Nampeyo (1859 – 1942) was a

Hopi-Tewa The Hopi-Tewa (also Tano, Southern Tewa, Hano, Thano, or Arizona Tewa) are a Tewa Pueblo group that resides on the eastern part of the Hopi Reservation on or near First Mesa in northeastern Arizona. Synonymy The name ''Tano'' is a Spanish bo ...

potter who lived on the Hopi Reservation in

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. Her Tewa name was also spelled Num-pa-yu, meaning "snake that does not bite". Her name is also cited as "Nung-beh-yong," Tewa for Sand Snake. She used ancient techniques for making and firing pottery and used designs from "Old Hopi" pottery and sherds found at 15th-century

Sikyátki Sikyátki is an archeological site and former Hopi village spanning on the eastern side of First Mesa, in what is now Navajo County in the U.S. state of Arizona. The village was inhabited by Kokop clan of the Hopi from the 14th to the 17th c ...

ruins on First Mesa. Her artwork is in collections in the United States and Europe, including many museums like the

National Museum of American Art The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds ...

Museum of Northern Arizona The Museum of Northern Arizona is a museum in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States, that was established as a repository for Indigenous material and natural history specimens from the Colorado Plateau. The museum was founded in 1928 by zoologist ...

Spurlock Museum The William R. and Clarice V. Spurlock Museum, better known as the Spurlock Museum, is an ethnographic museum at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Spurlock Museum's permanent collection includes portions of collections from other ...

, and the

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum is one of the oldest and largest museums focusing on anthropological material, with ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. A world record for Southwest American Indian pottery was declared at Bonhams Auction House in San Francisco on December 6, 2010, when one of Nampeyo's art works, a decorated ceramic pot, sold for $350,000.

Early life

Nampeyo and her brother Tom Polacca, photograph taken in 1875 by William Henry Jackson

Nampeyo was born on First Mesa in the village of Hano, also known as Tewa Village which is primarily made up of descendants of the Tewa people from Northern New Mexico who fled west to Hopi lands about 1702 for protection from the Spanish after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Her mother, White Corn was Tewa; her father Quootsva, from nearby Walpi, was a member of the Snake clan. According to tradition, Nampeyo was born into her mother's Tewa Corn clan. She had three older brothers, Tom Polacca, Kano, and Patuntupi, also known as Squash; Her brothers were born from about 1849 to 1858.Barbara Kramer.
Nampeyo and Her Pottery
'. University of Arizona Press; 2003. . pp. xi, 7, 194. Nampeyo could not read or write and never went to school.

William Henry Jackson William Henry Jackson (April 4, 1843 – June 30, 1942) was an American photographer, Civil War veteran, painter, and an explorer famous for his images of the American West. He was a great-great nephew of Samuel Wilson, the progenitor of Am ...

first photographed her in 1875; she was reputedly one of the most photographed ceramic artists in the Southwest during the 1870s. About 1878 or 1881,Lea S. McChesney
"Producing 'Generations in Clay'"
''Expedition Magazine''. Penn Museum. March 1994. Retrieved April 7. 2014. Nampeyo married her second husband, Lesou, a member of the Cedarwood clan at

Walpi Walpi ( nv, Deezʼáahjįʼ) is a Hopi village established around 900 AD.A Nampeyo Timeline
, Arizona State Museum at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

. Retrieved April 7, 2014.

Artwork

Nampeyo with one of her Sikyatki-inspired vessels, ca

Hopi people make ceramics painted with beautiful designs, and Nampeyo was eventually considered one of the finest Hopi potters. Nampeyo learned pottery making through the efforts of her paternal grandmother. In the 1870s, she made a steady income by selling her work at a local trading post operated by Thomas Keam. By 1881 she was already known for her works of "old Hopi" pottery of

Walpi Walpi ( nv, Deezʼáahjįʼ) is a Hopi village established around 900 AD.J. Walter Fewkes Jesse Walter Fewkes (November 14, 1850 – May 31, 1930) was an American anthropologist, archaeologist, writer, and naturalist. Biography Fewkes was born in Newton, Massachusetts on November 14, 1850, and initially trained as a zoologist at ...

at the excavation of the prehistoric ruin of Sikyátki on the First Mesa of the Hano Pueblo in the 1890s. Lesou helped Nampeyo find potsherds with ancient designs which they copied onto paper and were later integrated into Nampeyo's pottery. However, she began making copies of protohistoric pottery from the 15th through 17th centuries from ancient village sites, such as Sikyátki, which was explored before Fewkes and Thomas Varker Keam. Nampeyo developed her own style based on the traditional designs, known as Hopi Revival pottery from old Hopi designs and Sikyátki pottery. This is why researchers refer to her style as Sikyatki Revival after the proto-historic site. Keam hired First Mesa potters to make reproductions of the works. Nampeyo was particularly skilled. Her pottery became a success and was collected throughout the United States and in Europe.

Kate Cory Kate Cory (February 8, 1861 – June 12, 1958) was an American photographer and artist. She studied art in New York, and then worked as commercial artist. She traveled to the southwestern United States in 1905 and lived among the Hopi f ...

