Silas, Roberta

Roberta Youvella Silas (1939-2009) began making pottery for the marketplace in 1965. Her mother, Pauline Youvella, was from Laguna Pueblo and her father, Roy Youvella, was Hopi-Tewa from Polacca. No one in either family knew how to make pottery so after she decided she had to learn how, Roberta apprenticed herself to Helen Naha and learned from her. After she got comfortable with the process she taught her daughters: Antoinette Honie, Venora Silas, Jofern Silas Puffer and Louann Silas.

Roberta often painted bands of Sikyátki-Revival designs, parrots, lightning bolts, cloud terraces and feathers on her traditional jars, bowls and piki bowls.