington,
D.C. Alice has won many awards throughout the southwest. Her work is of
the highest quality and retrieves the highest prices paid for Navajo pottery.
Helen Herder
Helen surpriseded her mother by taking some of her clay and going off
and making "a whole bunch of pots" at the age of seven. She is one of the
most respected potters of the Shonto and Cow Springs area. Her pottery
is in great demand amongst other Navaj os for use in ceremonies. Helen's
work is mostly conservative, rarely having wavy or crenulated rims. Helen
has been very eager to share her knowledge of pottery and pottery making
with others.
Faye Tso
Not only a potter, Faye Tso is also a well-known medicine women and
activist in Navajo issues. Faye still returns to the area where her mother
made pottery on the edge of Black Mesa to collect her pottery. Faye did
not learn the craft until adulthood. Because of her mother's early death
she learned from her mother-in-law, Mabel Begay of the Lok'aa'dine'e Clan.
Fayes husband, Emmett, and her daughters are also talented potters. Faye
and her family's work is characterized by the use of yellow and white clay
in the same piece as well as applications of deep rust-red pigment. Faye
and her family live in Tuba City. She has taught potter in both class rooms
and informal settings. Jimmy and Clara Wilson are amongst her pupils.
Betty B. Manygoats
Betty is a relative new comer to the Shonto/Cow Springs area pottery
making, but she is already one of the most well known of today's potters.
Betty's family became neighbors with her paternal aunt, Rose Williams.
Earlier, Betty had watched Grace Barlow , her paternal grandmother, and
learned to make pottery herself. She has a very large repertoire. She is
very willing to experiment with her large and small vessels. Among her
works include varieties of wedding vases, stirrup spouted jars modeled
after prehistoric Andean forms, effigy vessels, animal figurines, coffee
mugs, and spherical pencil holders. Her most exuberant pieces are large
wedding vases decorated with a couple dozen horned toads. Betty's pottery
is characterized by a distinctive surfa ce texture produced by rubbing
dried vessels with a piece of sandstone before they are fired. Ears of
corn and prickly pear cactus are also typical designs used in her work.
She is one of the few artists who applies paint to her pieces.
Jimmy and Clara Wilson
The Wilson's learned pottery making from Faye Tso in the late 1970's.
Jimmy and Clara have little contact with other Navajo potters because they
live in Leupp. Jimmy explores different materials for slips and temper
and experiments in blackware pottery. He has assembled pottery-working
tools from found objects. Using these tools he has developed a variety
of texture not found in other Navajo pottery. He has made plain drum pots
to jars with ornate incised designs. Clara Wilson enjoys making pottery
and produces vessels, pipes, small animal figures.
Silas and Bertha Claw
Bertha Claw learned to make pottery from Rose Williams in the early
1970's. Her work includes thin-walled cooking jars, wedding vases, triple-spouted
jars, and ceramic beads. Her cooking jars decorated with only a "necklace"
on the rim are elegant in th eir simplicity. Silas makes the multi-spouted
vessels. He decorates them with a variety of appliquéd and incised
plants and animal motifs. These motifs depict cactus plants, blooming yuccas,
oak leaves with acorns, ears of corn, domestic and game anima ls, and horned
toads. Silas also adds paints to make the appliqués more realistic.
Silas' jars are coated with varnish, not traditional pinyon pitch like
Bertha's jars. Silas also make pipes painted with corn plants or mountain
tobacco plants.
Stella Claw
Stella Claw learned pottery when she was nine while her mother was
learning from neighbor Helen Herder. Stella's mother told her that she
was to young and would only waste the clay. She took clay with her when
she went to heard sheep one day and made a small pot which she later fired
but unsuccessfully coated with pinyon pitch. Stella's mother was impressed
with her daughter's effort. Stella graduated from Northern Arizona University
with a degree in art education in 1981. She has taught art and Nava jo
studies at Monument Valley High School and Northland Pioneer College. She
teaches her students modern ceramic techniques, using commercial clays,
a wheel, glaze, and an electric kiln, but she also teaches traditional
Navajo pottery-making techniques. Her own traditional pottery includes
vase and jar forms with thin walls and plant and animal motifs.
Louise Goodman
Louise's work includes "rope pots" constructed of round coils, many-spouted
wedding vases, and pointed bottom jars. Louise and her family are best
known for their animal figures and effigy vessels. The creatures they use
include bears, buffalo, sheep, c attle, horses, chickens, squirrels, rabbits,
and stolid piggy banks. She learned pottery from Lorena Bartlett.
Lorena Bartlett
Lorena Bartlett's work is among the most striking of contemporary Navajo
pottery. Her conservative use of appliqué technique leave plenty
of surface to show the distinctive fire clouds many of her vessels acquire
during firing . Recently she has made an imal figure and effigy vessels.
Kate and Mary Lou Davis
Kate Davis learned to make pottery from her grandmother, Selina Williams.
She is one of the most traditional of today's Navajo potters. Many of her
works are bought and used in Navajo ceremonies. Kate and her daughter,
Mary Lou, have also worked with s mudged blackware. The two have adapted
old styles of decoration, such as an unobliterated surface treatment produced
by corncob scraping and thumbnail indentations, to their contemporary forms.
Works Cited
Brugge, David M. Navajo Pottery in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, Arizona 1992.
Wright, Diane H. Revival in Navajo Pottery:1950 to the Present. Museum of Norther Arizona, Flagstaff, Arizona 1992.
Wright, Diane H., Bell, Jan. Potters and Their Work. Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, Arizona 1992.