Wind River Pottery Artist Bios: I - P

Joseph Latoma

Joseph Latoma, began making pottery 1989, and utilizes his own gathered clay to hand coil. He creates polychrome designs with traditional designs based on the memories of the Pueblo elders from San Felipe and Zuni. 

Historical pottery from San Felipe has been little documented. He is self-taught and began experimenting with local clay at the same time he became interested in researching his Pueblo’s traditional pottery styles in 1989. He is very interested in reintroducing traditional San Felipe pottery to both the Pueblo and a wider public. 

Joseph also taught his wife, Nona Latoma and his children to make pottery and the two of them often collaborate. Even though the San Felipe history has majorly not been recorded; especially certain activities and ceremonies, Joseph wants to pass this tradition on to his children and wants people to know that San Felipe pottery exists. 

 Joe and Sandra Lewis

Acoma husband-and-wife artists Joe and Sandra Lewis have been making pottery for over 20 years. They are known for their polychromatic geometric designs and their work is usually etched and painted in bright blue or turquoise colors that contrast beautifully with the red clay of the pot. They sign their pieces: JS Lewis.

Mira Lukee

Mira Lukee was born in 1959 and is of Acoma and Zuni heritage, and she began making pottery at the age of 22. She currently lives in the Acoma pueblo. Much of her painting technique was inspired by her mother and sister in-law.

Manuel Martinez

Born in 1963 in Acoma, Manuel was taught in the traditional art of Acoma pottery by Thresa Lukee. His work includes ceramic polychrome jars and bowls. 

Maria Martinez

Maria Montoya Martinez (1887, San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico – July 20, 1980, San Ildefonso Pueblo) was a Native American artist who created internationally renowned pottery. Hailing from the San Ildefonso Pueblo, she learned pottery skills from her aunt at a young age.

Martinez, her husband Julian, and other family members utilized traditional Pueblo pottery styles and techniques to create pieces which reflect the Pueblo people’s legacy of fine artwork and crafts. Traditional pottery-making techniques were being lost, but Martinez and her family experimented with different techniques and helped preserve their cultural art.

Creating black ware pottery is a long process that consists of many steps requiring patience and skill.

The works of Maria Martinez, and especially her black ware pottery, survive in many museums, including the Smithsonian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum, and more. The Penn Museum in Philadelphia holds eight vessels — three plates and five jars — signed either “Marie” or “Marie & Julian”.

Desideria Montoya Sanchez

Desideria Montoya Sanchez (1889-1982), was a significant potter in a family of renowned potters. She was the sister of the celebrated Maria Martinez, as well as Maximiliana (Anna) Montoya, Juanita Martinez (Juanita Montoya), and Clara Martinez, all of whom were accomplished potters in their own right. She often worked with her husband Donicio, who painted some of her pottery. Her forms are unique to Maria’s in their own ways, and she did support Maria in her process as well. 

During her lifetime, Desideria was recognized as a master potter. In 1909, she demonstrated her craft at the Museum of New Mexico alongside other notable artists such as Ramona Sanchez Gonzales, Maximiliana Montoya, Maria Martinez, and Tonita Roybal. Her work was later featured in the influential 1974 exhibition Seven Families in Pueblo Pottery, organized by Rick Dillingham at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. Desideria's work and contributions remain a cherished part of Pueblo pottery history.

Rainy Naha

Rainy Naha (b. 1949) grew up surrounded by clay, stories, and generations of Hopi pottery. As the daughter of Helen Naha (Featherwoman) and the granddaughter of Paqua Naha, the first Frogwoman, she carries a powerful family legacy in every piece she creates. Rainy is known for her finely detailed pottery and her own interpretations of the Walpi Polychrome style, all made using traditional Hopi clay, slips, and firing methods. Rainy is a multi award winning artist at shows including Santa Fe Indian Market, the Eight Northern Indian Art Show, and the Heard Museum Show.

Elva Nampeyo

Elva Nampeyo (1926–1985), was the daughter of Fannie Nampeyo, and granddaughter of Nampeyo of Hano, the pottery legend. She grew up around her family of potters, and when she was 11, her mother taught her how to pot. She became a master of potter, and later married Richard Tewaguna. Her pieces often resembled those of her mother and grandmother. 

