Native American pottery, very often many hundreds of years old, turns up all the time in archaeological digs, but the ones we find are more likely to have been made in the nineteenth century. They will likely be far off descendants of those earlier ones.

Native American pottery takes many forms. Bowls, storage jars and water dippers, made of earthenware, painted in decorative fashion, are typical of the finds today.

The techniques for making pottery and for the decoration of it were largely traditional and were passed down like a well guarded secret from mothers to daughters and granddaughters.

The girls were taught to grind the pastes for the pots, what mixture to use to make them more durable or to take the highest burnish.

The beauty and craftsmanship of antique Native American pottery like this Acoma vase have made them quite valuable as collectibles.

The technique for baking the pots was also traditional, largely dependent upon the tribe or sub tribe that one was a part of.

Pueblo pots, for instance were never kiln fired, but instead on outdoor fires that were carefully and lovingly tended.

Females were encouraged to find their designs in their dream content, in other words their pots were by and large individual to just themselves and as such, many of the more famous artists work can be recognized by the workmanship and designs they bear.

Acoma and Laguna potters worked in a thousand years tradition. The work they doo seems to be top heavy, while Hopi artists designs are more slim at the top.

Nampeyo, a Hopi artist became quite famous for her reinterpretation of ancient designs she found on shards of pottery and repainted, which was so completely successful that she received an invitation to appear in the Chicago Land and irrigation Expo, where she demonstrated her craft and was called the greatest maker of Indian pottery alive today.

Today, Native American pottery, particularly that which is older, is not only difficult to find but also costly unless one happens upon some at a sale where the seller is not certain of what they have.

Particularly in the Midwest, I’ve seen some reasonable pottery in the junk sales of many people and a fair bargain can still be found if you spend the time to search for it.