This is an amazingly complex jar by Ida Sahmie.  It is the Day Chant Dance with eight male Yei-bi-chi dancers encircling the jar.   In front of the Yei-bi-chi figures are the man and woman who are receiving the blessing. As the jar is turned, there are stalks of corn in the four sacred colors.  In the “background” of the jar are mountains, clouds, and birds.  The rim of the jar is polished red and has the cloud design of a Navajo wedding basket.  Near the base of the jar she has painted the shadows of the figures. Ida also incises into the clay for the faces and the bodies, leather skirts, and masks.  She is a daughter-in-law of Priscilla Nampeyo, and Ida continues to make beautifully formed pottery with wonderfully complex designs.  She has won numerous awards for her pottery at events such as Santa Fe Indian Market.  She is the only Navajo potter creating this unique style of ethnographic pottery.  It is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Ida Sahmie”.

“The night and day dancers do about the same dance.  It takes me so much time to etch the designs. I etch each figure before the jar is fired.  The skirt on each of the figures has a different design.  After they are etched then I use the slips to create the colors. After all the painting is done, then I fire it outside.”

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