Hooee, Daisy
“She made big pots, giant pots,” said Dextra, speaking of Daisy.
Daisy Hooee Nampeyo was born to Annie and Will Healing of Hano at First Mesa in 1905 or 1906. Her grandmother was Nampeyo of Hano, her sister Rachel Namingha Nampeyo. Among her aunts and cousins were many of the best Hopi-Tewa potters of the time. The name “Daisy” was most likely given to her by a non-Hopi health care worker on the Hopi Reservation.
As her parents were often away from home tending their cattle, Daisy spent significant time in her early years at the Corn Clan House, in the care of her grandmother, Nampeyo.
As she did with all the children in the village, Nampeyo encouraged Daisy to work with clay. When Daisy began making small pots, Nampeyo would fire them and take them with her to sell at the store in Polacca. Seeing them for sale alongside Nampeyo’s exquisite pieces encouraged Daisy to work harder.
Daisy attended the Polacca Day School at first, then was transferred to the Phoenix Indian School. At the age of nine she contracted an eye infection that led to the formation of cataracts.
When she was twelve a wealthy Californian visiting the area decided to take Daisy under her wing, so to speak. She took Daisy to California to have her eyes treated. Her patroness’ name was Anita Baldwin and Daisy lived with her for several years. Anita was the daughter of “Lucky” Baldwin, famous for an investment he made in Ophir mining stock during the Comstock Bonanza Boom. When he died, Anita inherited about $10,000,000 plus the 54,000 acre Rancho Santa Anita, home of the Santa Anita Horse Racetrack.
Anita sent Daisy to L’Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, France, to study stone carving, painting and ceramics. After Daisy’s graduation from there, Anita took her on a tour across Europe, northern Africa, Russia and China, focusing on studying the artwork available in each area.
Daisy returned to the Hopi Reservation when she was almost 20. Her mother had become ill and Daisy returned to work with her and with her sister Rachel. That decision also brought Daisy and her famous grandmother back together.
Nampeyo taught Daisy how to fire her own pottery and took her along when Nampeyo’s family traveled to the Grand Canyon (and other places) to do pottery demonstrations. When Nampeyo’s eyesight finally failed, Daisy and Fannie often decorated pots for her.
From 1935 to 1939 Daisy also worked with archaeologists from the Peabody Museum at Harvard University in their excavations at the ruins of Awatovi (a village built on Antelope Mesa that had been visited by the Spanish in 1540 and was destroyed by other Hopis in the winter of 1700-1701).
Whole pots were unearthed at Awatovi and Daisy had the opportunity to examine them first. She meticulously copied the designs on them for incorporation into her own designs later on.
Also during her time at Hopi Daisy married Hopi kachina carver Neil Naha and they had three children before divorcing. After the divorce, Daisy took a job cooking for 4-H boys and girls in the Ramah area on the Zuni Reservation. She was married to Zuni silversmith Leo Poblano for several years. Then he died while fighting a large forest fire in the Angeles National Forest in California.
Daisy married Zuni silversmith Sidney Hooee in 1959. Soon after that Catalina Zunie talked her into teaching ceramics at Zuni High School. That’s where the modern revival of traditional pottery making at Zuni began.
As accomplished a Hopi-Tewa potter as Daisy was, she applied herself to learning Zuni styles, shapes, designs and techniques and soon transformed herself into a consummate Zuni potter.
Zuni clay is different from Hopi clay but the production process and the designs used to decorate with are very similar. Much of Daisy’s pottery from those days shows the influence of ancient Zuni pottery traditions like the deer-with-heart-line, the rainbird, the deer-in-his-house, the rosette designs, the use of a white clay slip and water jars made in the high shouldered Rio Grande style.
After she retired from teaching she stayed at Zuni for a while working with a dance troop that she’d founded there and teaching some of the older women to make pottery. Then she returned to Hopi where she passed on in 1994.
In 1998, Daisy’s niece, Dextra Quotskuyva, complimented her work in the course of an interview. “She made big pots, giant pots,” said Dextra. In the same interview Dextra also spoke of going to visit Paqua Naha as a child and playing with her cousin Raymond (Daisy’s son) on the hill behind Paqua’s home.
Some Exhibits that featured Daisy’s work
- Elegance from Earth: Hopi Pottery. Heard Museum. Phoenix, AZ. 2012-2014
- Every Picture Tells a Story. Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. September 20, 2002 – 2005
- Hold Everything! Masterworks of Basketry and Pottery from the Heard Museum. Heard Museum. Phoenix, AZ. November 11, 2001 to March 10, 2002
- Recent Acquisitions. Heard Museum. Phoenix, AZ. 1997