Acoma Pueblo, also called Sky City, is over 1,000 years old, one of the oldest living communities on Earth. 

Traditional Acoma pottery is made from natural clays, minerals and plants found within their homeland.  Many inherit family clay beds where they pray and sing songs to Mother Earth.  Some collect many different types and colors of clay for paints and slips.  Their main clay is naturally grey.  To make their pottery strong, they mix ground pottery sherds or volcanic ash and water into the finely screened, dry powdered clay.  Their white slip is made from kaolin, a white chalky material formed millions of years ago by the sediment of microscopic organisms that once lived in an ancient sea covering the Great Southwest.  Their black paint often is a mixture of an iron oxide mineral called hematite and a vegetal paint brewed from wild spinach, Rocky Mountain bee weed, yucca fruit and other plants.  Red, orange, yellow and other colors come mostly from natural clays, although some use non-traditional materials and molded pots.

Acoma potters have made over a dozen main styles of pottery.  After the 1680 Pueblo Revolt for independence, prayer feather and cloud designs took on regional styles.  During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the traditional style was orange and black-on-white.  Their favorite shape was a water jar called an olla.  Their designs included the Acoma parrot, clouds and rosettes.  In the 1920’s, fineline rain and black-on-white designs appeared in a revival of ancient pottery styles from their ancestors of the Anasazi Chacoan, Mogollon Tularosa and Mimbres regions.

Source Information:
Volume Four, American Indian Art Series, Southern Pueblo Pottery, 2,000 Artist Biographies, by Gregory Schaaf, Ph.D.

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