Nampeyo, the famous Hopi-Tewa potter (1860-1942), is known for the grace and beauty of her work, but very little accurate information has been available about her life. Romantic myths, cultural misunderstandings, and outright distortions have obscured both Nampeyo the artist and the person. Based on an exhaustive search of first-person accounts, photographic evidence, and interviews with family members, Kramer provides the only reliable biography of the artist. By the turn of the century, Nampeyo had revitalized Hopi pottery by creating a contemporary style inspired by prehistoric ceramics. Military men, missionaries, anthropologists, photographers, artists, and tourists all collected her unsigned work. This biography contributes to an understanding of changes on the Hopi reservation effected by outsiders during Nampeyo's life and the complex response of American society to Native Americans and their art. Kramer also presents the first stylistic analysis of vessels made by Nampeyo.

In 1974 Seven Families in Pueblo Pottery was published to accompany an exhibit at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology: twenty years later there are some 80,000 copies in print. Like Seven Families, this updated and greatly enlarged version by Rick Dillingham, who curated the original exhibition, includes portraits of the potters, color photographs of their work, and a statement by each potter about the work of his or her family. In addition to the original seven--the Chino and Lewis families (Acoma Pueblo), the Nampeyos (Hopi), the Guteirrez and Tafoya families (Santa Clara), and the Gonzales and Martinez families (San Ildefonso)--the author had added the Chapellas and the Navasies (Hopi-Tewa), the Chavarrias (Santa Clara), the Herrera family (Choti), the Medina family (Zia), and the Tenorio-Pacheco and the Melchor families (Santo Domingo). Because the craft of pottery is handed down from generation to generation among the Pueblo Indians, this extended look at multiple generations provides a fascinating and personal glimpse into how the craft has developed. Also evident are the differences of opinion among the artists about the future of Pueblo pottery and the importance of following tradition. A new generation of potters has come of age since the publication of Seven Families. The addition of their talents, along with an ever-growing interest in Native American pottery, make this book a welcome addition to the literature on the Southwest.

A thirty-year retrospective of work by one of the most innovative and accomplished living potters, Painted Perfection features more than 100 of the Hopi-Tewa master's finest works, selected from museums and private collections throughout the nation. Included are vessels by her mother, Rachel Namingha; grandmother, Annie Healing; great-grandmother, Nampeyo; and the exceptional young artists to whom Quotskuyva has been a mentor.

A state-by-state guide for folk art enthusiasts to learn about the masked dances still carried out in Mexico's Indian and mestizo communities.

"The vessels in the pages that follow open to us a world flickering with the light of a people's collective character and shared philosophy. These vessels have bodies of clay, but they float before us in the zero gravity of wisdom and belief."-- Edwin L. Wade Canvas of Clay tells the story of Hopi ceramics from the 14th century to recent times, offering a particularly close look at the art and life of the master potter Nampeyo (1860-1942). It analyzes the specific dynamics of nearly 100 jars and bowls, all richly illustrated, weaving in many insights into Hopi history, aesthetics, and symbolism. Included are original schematic drawings that will help readers understand how pottery decoration is built from ingeniously combined design elements. This book is a glorious testament to a brilliant art form and its practitioners, presented with passion, knowledge, and respect.

When this book first appeared in 1996, it was “Pottery 101,” a basic introduction to the subject. It served as an art book, a history book, and a reference book, but also fun to read, beautiful to look at, and filled with good humor and good sense. After twenty years of faithful service, it’s been expanded and brought up-to-date with photographs of more than 1,600 pots from more than 1,600 years. It shows every pottery-producing group in the Southwest, complete with maps that show where each group lives. Now updated, rewritten, and re-photographed, it's a comprehensive study as well as a basic introduction to the art.

Southwestern archaeology has long been fascinated with the scale and frequency of movement in Pueblo history, from great migrations to short-term mobility. By collaborating with Pueblo communities, archaeologists are learning that movement was—and is—much more than the result of economic opportunity or a response to social conflict. Movement is one of the fundamental concepts of Pueblo thought and is essential in shaping the identities of contemporary Pueblos. The Continuous Path challenges archaeologists to take Pueblo notions of movement seriously by privileging Pueblo concepts of being and becoming in the interpretation of anthropological data. In this volume, archaeologists, anthropologists, and Native community members weave multiple perspectives together to write histories of particular Pueblo peoples. Within these histories are stories of the movements of people, materials, and ideas, as well as the interconnectedness of all as the Pueblo people find, leave, and return to their middle places. What results is an emphasis on historical continuities and the understanding that the same concepts of movement that guided the actions of Pueblo people in the past continue to do so into the present and the future. Movement is a never-ending and directed journey toward an ideal existence and a continuous path of becoming. This path began as the Pueblo people emerged from the underworld and sought their middle places, and it continues today at multiple levels, integrating the people, the village, and the individual.

Noted archaeologist Polly Schaafsma presents new research by current scholars on this largely neglected ancestral Puebloan site.

"In Search of Nampeyo" Published by Lithexcel and Spirit Bird Press, Steve Elmore: The early years, 1875 -1892, an art history of the Thomas Keam collection of Hopi pottery.