The People:
Rebecca “Amanda” Youngbird

Rebecca Amanda Youngbird head shot
Rebecca “Amanda” Youngbird

Rebecca “Amanda” Wolf Youngbird (1890–1984), the daughter of a non-Indian woman and a Cherokee man, was named Rebecca for a grandmother who walked the Trail of Tears. As a girl, she attended boarding school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. When Youngbird returned to Cherokee in her twenties, she began experimenting with clay. Because she did not come from a line of potters, Youngbird developed a distinct and experimental style. She knew and worked with Catawba potters who had settled in Cherokee, and met renowned Pueblo potter Maria Martinez during the Southeastern Fair in Atlanta in 1934. Youngbird is credited with reintroducing blackware to Cherokee pottery, and she helped popularize the double-spouted wedding vase design, a form later adopted by Catawba potters.

Read more about Rebecca “Amanda” Youngbird on the Cherokee Traditions website.