Melvin Nuvayouma was born in Arizona in 1946, the son of the Hopi artist, Arlo Nuvayouma. Melvin is a member of the Sun Clan and the One Horn Society, and he graduated from the Phoenix Indian School in 1965.

Melvin Nuvayouma works in watercolor and gouache and his work is represented in the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, New York City and the Charles Little Collection, Oklahoma State University Museum of Art. His work is featured in “Ritual in Pueblo Art: Hopi Life in Hopi Painting,” by Byron Harvey III and is also included in the book Native Moderns: American Indian Painting, 1940-1960 by Bill Anthes.