Nampeyo, Loren Hamilton

Loren Hamilton was born to Tonita Nampeyo and Eugene Hamilton in December 1961 at the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital near Gouldings, UT. He attended preschool in Mexican Hat, UT, but his grandmother, Fannie Nampeyo, was beginning to lose her eyesight around then. The Hamiltons moved back to Polacca on the Hopi Reservation and Tonita settled in to help her mother. From then until Fannie died, she and Tonita were almost inseparable. After Fannie died, Tonita became the matriarch of the Corn Clan, moved into the Corn Clan house and took on those responsibilities, as Fannie and her mother, Nampeyo of Hano, had before her.

Loren attended the Polacca Day School, then went to Middle School in Tuba City and High School in Winslow.

Loren learned how to make pottery from his mother as he was growing up. In his teens he learned how to carve pottery from his uncle, Tom Polacca. But after high school, he went to work for the Hopi Tribal Authority, the agency that oversees HUD grants on the Hopi Reservation. He made pottery to relax.

At first he would make his pieces and Tonita would paint them. Then Loren developed his own style of low-relief carving, incising and painting. Like most of Tom Polacca’s male relatives, Loren’s work was well received almost immediately.