Sylvia Naha was born into an illustrious family of Hopi-Tewa potters in 1951. Her mother was Helen Naha, her grandmother Paqua Naha. Sylvia grew up learning how to make pottery by watching and helping her mother and grandmother. Her siblings, Burel and Rainy, learned the same way.

When Sylvia was a little girl her father dug up a prehistoric pot while working in his cornfield. The designs on that pot became the Naha family trademark designs. It seems that found pot was also in the Awat'ovi white ware style and today's Naha's are still acknowledged masters at making Hopi white ware.

Sylvia only made small to medium pots, most of them white ware. Most of her pots were decorated with Awat'ovi spirals, lightning bolts, lizards and corn plants.

Sylvia signed her works with a feather design very similar to her mother's hallmark but she also added an "S." Sylvia passed on in 1999.