17 Facts About Ida Redbird

Ida Redbird was a Native American potter from the Gila River Indian Community of the Gila River Indian Reservation in Arizona.

Ida Redbird was the first president of the Maricopa Pottery Maker's Association and was widely credited with the revival of ancient Maricopa pottery techniques and forms.

Texas photographer Ted Sayles shot a series documenting Redbird sculpting her pottery.

Ida Redbird was born March 15,1892, in Laveen on the Gila River Indian Reservation in Arizona to Hoot Somegustava.

Ida Redbird attended Phoenix Indian School, where her former teacher remembered her a being a shy, serious student, who learned pottery at a young age.

Ida Redbird's efforts earned her the respect of fellow potters, who elected her first president of the Maricopa Pottery Maker's Association.

Ida Redbird's pottery was typically highly polished redware painted with designs in black slip.

Ida Redbird built her pots with the paddle-and-anvil technique rather than a coil method.

Ida Redbird's method was developed by ancient Hohokam artisans and used local clay from the Gila Riverbed.

From 1941 until her death, Ida Redbird taught summer classes and exhibited her works at the Heard Museum of Phoenix, Arizona.

In 1949, Redbird served as an interpreter for Lenora S M Curtin in her study of the Pima people, By the Prophet of the Earth.

Curtin described Ida Redbird as one of the two best potters of the Maricopa and noted that she was a skilled herbalist.

Paul Huldermann, founder of the Scottsdale National Indian Arts Exhibition; Tom Cain, curator of the Heard Museum; Dr Carl Guthe, a one-time president of the American Museum Association; and Kermit Lee, an Arizona Indian art collector all described her as one of the very best Southwestern Native American potters, but Ida Redbird herself thought that Mary Juan was better than she.

Ida Redbird exhibited at fairs, museums, and gatherings such as the All-Indian Fair in Lake George, New York and the 1968 Tohono O'odham Powwow held at Casa Grande.

Ida Redbird was inducted into the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame in 1985.

In 2015, Ida Redbird's work was shown along with other Arizona Native American potters' work in an exhibition at the Amerind Museum and Art Gallery.

Ida Redbird Elementary School is a K-6 public school in the Mesa Public School District of Mesa, Arizona.