Third Grade Students Learn About Catawba Pottery Traditions

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Holding in his hand a ceramic peace pipe, Keith Brown of the
Catawba Nation explains the Catawba's reverence for the
circle and the four directions of the earth.

"Whoa," the third-grade students exclaimed when they learned that Keith Brown had been making Catawba pottery since 1976. Clearly, they thought that was a very, very long time.

Yet Brown, of the Catawba Cultural Preservation Project of Rock Hill, SC, was able to explain the tradition of pottery-making that went back in his family more than 130 years by showing photos of his great-great-grandmother and of his aunt making pottery and by displaying some family pottery pieces.

Brown's display board used family photos to explain the
thousand-year legacy of Catawba pottery.

Soon the students began asking questions about his pottery and his family, and they began to relate to traditions thought to be 1,000 years old.

The presentation, arranged by LS Art teacher Marilyn Wood, was part of an International Baccalaureate inquiry into "Past and Present" and the enduring values and stories that are our legacy from the past.

While working some clay he had dug from a river bottom in his hands, Mr. Brown told some stories of his childhood growing up in a family of ten children and going to a school so tiny that he was the smartest/only student in fourth grade.

As he talked, he constructed a small pitcher using the pinch method and such traditional tools as a corncob to hollow out the inside of the vessel and smooth stones to rub its surface.

He explained how in the past his people made their pottery items, the women shaping bowls and cooking pots and the men making pipes, especially the turtle pipe that represents the Catawba people. The Catawbas took these items to neighboring towns, trading them for food and other items. "If they traded them for a chicken, they ate chicken that night."

Mr. Brown concluded his presentation with the story of Big Head Turtle, which explains why turtles are ashamed today to show their faces. To learn more about the Catawba Cultural Preservation Project, click here.

Third-graders have begun to explore the values and legacies they have received from their own families.

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