Carmelita Vigil was born into San Ildefonso Pueblo in 1925. The daughter of Juanita and Romando Vigil, she was also a niece of Maria Martinez and Desideria Montoya. Her mother died when she was eight years old. At that point, she began splitting her time between Maria's and Desideria's households, a few months with one, then a few months with the other. She watched both women making pottery and learned from both but she always referred to Desideria as "Grandma."

Like most Native American teenagers of the time, she was sent to a boarding school designed to remove her Native American heritage. It failed, but it was at that school that she met a San Carlos Apache student named Carlos Dunlap. After graduating, she and Carlos got married and moved to California to find work. A decade later they returned to San Ildefonso and Carmelita threw herself into making pottery. She established herself with red and cream polychromes, then moved to black-on-black pottery and finally to the sunrise brown that is now her family's specialty.

Carmelita was a regular participant in the Santa Fe Indian Market from 1978 to 1999, and at the Eight Northern Pueblos Arts & Crafts Show from 1995 to 1999. Carmelita was also a participant in the 1974 Seven Families in Pueblo Pottery show at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Carmelita passed her knowledge on to her daughters, Jeannie Mountain Flower Dunlap, Linda (Turquoise Lake) Dunlap and Cynthia Star Flower Dunlap, and her son, Carlos Sunrise Dunlap (although he passed on in 1981 at the age of 23).

Some Awards Carmelita has Earned

• 1989: Second Place, Painted jar over 8 inches tall, Santa Fe Indian Market
• 1992: Second Place, Painted jar over 8 inches tall, Santa Fe Indian Market
• 1998: Honorable Mention, Painted jar over 8 inches tall, Santa Fe Indian Market