, an artist and photographer who lived among the Hopi from 1905 to 1912 at

Oraibi Oraibi, also referred to as Old Oraibi, is a Hopi village in Navajo County, Arizona, United States, in the northeastern part of the state. Known as Orayvi by the native inhabitants, it is on Third Mesa on the Hopi Reservation near Kykotsmovi Vi ...

and

Walpi Walpi ( nv, Deezʼáahjįʼ) is a Hopi village established around 900 AD.Nampeyo.
Koshare Indian Museum. Retrieved April 7, 2014. Between 1905 and 1907, she produced and sold pottery out of a pueblo-like structure called Hopi House, a tourist attraction (combination of museum, curio shop, theatre, and living space for Native American dancers and artists) at the Grand Canyon lodge, operated by the

Fred Harvey Company The Fred Harvey Company was the owner of the Harvey House chain of restaurants, hotels and other hospitality industry businesses alongside railroads in the Western United States. It was founded in 1876 by Fred Harvey to cater to the growing ...

. She exhibited in 1910 at the Chicago United States Land and Irrigation Exposition. One of her famous patterns, the migration pattern, represented the migration of the Hopi people, with feather and bird-claw motifs. An example is a 1930s vase in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution's

National Museum of the American Indian The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers. The museum has three ...

in Washington, D.C. Her work is distinguished by the shapes of the pottery and the designs. She made wide, low, rounded, shaped pottery and, in later years, tall jars. Many of her works are identifiable by her "recognizable designs" and "her artistic idiosyncrasies." Nampeyo's photograph was often used on travel brochures for the

American southwest The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado ...

. Nampeyo began to lose her sight due to

trachoma Trachoma is an infectious disease caused by bacterium '' Chlamydia trachomatis''. The infection causes a roughening of the inner surface of the eyelids. This roughening can lead to pain in the eyes, breakdown of the outer surface or cornea of ...

about the turn of the 20th century.Barbara Kramer.
Nampeyo and Her Pottery
'. University of Arizona Press; 2003. . p. 70. From 1925 until her death she made pottery by touch and they were then painted by her husband, daughters or other family members. In 2010, one of her artworks, a pot with a bulbous form with Hopi Kachina figures with "stylized faces" wearing "flamboyant black and burnt-umber headdresses" painted on "four sides of the pot"—sold for $350,000. Previous owners included Carter Harrison Jr. who was mayor of Chicago from 1911–1915, and Chicago's Cliff Dwellers art club, who received the work from Harrison in the 1930s.

Death and legacy

Nampeyo and Family, 1901, Adam Clark Vroman

She died in 1942 at the home of her son Wesley and her daughter-in-law, Cecilia. She was a symbol of the Hopi people and was a leader in the revival of ancient pottery. She inspired dozens of family members over several generations to make pottery, including daughters

Fannie Nampeyo Fannie Nampeyo (1900–1987) (also known as Fannie Lesou Polacca and Fannie Nampeyo Polacca) was a modern and contemporary fine arts potter, who carried on the traditions of her famous mother, Nampeyo of Hano, the grand matriarch of modern Hopi ...

and Annie Healing.Diane Dittemore
"The Nampeyo Legacy: A Family of Hopi-Tewa Potters".
''Southwest Art.'' Retrieved April 9, 2014. A 2014 exhibit at the

presents the works of four generations of artists descended from Nampeyo.

Public collections

Arizona State Museum The Arizona State Museum (ASM), founded in 1893, was originally a repository for the collection and protection of archaeological resources. Today, however, ASM stores artifacts, exhibits them and provides education and research opportunities. It ...

Denver Art Museum The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With encyclopedic collections of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums between ...

, Colorado *

Kansas City Museum The Kansas City Museum is located in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. In 1910, the site was built by lumber baron and civic leader Robert A. Long as his private family estate, with the four-story historic Beaux-Arts style mansion named Cori ...

, Kansas City, MO"Pueblo Pottery Exhibit Opens at McClung Museum September 7"
''Tennessee Today''. University of Tennessee. August 29, 2013. Retrieved April 9, 2014. *

Koshare Indian Museum The Pueblo clowns (sometimes called sacred clowns) are jesters or tricksters in the Kachina religion (practiced by the Pueblo natives of the southwestern United States). It is a generic term, as there are a number of these figures in the ritua ...

, La Junta, CA *

Millicent Rogers Museum The Millicent Rogers Museum is an art museum in Taos, New Mexico, founded in 1956 by the family of Millicent Rogers. Initially the artworks were from the multi-cultural collections of Millicent Rogers and her mother, Mary B. Rogers, who donated ...

, Taos, NM *

, Flagstaff, AZBetsey Bruner
"A Family Connection: New MNA Exhibit Focuses on Family Legacy"
''Arizona Daily Sun''. November 10, 2013. Retrieved April 7, 2014. *

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

, Washington, DC *

, Cambridge, MA *

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

, Kansas City, MO * Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology, Santa Fe, NM *

Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology The Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology is Brown University's teaching and research museum. The museum has a gallery in Manning Hall on Brown's campus in Providence, Rhode Island. Its Collections Research Center is located in nearby Bristol, Rh ...

at Brown University, Providence, RI

References

External links

Photographic Resources Guide to the North American Collection
Thomas Keam's Southwest Expedition
Nampeyo – Hopi master potter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nampeyo 1859 births 1942 deaths Hopi people Native American potters American women ceramists American ceramists Artists from Arizona Tewa 20th-century American women artists Native American women artists Women potters 20th-century Native Americans 20th-century Native American women 19th-century Native American women Native American people from Arizona