Elva took great pleasure in making pottery and could form as many as eight pots a day. During her later years when she was no longer able to finish her work, her daughter Adelle would polish, decorate and fire the pottery for her. Elva signed her pottery as “Elva Nampeyo” followed by the corn clan symbol which was initiated by her mother Fannie. 

Four of five of Elva’s children are all potters who also sign their work with the Nampeyo name after their first name, followed by an ear of corn. 

Fannie Nampeyo

Fannie Nampeyo born 1900-1978 was the youngest of three daughters of the famous Old Lady Nampeyo of Hano, the grand matriarch of Hopi pottery. Fannie inherited her mother’s role as the matriarch of the Corn Clan, a very important and time-consuming ceremonial position.

Fannie began making pottery in her early 20s, and was among the most skilled potters of her generation. Her signature design was the migration, or bird wing design, which was originally revived by her mother. She also assisted her nearly blind mother by painting her pots that Nampeyo was still able to expertly form.

Fannie received the First Place Blue Ribbon in 1961 at the Museum of Northern Arizona’s Hopi Craftsman Exhibition. Fannie’s pottery can be found in museums around the world to include the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the University of Oklahoma’s Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art.

Nellie Nampeyo

Nellie Nampeyo Douma, (1896-1978) was the middle daughter of Nampeyo of Hano. She was a sister of noted potters Annie Nampeyo and Fannie Nampeyo. She was the mother of noted potters Zella Nampeyo and Marie Koopee. She was also the great-grandmother of Jacob Koopee, Jr. 

In 1910 the Santa Fe Railway commissioned a brown stucco pueblo style house on-site to be built by the Fred Harvey Company and to be inhabited by Indians from Hopi. Nampeyo and her family were to represent the Hopi pueblo and share the Hopi way of life. Nampeyo and Nellie demonstrated pottery making and interacted with tourists. Nellie was about 16 at the time. 

She was known for her tightly painted designs and typically smaller vessels. Her pottery can be found in museums around the country, including at the Museum of Northern Arizona and the Heard Museum. Nellie died in 1978; she was 82 years old. 

Tonita Nampeyo

Tonita Nampeyo was born in 1934 in the Tewa Village and learned her craft from her mother and her grandmother. Tonita's favorite designs include migration, rain, and clouds, and she has won multiple awards for excellence in her pottery for tradition, form, and design. 

Teresita Naranjo

Teresita "Apple Blossom" Naranjo (1919-1999), was from the Tafoya and Naranjo families of Santa Clara, and made pottery since the early 1930s in the traditional way using native clay, coiling, hand carving, polishing, and firing outside. Teresa Married Joe Naranjo and raised four children, until unfortunately Joe passed away.

Teresita learned from the best among her grandmother Serafina Tafoya, and her aunt, Margaret Tafoya. She sold her beautiful pottery, and was active until her sudden passing in 1999.  One of Teresita's favorite designs was the Avanyu or Water Serpent. 

As well as glazing the inside of her red and blackwear pots which is rare and extremely difficult to do, she also glazed her pots in the natural way like the rest of the Tafoya’s. Teresita is among the most celebrated artists of the 20th century along with what is the Tafoya family’s legacy of potters. 

Eunice Navasie

Eunice Navasie (Hopi Pueblo, Sichomovi village, First Mesa) was a sister-in-law of Joy Navasie “Frogwoman” and Pauline Setalla,

Eunice learned pottery from her mother, Agnes, and would go on to make pottery for nearly 50 years. She worked in black and red on white, as well as black and red on buff or yellow ware, in the form of jars, bowls, and wedding vases. She was well known for her artwork and painting designs.

In 1969, Eunice participated in an exhibition at the Gallup Ceremonial in New Mexico, where she received 1st Place for a wedding vase.

Eunice had three daughters: Dawn Navasie (b. 1961), Dolly Joe “White Snow” Navasie (b. 1964), and Fawn Garcia Navasie, formerly known as “Little Fawn” (b. 1959). They learned to make pottery by working with their mother. 

