PINE RIDGE SIOUX * Olive Cottier * Vase *

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PINE RIDGE SIOUX * Olive Cottier * Vase *:
$19.97

The signature was Pine Ridge Sioux “Collier”. The history of this pottery company is fascinating.

The Sioux Indian reservation was founded in southwestern South Dakota in 1890. The Sioux were a nomadic tribe that followed the bison herds and did not do much with ceramics or pottery. These items were too heavy to carry. They were much more interested in lightweight baskets and the only pottery they made was for utilitarian purposes.

In 1930, a boarding school was set up on the reservation, to teach the Native American children English. Legend has it that in 1937, Bruce Doyle was hired to teach the children ceramics. Doyle is credited for making molds to be used in the high school and for inventing glazes that worked with the local clays.

From 1937 to 1940 were the most productive years at the high school. The pottery (both thrown and molded pieces) supported all the crafts at the boarding high school. Doyle left in 1940 and the high school production ceased.

However, three of his students, sisters of Sioux decent, continued Pine Ridge potteries after the high school program ended. Ella Irving (known as Ella Woody during the late ’30s and Ella Cox during the 1940s) got a loan to purchase a log cabin building in downtown Pine Ridge and kept the pottery running.

Local clay was dug and local glazes were used. Ella and the company continued using the

incised mark “Pine Ridge Sioux” sometimes including the word “Indian”, under a pine tree on a ridge. Ella and her sister Olive (also known as “Ollie”) Cottier threw pots on the wheel, while the third sister, Bernice Talbot did the work of casting, glazing and decorating the pottery.

My piece had the incised pine tree on a ridge, “Pine Ridge Sioux”, and was signed with