Nampeyo, Nellie

Nellie Ta-We Lesou (1894-1979) was Nampeyo and Lesou’s fourth child. She was considered the most out-going and fun-loving of Nampeyo’s family but her pottery was never considered among the best: she could make a really good piece but her skills in decorating and firing were a bit short of that of her sisters. She also never really applied herself to practicing and refining her pottery making process: some of her painting and her firing has been said to be “casual.”

Nellie also made the trips with her parents to the Grand Canyon, Chicago and other places as she was growing up. She left school after third grade to help her mother make pottery. She was the only child who went to the Chicago Land Exposition in 1910 where she acted as interpreter for her parents. Then, when she was 17, she married a well-educated man named Douglas Douma.

Douglas assisted in marketing Nampeyo’s pottery after he became the manager, corresponding secretary and chief accountant at Tom Pavatea’s Trading Post in Polacca later on. He held that position until after Thomas Keam died and the Keams Canyon Trading Post was bought by Bruce McGee. McGee also bought Tom Pavatea’s operation and then combined the two businesses.

Nellie had 10 children with at least 34 grandchildren before she passed on. Three daughters: Marie Koopee, Augusta Poocha and Zella Ray (Kooyquaptewa)(Nez) all became potters and they passed the tradition on to some of their children.

Nellie never made much pottery, preferring instead to promote that of her sisters and younger members of her own family. She usually signed her pieces “Nellie Nampeyo”. Most of those she painted for her mother she signed “Nampeyo” with a second “N” under the first.