23 Facts About Nampeyo

Nampeyo was a Hopi-Tewa potter who lived on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona.

Nampeyo's name is cited as "Nung-beh-yong," Tewa for Sand Snake.

Nampeyo used ancient techniques for making and firing pottery and used designs from "Old Hopi" pottery and shards found at 15th-century Sikyatki ruins on First Mesa.

Nampeyo's artwork is in collections in the United States and Europe, including many museums like the National Museum of American Art, Museum of Northern Arizona, Spurlock Museum, and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University.

Nampeyo was born on First Mesa in the village of Hano, 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.

Nampeyo's mother, White Corn was Tewa; her father Quootsva, from nearby Walpi, was a member of the Snake clan of the Hopi Nation.

Nampeyo had three older brothers, Tom Polacca, Kano, and Patuntupi, known as Squash; Her brothers were born from about 1849 to 1858.

Shortly after this photograph, Nampeyo married Kwivoya, but their marriage was unsuccessful and they never cohabitated.

About 1878 or 1881, Nampeyo married her second husband, Lesou, a member of the Cedarwood clan at Walpi.

Hopi people make ceramics painted with beautiful designs, and Nampeyo was eventually considered one of the finest Hopi potters.

Nampeyo became increasingly interested in ancient pottery form and design, recognizing them as superior to Hopi pottery produced at the time.

Lesou helped Nampeyo find potsherds with ancient designs which they copied onto paper and were later integrated into Nampeyo's pottery.

Nampeyo developed her own style based on the traditional designs, known as Hopi Revival pottery from old Hopi designs and Sikyatki pottery.

Nampeyo's pottery became a success and was collected throughout the United States and in Europe.

Kate Cory, an artist and photographer who lived among the Hopi from 1905 to 1912 at Oraibi and Walpi, wrote that Nampeyo used sheep bones in the fire, which are believed to have made the fire hot or made the pottery whiter, and smoothed the fired pots with a plant with a red blossom.

Nampeyo used up to five different clays in one creation when the usual was two.

Nampeyo exhibited in 1910 at the Chicago United States Land and Irrigation Exposition.

Nampeyo made wide, low, rounded, shaped pottery and, in later years, tall jars.

Nampeyo's photograph was often used on travel brochures for the American southwest.

Nampeyo began to lose her sight due to trachoma about the turn of the 20th century.

Nampeyo died in 1942 at the home of her son Wesley and her daughter-in-law, Cecilia.

Nampeyo was a symbol of the Hopi people and was a leader in the revival of ancient pottery.

Nampeyo inspired dozens of family members over several generations to make pottery, including daughters Fannie Nampeyo and Annie Healing.