Lewis, Lucy

Lucy M. Lewis (1900-1992) was born and raised in Acoma Pueblo on top of Sky City Mesa, a land formation southwest of Albuquerque that rises more than three hundred feet above the surrounding countryside.

Since there were no schools up on the mesa, Lucy received no formal education beyond that which is required of every Pueblo child as they grow up: she helped in the home, she learned the various steps and chants necessary to participate in rituals and ceremonies, and she began learning how to make pottery when she was only seven or eight years old.

She learned by watching her great-aunt Helice Vallo and other Acoma Pueblo women as they made traditional pottery for the kiva ceremonies and for personal use. In those days, all the potters gathered together and worked together, the young learning from the old and from each other. However, unlike many others, Lucy was never exposed to off-pueblo pottery influences. Her entire creative inspiration was derived from the potsherds she found as she walked around the grounds of Acoma. A large amount of what she found on the ground was Mimbres-style pottery, characterized by black decorations on a white slip. From the spark lit by those sherds she developed her own methods of making and decorating pots.

In her teens Lucy married Toribio Haskaya and they had nine children. She handled the household chores, helped her husband with the farming and somehow found time to squeeze in making pottery. Because of Acoma Pueblo’s remote location, Lucy was never exposed to (or interfered with by) archaeologists, museum curators, collectors, traders or tourists. She also did not travel to powwows or fairs, though she occasionally sold her pottery at the railroad station in Grants, about 20 miles from Acoma. In spite of this relative isolation, Lucy Lewis is credited with helping spark the revival of Mimbres black-on-white pottery.

Lucy’s pottery first became known outside the pueblo the first time she exhibited her wares in a juried competition, in 1950. She took home several blue ribbons that year from the annual InterTribal Indian Ceremonial in Gallup, New Mexico. That brought her to the attention of Dr. Edgar Lee Hewett, Director of the Museum of New Mexico (the same Dr. Hewett who had worked with Maria Martinez years earlier).

Hewett convinced Lucy she needed to sign each of her pieces. As she took home more and more blue ribbons, her signature became more and more valuable. During the 1980s and 1990s, Lucy received awards from the American Crafts Council, the College Art Association, the State of New Mexico and the Honolulu Academy of Fine Arts. She continued to make pots until she was well into her 80s. Some of her grandchildren are still creating pottery using the methods and decorations she passed on to them through their parents.