Arikara Pottery Making

Abstract

The following note regarding pottery-making may be of interest to archaeologists who are not already acquainted with it. It is an entry made by John Bradbury when he was at an Arikara village on the Missouri in May, 1810.

“I noticed over their fires much larger vessels of earthen-ware than any I had before seen, and was permitted to examine them. They were sufficiently hardened by the fire to cause them to emit a sonorous tone on being struck, and in all I observed impressions on the outside, seemingly made by wicker work. This led me to enquire of them by signs how they were made? when a squaw brought a basket, and took some clay, which she began to spread very evenly within it, shewing me at the same time that they were made in that way. From the shape of these vessels, they must be under the necessity of burning the basket to disengage them, as they are wider at the bottom than at the top.