Descripción
Willie Yazzie, Sr. (Navajo), 1928-1999 Roadrunner and Cactus Overlay silver belt<br>buckle 2 7/8" x 1 15/16" x 41.7 grams with no issues. Fits a 1.5" belt.Navajo<br>Overlay Artist Willie YazzieAfter the success of the overlay designs made at the<br>Hopi Guild many other silversmiths and shops incorporated overlay in their<br>designs (see Overlay is Not Always Hopi Made). Navajo trader Dean Kirk opened<br>his own trading post at Manuelito, New Mexico (between Gallup and the Arizona<br>border) by January 1941. The silver work made in Dean’s shop was typically<br>Navajo tourist type designs and hallmarked UITA22 (under the auspices of the<br>United Indian Traders Association) until about 1951. That’s when Kirk designed a<br>series of overlay pins to be made by Navajo smiths in his employ incorporating<br>Hohokam and Mimbres designs. These designs proved to be very popular, as a 1958<br>newspaper advertisement for Enchanted Mesa in Albuquerque promoted “Dean Kirk’s<br>Navajo Overlay Silver”. The overlay pieces made at Kirk’s shop were rarely<br>hallmarked.However, one of the Navajo silversmiths who worked for Dean Kirk was<br>Willie Yazzie, he made his own hallmark and used it on pieces he made in Kirk’s<br>shop.Much of the following information was relayed to Alan Ferg (archivist and<br>archaeologist at Arizona State Museum) by William P. (Willie) Yazzie, Jr, in<br>February 2018. Ferg’s investigation of an overlay belt buckle in his possession,<br>lacking a hallmark, has led to previously unrecorded information about Willie<br>Yazzie, as well as the identification of an additional hallmark used by the<br>artist.According to Social Security records, Willie A. Yazzie was born at<br>Chinle, Arizona in 1928. His son says he learned silverwork at Dean Kirk’s<br>trading post in Manuelito in the early 1950s, and created his touchmark (or<br>hallmark) no later than 1960, and after that time his pieces made at Dean Kirk’s<br>would have included his gourd dipper hallmark. His designs often incorporated<br>animal figures such as roadrunners or Navajo designs including Yeis and Father<br>Sky. He never added “tamp work,” or a textured pattern to the background<br>designs.In 1960 Ansel Hall, concessionaire at Mesa Verde National Park, was<br>looking for a silversmith to demonstrate at the park during the summers months,<br>Dean Kirk recommended Willie Yazzie and he was hired by Hall. Willie worked at<br>Mesa Verde in the summers from 1960 to 1983, except for 1965 when he was sick.<br>Yazzie created a special hallmark to denote pieces he made at Mesa Verde. The<br>mark depicts Square Tower House, a ruin within the park, and was included with<br>his gourd dipper mark during the summers of 1960-1964 and 1966-1983.Willie A.<br>Yazzie died in 1999, but his family, including his widow, daughter and Willie Jr<br>continue the tradition of Willie’s overlay work. Willie Jr said that his sister<br>has most of their father’s tools and stamps, and that she still uses the gourd<br>dipper mark. Willie uses mostly his initials as his hallmark, but doesn’t do<br>much silverwork anymore, he is retired from the National Park Service where he<br>was a ranger at Canyon de Chelly. Willie, who lives in Chinle, said his sons do<br>a little silversmithing, but that they are busy and don’t have much time for it.
