Traditional method of making Native American Pueblo pottery.

This is The traditional method of creating clay pottery by the native American people. This video is circa 1920. It is Maria and her husband from the Acoma Pueblo. Background music is traditional drum circle.Acoma Pueblo (Western Keresan: Aa'ku; Zuni: Hakukya; Navajo: Haakʼoh) is a Native American pueblo approximately 60 miles (97 km) west of Albuquerque, New Mexico in the United States. Three villages make up Acoma Pueblo: Sky City (Old Acoma), Acomita, and McCartys. The Acoma Pueblo tribe is a federally recognized tribal entity. The historical land of Acoma Pueblo totaled roughly 5,000,000 acres (2,000,000 ha). Only 10% of this land remains in the hands of the community within the Acoma Indian Reservation.
According to the 2010 United States Census, 4,989 people identified as Acoma. The Acoma have continuously occupied the area for more than 800 years, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the United States. Acoma tribal traditions estimate that they have lived in the village for more than two thousand years.
The word "Acoma" is from the Acoma and Spanish word Acoma, or Acú, which means "the place that always was" or "People of the White Rock". "Pueblo" is Spanish for "village" or "town". Pueblo refers to both the people and the unique architecture of the Southwest. Some tribal elders assert that it means “a place that always was".
The Acoma language falls in the Keresan language group. In Contemporary Acoma Pueblo culture, most people speak both Acoma and English. Elders might also speak Spanish.
At Acoma, pottery remains one of the most notable artforms. Men created weavings and silver jewelry, as well.
Acoma pottery dates back to more than 1,000 years ago. Dense local clay, dug up at a nearby site, is essential to Acoma pottery. The clay is dried and strengthened by the addition of pulverized pottery shards. The pieces then are shaped, painted, and fired. Geometric patterns, thunderbirds, and rainbows are traditional designs, which are applied with the spike of a yucca. Upon completion, a potter would lightly strike the side of the pot, and hold it to their ear. If the pot does not ring, then the pot will crack during firing. If this was found, the piece would be destroyed and ground into shards for future use.
Prior to the coming of Europeans, the peoples of both the North and South American continents had a wide variety of pottery traditions. However, there is no evidence that a Native American potter ever invented the potter's wheel. Because of this, all known Pre-Columbian American pottery was made entirely by hand, using a number of traditional techniques. These include sculptural modeling, press molding, coiling, and paddling. Functional pottery objects were produced by many cultures, as were figurines, masks, and ritual items.
Pottery techniques
The procedure for creating coil pottery favored in the Eastern United States was more focused on preparing clay than in the West. The women would spend hours on end mixing the clay they had gathered with crushed seashells, sand, plant materials and other temper until they had precisely the right consistency; then wedging it to remove the air bubbles that could easily make it blow up during firing. They would then pound out a flat circle of clay to serve as a base. While the potter was building the coils up, she was also deliberate to take the time to blend them together. Once they were blended nicely, there was no trace of the ropes of clay so carefully entwined to form the pot, no deviation in the thickness of the walls, and therefore no weaknesses. As a finishing touch, the pot was struck with a cord-wrapped stick to compact it and give it its final shape. American Indians have never used enclosed kilns, so the pot was put in a shallow pit dug into the earth along with other unfired pottery, covered with wood and brush, and lit on fire where it would harden and heat to temperatures of 1400 degrees or more. For a finishing touch, the surface of the pot would be rubbed vigorously with special stones, leaving the surface smooth and polished.
Southwestern cultures
Ancestoral Pueblo Cultures: including Anasazi, Mimbres Valley, Jornada Mogollon, Hohokam, Casas Grandes, Fremont.
Historic Pueblo cultures: including Santa Clara Pueblo, Taos Pueblo, Hopi, San Ildefonso Pueblo, Acoma Pueblo and the Zuni. Noted individuals involved in Pueblo pottery include Nampeyo of the Hopi, and Maria and Julian Martinez of San Ildefonso Pueblo. In the early 1900s Maria Martinez and her husband Julian rediscovered how to make the the traditional Black-on Black pottery for which San Ildefonso Pueblo would soon become famous.
Other historic cultures including the Apache and the Navajo (who refer to themselves as the Diné).