This type was first described by Jesse Walter Fewkes (1898). This is the latest major type in the Jeddito Yellow Ware sequence. Sikyatki Polychrome first appears around 1385, though the most elaborate Sikyatki style appears after about 1450. This type ends around the mission period in 1629 (Hays-Gilpin 2013: 178; Colton and Hargrave 1937). Although it was one of the earliest pottery types illustrated, the archaeological contexts of this type are not well understood in part because of a lack of recent excavation in sites where this type occurs (Hays-Gilpin 2013: 175). 
This type's distribution is centered around the Hopi Mesas but has been found at Homol'ovi, Anderson Mesa, Verde Valley, Perry Mesa, Rio Puerco of the West, Mogollon Rim, Roosevelt Basin, the Rio Grande Valley, and Southeast Utah. It is characterized by red lines or solids along with black or brown lines and solids painted on an unslipped yellow ground. The vessel forms for the Sikyatki type are bowls, jars, pitchers, ladles, scoops, and effigy vessels (Hays-Gilpin 2013: 177). Common iconography on Sikyatki polychrome includes birds, feathers, wings, tails, katsinas, elongated curved elements, and textile-like designs.
Sikyatki polychrome is preceded in the Jeddito Yellow Ware sequence by Bidahochi Polychrome, which has white outlines and dates to the mid-1300s. Paayu Polychrome has pseudo-polychrome designs with watery brown areas outlined by dense brown paint that was produced by manipulating the density of brown iron-manganese paint. This type dates to the mid to late 1300s (Hays-Gilpin 2013: 180-183).

This ware has been recently separated into four chronological styles.

1 - Early Sikyatki Polychrome: Jeddito style designs with red outlines, dating to the late 1300s. This style includes a broad, encircling, sub-rim banding line with a deliberate line break, and bifold, three-fold, four-fold, or asymmetrical layout, geometric and lifeform motifs that are more loosely organized, with more negative space, than elements in earlier styles. More ground (negative space) than paint fills the design field, and symmetries are varied (Hays-Gilpin 2013: 180).

2 - Early Sikyatki Polychrome: Jeddito style designs with red solids, about 1385 to some point in the early to mid-1400s. Red solids with black outlines, and black solids and lines. This style has a broken banding line on both jars and bowls. Engraving and spattering are sometimes present in this style (Hays-Gilpin 2013: 180-181).

3 - Sikyatki Polychrome, Sikyatki style: designs with red solids, and sometimes multiple shades of red. Characterized by asymmetrical design layouts and motifs that include bird/feather elements, elongated curved elements, katsinas, flowers, brocade-like textile designs, stylized dragonflies, and naturalistic butterflies. Sometimes a broken banding line appears well below the rim. Sometimes a closely spaced broken banding line and framing line appear near the rim. Sometimes there is a broken banding line but no framing line, sometimes a framing line only, and neither is present most of the time. Engraving and spattering are fairly frequent in this style. At some point in this sequence, white paint was occasionally used to fill in solid areas. These styles are always stratigraphically above the Jeddito style at Awat’ovi and Kawàyka’a, and are virtually the only styles present at Sikyatki. Bowls in this style are usually larger than earlier Sikyatki Polychrome bowls. This type was not as widely distributed as earlier styles (Hays-Gilpin 2013: 182).

4 - Very Late Sikyatki Style: A very late style appears only at Awat’ovi and not at other Antelope Mesa sites. “Very late” Sikyatki style Sikyatki Polychrome vessels have red or black painted rims, high density of painted design, bowls with very elaborate exterior designs, usually simple interior designs such as spattered paint, and a strongly recurved bowl shape one might call a bowl-jar for lack of a better term (Hays-Gilpin 2013: 183). This type is probably limited to Hopi villages occupied after about 1540.