Frog Woman | Joy Navasie

HOPI – TEWA ARTIST | 1919 – 2012

Joy, also known as second Frog Woman or Yellow Flower, was a Hopi-Tewa Pueblo potter. As well as the art of pottery, the name Frog Woman was passed down from her mother, Paqua Naha.

Navasie carried on the white ware pottery tradition from her mother, Paqua who pioneered it around around 1951 or 1952, and it was used by Joy until she retired around 1995. She was particularly known for her black and red on white designs, and her favorite motifs included rain, clouds, parrots, and feathers. She also produced well-received pottery with challenging Kachina designs.

Joy began sighing her pots with a frog around 1939. Her signature differs from her mother's in that it features web feet rather than short toes. All Navasie's pottery was made the traditional way, from the gathering of the clay to the polishing and painting. Pots are fired in sheep dung, which she said was getting more difficult to acquire, but she preferred this over commercial products.

Navasie's pots can be found in a number of museums (Museum of Northern Arizona, Heard Museum and Spurlock Museum) and have fetched high prices at auction.

Garnet Pavateah

Garnet Pavateah (1915-1981), sister of Myrtle Young, was a Hopi artist who made pots of all kinds including both redware and yellowware. In the 1960s she began making plain redware bowls. She won many major awards for her work. She grew up surrounded by some of the finest Hopi-Tewa potters of the time. Garnet and Myrtle both learned from their mother. For Garnet, pottery became an expression of self, she began producing pieces around 1946 all the way until her passing until 1981.

At the 1980 Hopi Show, she narrowly failed to win the Best of Pottery Division ribbon. That following winter she decided she was going to make big pots again, like those her mother had made but no one was making any more. She made this her goal, despite having lost both legs to diabetes. Somehow, she managed to gather and process her clay, then she made her biggest pot ever. She entered that pot in the Hopi Show and it "reclaimed" her Best of Pottery ribbon. She passed on two weeks later.

Thomas Polacca

Thomas Polacca was born in 1935 into the Hopi-Tewa reservation, and is the son of Fannie Polacca Nampeyo and grandson of Nampeyo of Hano. The Nampeyo family is credited with the revival of fifteenth century Sikyatki polychrome ware. A self-taught potter since 1955, Polacca valued tradition as a vital part of Hopi life, but Thomas broke away from the traditional Sikyatki revival pottery styles of his family and created a very contemporary style of carved pottery using multi-colored slips. He often incorporated kivas, Katsinas and other Hopi symbols in his designs. 

Thomas creates deep carved pottery depicting murals of scenes from the hopi religion and sacred ceremonies. His pottery is also fired in a contemporary way, in a kiln. Thomas signs his pottery: Tom Polacca, and there is a corn husk under the T. Thomas’ favorite designs are kachinas and mudheads. 

Delmar Polacca 

Born in 1959, Delmar Polacca is the son of Tom Polacca, a renowned Hopi potter from the village of Polacca, on Hopi first mesa. The Nampeyo-Polacca Family is now in its fifth generation of potters and is listed in the book "Fourteen Families in Pueblo Pottery."

Delmar works in the same style that his father Tom created, that of deeply carved scenes of Hopi culture, his carvings are very precise and refined. Delmar learned his techniques by watching his grandmother Fannie, his father Tom, his aunts, uncles and cousins. He invented the marbling of Red and Light clay, which is a very difficult technique. Delmar has only been making pottery since 1993 but has already won many awards at the Hopi Show, the Museum of Northern Arizona and the Mesa Verde Show and most recently the Zuni Art Show just to name a few.

Delmar still returns to First Mesa in the Hopi reservation over fifty miles away, to gather rock deposits. He paints with Wild Spanish juice. He constructs his pots with handmade coils and fires them 2 to 4 hours using horse manure. In the painting of the pots he expresses the history of the Hopi people. Recently Delmar has won two best of show awards at the Zuni Indian art show and the southwest Indian art show Delmar has won many other awards through the years. 

Pottery Artists

• Last Name A - H
• Last Name Q - Z