Youvella, Ethel

Ethel Youvella (1919-2006) was a Hopi-Tewa potter from Polacca, AZ. She learned the basics of making pottery through watching and working with her grandmother, Lela Talavensi Augah, as a child. Finer points of the process she learned from her aunts, Grace Chapella and Laura Tomosie. Ethel enjoyed the company of Grace and Laura so much she worked together with them for years. In those days, pottery making was more of a community and family endeavor than it is now.

Ethel made yellowware and redware jars, bowls, plates, vases, cylinders, tiles, turtles and bird effigy ashtrays (for the tourists). Her favorite designs to paint were the Nachwach-clan handshake (the Handshake of Brotherhood), feathers and cloud symbols.

Ethel first appeared in the marketplace around 1930 and was a fixture at the Museum of Northern Arizona’s Hopi Show and the Arizona State Fair for years, earning multiple ribbons at both.