Emma Lewis was born into Acoma Pueblo on October 4, 1931, the daughter of Toribio Haskaya Luis and famous potter Lucy M. Lewis. She had six brothers and sisters and they all learned to make pottery from their mother.

Emma mostly made jars and seed pots, decorating them with Mimbres and Anasazi revival animals, birds, turtles, mountain sheep and rabbits. She also often decorated her pieces with parrots, berry bushes, split leaves and deer with heart lines.

Emma was a participant in the Santa Fe Indian Market from 1960 to 2001 and earned many ribbons there. Emma also traveled the world for 20 years, giving demonstrations and leading pottery making workshops, often with her sister, Dolores Lewis Garcia.

Emma passed on in 2013.