Lucy M. Lewis (1900-1992) was born and raised in Acoma Pueblo on Sky City mesa, a land formation southwest of Albuquerque that rises more than three hundred feet above the surrounding countryside.

As there were no government schools on the mesa and Lucy wasn't escorted by government agents to an off-pueblo Indian Boarding School, Lucy received no formal education beyond that which was traditional to her people, that has long been required of every Pueblo child as they grew up: she helped in the home, she learned the various steps and chants (in her native Keres tongue) necessary to participate in her people's ancient rituals and ceremonies, and she began to make pottery when she was only seven or eight years old. She learned how by watching her great-aunt Helice Vallo and other Acoma Pueblo Corn Clan women as they gathered together and made pottery the traditional way for the kiva and for their personal use.

Lucy was never exposed to off-pueblo pottery influences, her creative inspiration was derived entirely from the sherds she found as she walked around the countryside of Acoma. A large amount of what she found on the ground was decorated with Cibola, Tularosa and Mimbres-style designs. These designs were characterized generally by fine black lines forming geometric patterns, panels of geometric patterns in multiple colors, or black anthropomorphic forms, all on a white slip. From the spark lit by those sherds she developed her own methods of making and decorating pots.

In her teens, Lucy married Toribio Haskaya and together they raised nine children. She handled the household chores, helped her husband with the farming and somehow found time to squeeze in her pottery making. Due to Acoma Pueblo's remote location and the refusal of pueblo leaders to allow archaeologists, ethnographers, collectors, traders or tourists to hang around or do any excavations or business on the mesa top, Lucy was never exposed to (or interfered with by) archaeologists, museum curators, collectors, traders or tourists. She also did not travel to powwows or fairs, though she occasionally sold her pottery at the railroad station in Grants, about 20 miles from Acoma. In spite of this relative isolation, Lucy Lewis is credited with sparking the revival of Mimbres black-on-white designs.

Her pottery first became known outside the pueblo when she exhibited her wares in a juried competition in 1950. She was awarded several blue ribbons that year at the Annual Gallup InterTribal Ceremonial. That brought her to the attention of Dr. Edgar Lee Hewett, Director of the Museum of New Mexico (the same Dr. Hewett who had worked with Maria Martinez years earlier). Hewett convinced her she needed to sign her pieces and as she earned more and more blue ribbons, her signature became more and more valuable.

During the 1980s and 1990s Lucy received awards from the American Crafts Council, the College Art Association, the State of New Mexico and the Honolulu Academy of Fine Arts. She continued to make pots until she was well into her 80s. Some of her grandchildren and other descendants are still creating pottery using the methods and decorations she passed on to them.

The Mimbres Mogollon culture was named for the Mimbres River in the Gila Mountains. They lived in the area from about 850 CE to about 1150 CE. Substantial depopulation of the area occurred but there were many small surviving populations. Over time, these melted into the surrounding cultures with many families moving north to Acoma, Zuni and Hopi while others moved south to Casas Grande and Paquimé.

The time period from about 850 CE to about 1000 CE is classed the Late Basketmaker III period. The time period was characterized by the evolution of square and rectangular pithouses with plastered floors and walls. Ceremonial structures were generally dug deep into the ground. Local forms of pottery have been classified as early Mimbres black-on-white (formerly Boldface Black-on-White), textured plainware and red-on-cream.

The Classic Mimbres phase (1000 CE to 1150 CE) was marked with the construction of larger buildings in clusters of communities around open plazas. Some constructions had up to 150 rooms. Most groupings of rooms included a ceremonial room, although smaller square or rectangular underground kivas with roof openings were also being used. Classic Mimbres settlements were located in areas with well-watered floodplains available, suitable for the growing of maize, squash and beans. The villages were limited in size by the ability of the local area to grow enough food to support the village.

Pottery produced in the Mimbres region is distinct in style and decoration. Early Mimbres black-on-white pottery was primarily decorated with bold geometric designs, although some early pieces show human and animal figures. Over time the rendering of figurative and geometric designs grew more refined, sophisticated and diverse, suggesting community prosperity and a rich ceremonial life. Classic Mimbres black-on-white pottery is also characterized by bold geometric shapes but done with refined brushwork and very fine linework. Designs may include figures of one or multiple humans, animals or other shapes, bounded by either geometric decorations or by simple rim bands. A common figure on a Mimbres pot is the turkey, another is the thunderbird. There are also a lot of different fish depicted, some are species found in the Gulf of California.

A lot of Mimbres bowls (with kill holes) have been found in archaeological excavations but most Mimbres pottery shows evidence it was actually used in day-to-day life and wasn't produced just for burial purposes.

There's a lot of speculation as to what happened to the Mimbres people as their countryside was rapidly depopulated after about 1150 CE. The people of Isleta, Acoma and Laguna find ancient Mimbres pot shards on their pueblo lands, indicating that pottery designs from the Mimbres River area migrated north. There are similar designs found on pot shards littering the ground around Casas Grandes and Paquime near Mata Ortiz and Nuevo Casas Grandes in northern Mexico. Other than where they went, the only reasons offered for why they left involve at least small scale climate change. The usual comment is "drought" but drought could have been brought on by the eruption of a volcano on the other side of the planet, or a small change in the El Nino-La Nina schedule. Whatever it was that started the outflow of people, it began in the Mimbres River area and spread outward from there. Excavations in the Eastern Mimbres region (nearer to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico) have shown that the people adapted to new circumstances and that adaptation itself moved them closer into alignment with surrounding tribes and cultures. Eventually they just kind of merged into the background, although the groups that moved south and built up Paquime and Casas Grandes seem to have lost a war and survivors migrated to the west, to a land a bit more hospitable for them.