Ami, Eleanor

Eleanor Ami was a contemporary of Sadie Adams and an accomplished Hopi-Tewa potter herself. She was active mostly between about 1960 and 1980. She is most remembered for her pottery rattles and her canteens. She lived most of her life in Tewa Village, at the foot of First Mesa.

When her grandsons, Loren Ami and Emerson Ami, came to her and asked if she would help them learn, she taught both the basics of making pottery the traditional way. Then Loren met Hisi Quotskuyva and collaborated on some pottery with her. Seeing the high quality of his work, her mother, Dextra, took Loren under her wing and fine tuned his pottery-making process.