Cherokee Potters Guild Revives the
Cherokee Pottery Tradition

A Cherokee potter perpetuates the longest continuing pottery tradition of any tribe in the United States on their original homeland.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has the longest continuing pottery tradition of any tribe in the United States on their original homeland. Nearly 2,000 years ago, Cherokee potters began using carved wooden paddles and sharp objects to stamp their pottery with intricate crosshatch, spiral and other designs.

Their stamped, hand-built, thin-walled, waterproof pots were not only beautiful, but some were quite large. Cooking pots and water jugs were often a foot high, and some were large enough to hold more than 10 gallons. The Cherokee also made distinctive effigy pots of humans, frogs, birds and dogs. They used their knowledge of various clays and firing techniques to create unique black and white pots, and red and white pots. High firing temperatures made the pots waterproof, and they were sealed further by a second firing utilizing soot from burned corncobs.

Cherokee people traded for iron pots and manufactured dinnerware starting around 1700, but potters continued to make functional, stamped vessels for cooking. After about 1920, Cherokee potters turned to an emerging tourist market to sell their creations. During this period, visitors were primarily interested in taking home small, decorative pots as souvenirs. The pots in the 20th century continued to have distinctive Cherokee designs, but many of the qualities that had made the old-style Cherokee pottery tradition so special faded over the next century.

In 2000, modern-day Cherokee potters and the staff of the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in Cherokee, NC, began discussing how to revive their ancient pottery tradition. In 2002, a grant from the Cherokee Heritage Trails project through the North Carolina Arts Council enabled the Museum to establish a workshop for the potters in which Tamara Beane, a noted expert in indigenous southeastern pottery, and archeologists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill came together at the Museum to share what they knew about the old Cherokee stamped pots.

The experts brought shards to supplement what the potters had been able to see in the Museum’s pottery collection, and the workshop participants also benefited from a detailed article about the pottery and techniques of Cherokee potter Iwi Katolster that appeared in a newspaper in 1914. With the help from these multiple sources, the Museum and the potters were able to figure out how to recreate the pre-1900 pots.

The approximately 15 potters who participated in that original workshop and Dr. Barbara Duncan, the Museum’s education director, did not stop there. In 2003, they formed the Cherokee Potters Guild and they applied for the first of two grants from the Cherokee Preservation Foundation that have enabled Cherokee Potters Guild members to:

In a short period, the members of the Cherokee Potters Guild have learned to make larger and larger cooking pots, refined their firing techniques and further explored the kinds of pottery Cherokee people made during the Mississippi Period, 600 AD to 1600 AD. Furthermore, the potters have not just reclaimed their tradition. They have added new elements, so they are carrying the tradition forward and making it their own.

Joel Queen, a multi-talented EBCI artist who took top prizes in both traditional pottery and wood sculpting this year at the prestigious Santa Fe Indian Market, is now creating large pots up to three feet high that have a 15 gallon capacity. Early on, as he was experimenting with techniques, he was losing some beautiful pieces during the firing process because they cracked, but now he has the process down pat.

“If you set down to accomplish something, it can be done,” says Queen, who juggles working with clay, wood, stone, metal and paint, as well as running his own gallery and pursuing a Master’s degree in fine arts at Western Carolina University. “I don’t see an end to what we can do in designing the stamped pots.”

The Cherokee Potters Guild creates a different signature piece each year. Each is a low, rounded cazuela pot with a small shoulder, and a new pattern is stamped on the rim every year. The pieces are available for sale at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, Cherokee Preservation Foundation is the Guild’s best customer.

The founding members of the Cherokee Potters Guild are Davy Arch, Bernadine George, Betty Maney, Melissa Maney, Shirley Oswalt, Joel Queen, Dean Reed, Alyne Stamper, Amanda Swimmer and Mary Ann Thompson.

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