FREE ESSAY ON HOPI INDIANS AND THEIR POTTERY

HOPI INDIANS AND THEIR POTTERY

Hopi Indians lived in the western part of America (Arizona). Their civilization is about
3000 years old and they usually farmed for living. The Hopi reservation is a remote area,
comprising approximately 650,000 acres, and is surrounded on all sides by the Navajo
Reservation. The Hopi people have lived in this area for over a thousand years, with one
of its native villages on Old Oraibi, having the distinction of being the oldest
continuously inhabited village in the United States.
Hopi brought a lot of influences to many people. Hopi people were famous for their pots
they make. Hopi pottery is assumed to have been made by women, there are few early
historic references to men making pottery. Pottery varied from village to village so all
the neighboring villages showed different blending of style. Hopi pottery are made very
similar today as the olden days just that now days, it is much expensive. Modern Hopi
potters make their pottery in the traditional manner. The clay is hand dug on the Hopi
mesas and hand processed. The pots are carefully hand constructed using the coil and
scrape techniques their ancestors taught them. The paints used are from naturally
occurring materials. For example, boiling Beeweed for a long time until it becomes very
dark and thick makes black paint. 
Before making a pottery, they found clay near the ocean or by inland streams and pond.
They would wedge the clay to help remove air bubbles from the clay. If air is not removed
from the clay pottery may break or crack when dried and fired. They tasted the clay to
choose which clay is better. They picked sweet clay because it would be smoother than the
bitter clay. After choosing which clay they were going to use, they started to make the
pot, known as the coil pot method. They would roll a piece of clay into a thin line.
After, they would add the thin line and built it up step by step placing the rolled up
clay on top of each other. 
The inside of the pinch pot was smothered and joined. They would use a shell or a broken
pot to smooth the pot and to make it in shape to compress cracks and to smooth the pot
for decoration. They would also put white powder on it and rub it with sandstone to
smoothen it. At the end, they would fire the pot. Before firing, they warmed the pot and
also dry it. After drying slowly for several days, they pottery would be ready to be
baked in a fire. They used sheep dong and broken pots to put on top of the made pots. The
pots would stand on rocks and sheep dong (pots would be up side down). The temperature
would rise 1500 degrees or more and they would avoid any rapid temperature changes. 
Decorations were also important for the Hopi potteries. They would draw the decoration
with a yacca (a brush-chewed on the end). The colorings were made up of tanzy and
compounds. The designs and symbols vary from one artist to the other. Designs were
usually animals and shape. The symbols on the pots came from mythological and religious
ideas, especially of the psychological elements of sympathetic magic. Symbols were also
often used to influence supernatural beings, which often explains artistic motifs. The
pots there designed and buried, containing food and other materials. This showed us that
the Hopis thought about their after life.