Nampeyo

Hopi-Tewa, 1860-1942

BiographyIris Nampeyo (ca. 1860–1942) was a Hopi-Tewa potter who lived on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona. She received the English name Iris as an infant, but was better known by her Tewa name, Num-pa-yu, meaning "snake that does not bite".

She was born on the First Mesa at the Hano Pueblo, which is primarily made up of descendants of the Tewa tribe from the Northern Rio Grande of New Mexico who fled west to Hopi lands about 1702 for protection from the "marauding" Ute people. Her mother, White Corn was Tewa; her father Quootsva, from nearby Walpi Pueblo, was a member of the Hopi Snake clan. According to tradition, Nampeyo was born into her mother's Tewa Corn clan. 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.

She became increasingly interested in ancient pottery form and design, recognizing them as superior to Hopi pottery produced at the time. Her second husband, Lesou (or Lesso) was reputedly employed by the archaeologist J. Walter Fewkes 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 Revival pottery. Potters on the First Mesa of Walpi were hired by Keam to make reproductions of the works. Nampeyo was particularly skillful and her pottery became a commercial success and was distributed throughout the United States and in Europe.

Her work is distinguished by the shapes of the pottery and the designs. She often used the migration patter, which symbolized the migration of the Hopi people with feather and bird claw motifs. She made wide "flying saucer" shaped pottery and in later years tall jars, thought to be made to hold umbrellas

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