Nampeyo, Leah

Leah Garcia Nampeyo (1928-1974) was a daughter of famed Hopi-Tewa potter Fannie Nampeyo. Among her siblings were Tonita Hamilton, Elva Tewaguna, Thomas Polacca and Iris Youvella. All of them were born at a time when their grandmother, Nampeyo of Hano, was losing her eyesight and her daughters (and others) were doing more and more painting for her. So on one side of the room was a woman continually coiling, forming, scraping and sanding pottery while on the other side was one woman or another continually mixing paints and applying designs to the dry pieces. Then every few days some ground would be prepared, a few pieces of pottery would be carefully placed, wood would be carefully stacked around them and then a fire lit to finish them. There was no way to be in that house and not be exposed to every aspect of making pottery the traditional way.

When Leah was 30, she married Louis Garcia of Laguna Pueblo. She gave birth to three children over the next ten years, then Lewis died. Times got hard and she moved closer to her mother, both to help her and to be helped by her. Then 6 years later Leah passed away. From that point, Fannie took over with Leah’s kids and saw them all into maturity.

Throughout Leah’s pottery-making years she adhered closely to the forms and designs she’d learned from Fannie as she was growing up. She was noted for her fine line work, her migration patterns and for producing adaptations similar to her mother’s. Her favorite designs seem to have been versions of the eagle and eagletail.