GLORIA KAHE
(Hopi, Navajo/Diné) b. 1951 - present
Gloria Kahe was born into the Navajo Nation in 1951 and is a member of the Water Clan. She is a Navajo who married Samuel Kahe, a Hopi from Polacca, the lower village at First Mesa. Samuel Kahe is a member of a Hopi family of famous potters. Gloria learned from one of the respected masters of clay of the Hopi reservation, her mother-in-law, the Arizona Living Treasure, Marcella Kahe and has been making pottery since 1986. Gloria is so steeped in Hopi tradition that she and her family have been accepted as Hopi potters for years. Even authorities on Hopi pottery list Gloria Kahe among the Hopi potters because she is married into the Hopi tribe and because she adheres to the traditional ways.
Her pottery is Hopi in materials, hand-coiling technique, hand-painting, hand polishing and appearance. She has developed her own designs on pottery so she can establish a style all her own. Her cross cultural influences and fine workmanship cause her pottery to be in demand.
She has branched away from Hopi-style Sikyatki designs by incorporating symbols and imagery from her Dine’ culture but continues to use the recognizable orange slip so common to many Sikyatki pots. Some of her pottery displays Dine’ spirit figures called “Yeis”. These Yei or “Holy People” figures are found in Navajo sand paintings and on Navajo rugs mostly from the Four Corners region. She still resides in Polacca, the lower village, where many cross cultural families live.
Gloria signs her pottery: G. Kahe. She is related to Samuel Kahe (husband) and Valerie Kahe (daughter). She is also the sister-in-law of famed Hopi potter Karen Charley.
Gloria is listed in Gregory Schaaf's HOPI-TEWA POTTERY. More of her work can be seen on page 12 and on the back cover of Southwestern Pottery, Anasazi to Zuni, by Allan Hayes and John Blom.
