Dextra Quotskuyva Nampeyo

(deceased) 1928 – 2019
Hopi-Tewa

Dextra Quotskuyva Nampeyo has had so much impact on the world of contemporary Hopi pottery. She is in the fifth generation of a distinguished ancestral line of Hopi potters. In 1994 Dextra Quotskuyva was proclaimed an “Arizona Living Treasure,” and in 1998 she received the first Arizona State Museum Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2001, the Wheelwright Museum organized a 30-year retrospective exhibition of Quotskuyva’s pottery, and in 2004, she received the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts Lifetime Achievement award. She is a great-granddaughter of Nampeyo of Hano, descending through her eldest daughter, Annie Healing. Throughout her entire career, she was one of the most creative, innovative and influential potters at Hopi. She is also the mother of well known painter Dan Namingha and potter Hisi Quotskuyva. She taught Steve Lucas, Loren Ami, Yvonne Lucas and Les Namingha to make pottery, resulting in a nearly unprecedented influence in Hopi pottery. Dextra used the bee-weed plant for the black coloration and native clay slips for the red. She used only traditional Hopi pottery methods in hand coiled construction, stone polishing, paint, and outdoor firings.

Following tradition in every aspect of construction and firing has always been a rule with her, but using her own creative talent in the execution of vessel shape and design is what has set her apart from others and made her one of the greatest Hopi potters of the 20th Century.