Catawba Pottery

       The tradition of Catawba Pottery is one that is believed to predate more commonly known pottery traditions among Natives in the South West. This ongoing tradition has kept up for several reasons. Perhaps the most obvious of these reasons is to preserve parts of their culture. Another of the reasons is that has provided a steady source of income throughout the years.        
       The tradition of pottery making among the Catawba Indians is very old and yet still has continued to this day in the same way that it most likely started. The original Catawba potters would dig their clay out of the river bank. The modern members of the Nation still do the same when they are making their pottery. Catawba Indians use a hand building technique to build their pottery rather than using the moder pottery wheel. This provides for one of
a kind pottery each and every time. The Catawba also do not ever paint or glaze their pottery. 
       One of the reasons that Catawba Pottery is so distinctive is the fact that after sun drying the pottery they fire it in an outdoor pit or open fireplace. Depending on where and how the wood is placed around the pottery, each piece will come with a variation of black, tan, orange or brown colors. Often they have a mottled effect with two of those colors. That is just another thing that makes each piece of the Catawba Pottery one of a kind. The Catawba have been selling their pottery for over a hundred years which has provided them with one of the only consistent stable sources of income in the Catawba Nation.

References:

Hilton Pond Center. "The Catawba Indians: People of the River." Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History. http://www.hiltonpond.org/CatawbaIndiansMain.html
Largo, Jim. "Catawba potter's traditional work in high demand." Indian Country Today, December 10, 2003. http://www.proquest.com/