But "always was" doesn't necessarily evolve into "always is."

So sisters Dolores Lewis and Emma Lewis Mitchell worry that the traditional craft of handmade Acoma pottery to which they have devoted their lives may one day become a vanished art.

Fewer young people are showing an interest in learning ancestral methods for creating hand-coiled pottery, Lewis says. And in recent years, some members of the Acoma Pueblo in west-central New Mexico have begun to shortcut the process, purchasing "green-ware" - clay objects that are mass-produced using molds - then painting and firing them to achieve an authentic look.

"They're not really making the pottery. It's not the same," says Lewis. "Less and less people in the pueblo are using the traditional methods. So far, only one or two of our grandchildren are starting to show some interest in learning what we do, but I don't know if they will make it a way of life."

For more than 50 years, the sisters have carried on the legacy learned from their mother, Lucy Martin Lewis - one of Acoma's most celebrated artists whose work is now featured on a U.S. postal stamp. They follow her tradition of creating handmade coiled pottery from clay that they mine each year from a site near the pueblo.

Their work is patterned with the traditional symbols of ancient Mimbres and ancestral Puebloan earthenware - lightning and claw designs, deer, roadrunners, frogs and other animals - that their mother revived in her own work decades ago. Many of their vessels also play an important role in daily Acoma life, including religious ceremonies, burials and births.

"My job is the pottery. It's my livelihood. It makes me happy because it's something my mother and ancestors did, and I treasure it," Lewis says. "The clay connects me to Mother Earth. My ancient people have given me my inspiration."

To help keep the tradition alive, Lewis and Mitchell now spend part of each year teaching the authentic techniques to students in workshops at universities, art festivals, and other sponsored exhibitions across the country.

Last week, Lewis, 69, and Mitchell, 74, taught a weeklong pottery workshop at Edge of the Cedars State Park in the southeast Utah community of Blanding. And although the class was small, park officials have already made plans to offer the workshop again next May.

As the sisters explain, making pottery the old way is hard, time-consuming work. The gray or limestone clay is mined in heavy slabs that must be sun-dried then soaked in rainwater for several days until the material becomes pliable. The clay is then blended with "grog" made of ancient potsherds gathered from the area and ground into powder using a metate - a grinding slab - and a smooth stone. They knead the mixture with their feet, often for hours, into the supple potter's clay that has been the base of Acoma pottery for thousands of years.

"It makes it more 'plastic' when you use your feet," says Mitchell. "It makes it easier to mix with the grog. Our mother always used her feet, and that is how we learned."

In class, Mitchell and Lewis stress developing strategies for working the clay, smoothing and shaping it into pots, canteens, ladles, and other objects. One afternoon, they teach students how to fashion a yucca-leaf paintbrush by chewing the hard plant flesh to reveal the wispy, pliant fibers inside. They use the brushes to apply mineral paints, ground from Acoma rock - the browns and reds from hematite and iron oxide, the blacks of manganese.

On the last day, the students will fire their creations, buried between layers of old broken pottery and cow manure, in a hand-built fire. Lewis and Mitchell brought all the workshop materials, including the manure, from their homes near Acoma.

"What I like about it most is, everything comes from the earth," says Pat Smith, who traveled from Phoenix to Blanding to attend the workshop. "We're using our hands for everything. It's like going back to the past."

Kyle Bauman, of Bluff, says the workshop provided a rare, hands-on opportunity he could not pass up.

"I worked in archaeology for a long time. so I know about these techniques, but I've never done it," he said. "I'm getting a real kick out of making the pottery and the brush and the paints. The more low-tech we can get in this day and age, the better."

Tom Lavalle saw a flier advertising the workshop while passing through Blanding on his way to visit his sons in Alaska. He stayed an extra two weeks just to take the course. He plans to teach his sons everything he learned.

"When I get to Alaska, I'll probably use commercial clay, but it's definitely going to be an experience that I share with my family," he said.

For Mitchell and Lewis, that may be the greatest compliment of all.

"We want the non-Acoma people to know there is still traditional pottery being made. We're sharing our tradition with them," Lewis said. "I hope our tradition will continue. If not, this will all be lost someday."

lchurch@citlink.net