Dextra Quostkuyva Nampeyo is certainly one of the most influential Hopi-Tewa potters of the last 50 years. Not only has she taught numerous potters (Steve Lucas, Yvonne Lucas, Les Namingha, Loren Ami, Hisi Nampeyo, to name just a few), but her creative designs and forms have dramatically influenced the pottery itself.  This is an unusual double canteen with both sections hollow.  The entire surface is fully polished.  It has an eagle on the front with extended talons and the tail extending down the side. As the piece is turned, there are rain clouds on the sides and back of the smaller lobe.  The top is painted with small circles. While the black is bee-weed, there is additional deep red and tan areas. The deep red is polished while the tan is matte.  It is not just an unusual shape, but an amazing design that accentuates the form. It is signed on the bottom, “Dextra Quotskuyva”.  It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.  The was also published in Ray Manley’s “Collecting Southwestern Indian Arts and Crafts” in a group photo of her pottery.

Dextra said of her early pottery:

“I was watching my mom (Rachel Nampeyo) all the time, and I was picking up everything she was doing. I found my own polishing stones. I would collect clays.  My mother didn’t like it when I did different types of designs. She was different in her ideas. My mother, she went so far as to say that whatever our great-grandmother had reproduced from old designs—those were important designs. We’re supposed to have the basics, she’d say. The big six. Don’t part from that. The six traditional designs. One of them is the migration design, the eagle feather design, the hummingbird design, the horned lizard, the moth design, and parrots. Those are the ones that started with Lesso and Nampeyo.  The designs are mainly from Sikyatki people—it was their pottery that was dug out when they were excavating. They were beautiful designs they had used quite a bit.”  Dextra Quotskuyva, Spoken Through Clay