Burel is the son of Helen
Naha, brother of Sylvia and Rainy Naha, grandson of Paqua Naha
and nephew of Joy Navasie. He was born into the Hopi-Tewa Spider
Clan in 1944. While he learned something about the traditional
way of making pottery from his mother as he grew up, he earned
a BA at Brigham Young University after high school and became
a school teacher for many years. Then he returned to making pottery.
At first he stayed with the
styles and designs he had learned from his mother. Then his daughter
Cynthia came home from school one day with a digitized photo
of a spider she had drawn. He was entranced. He decided to include
the spider in his pottery designs and soon became the "Spider
Man" of Hopi pottery.
Burel signs his work with
the Long Hair Kachina symbol (his name) followed by the feather
design of his mother.
