Description
Willie Yazzie, Sr. (Navajo), 1928-1999 Overlay silver belt buckle 2" x 1 5/16" x<br>22.5 grams with no issues. Fits a 1" belt.<br><br>Navajo Overlay Artist Willie Yazzie<br><br>After the success of the overlay designs made at the Hopi Guild many other<br>silversmiths and shops incorporated overlay in their designs (see Overlay is Not<br>Always Hopi Made). Navajo trader Dean Kirk opened his own trading post at<br>Manuelito, New Mexico (between Gallup and the Arizona border) by January 1941.<br>The silver work made in Dean’s shop was typically Navajo tourist type designs<br>and hallmarked UITA22 (under the auspices of the United Indian Traders<br>Association) until about 1951. That’s when Kirk designed a series of overlay<br>pins to be made by Navajo smiths in his employ incorporating Hohokam and Mimbres<br>designs. These designs proved to be very popular, as a 1958 newspaper<br>advertisement for Enchanted Mesa in Albuquerque promoted “Dean Kirk’s Navajo<br>Overlay Silver”. The overlay pieces made at Kirk’s shop were rarely hallmarked.<br><br>However, one of the Navajo silversmiths who worked for Dean Kirk was Willie<br>Yazzie, he made his own hallmark and used it on pieces he made in Kirk’s shop.<br><br>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.<br><br>According to Social Security records, Willie A. Yazzie was born at Chinle,<br>Arizona in 1928. His son says he learned silverwork at Dean Kirk’s trading post<br>in Manuelito in the early 1950s, and created his touchmark (or hallmark) no<br>later than 1960, and after that time his pieces made at Dean Kirk’s would have<br>included his gourd dipper hallmark. His designs often incorporated animal<br>figures such as roadrunners or Navajo designs including Yeis and Father Sky. He<br>never added “tamp work,” or a textured pattern to the background designs.<br><br>In 1960 Ansel Hall, concessionaire at Mesa Verde National Park, was looking for<br>a silversmith to demonstrate at the park during the summers months, Dean Kirk<br>recommended Willie Yazzie and he was hired by Hall. Willie worked at Mesa Verde<br>in the summers from 1960 to 1983, except for 1965 when he was sick. Yazzie<br>created a special hallmark to denote pieces he made at Mesa Verde. The mark<br>depicts Square Tower House, a ruin within the park, and was included with his<br>gourd dipper mark during the summers of 1960-1964 and 1966-1983.<br><br>Willie A. Yazzie died in 1999, but his family, including his widow, daughter and<br>Willie Jr continue the tradition of Willie’s overlay work. Willie Jr said that<br>his sister has most of their father’s tools and stamps, and that she still uses<br>the gourd dipper mark. Willie uses mostly his initials as his hallmark, but<br>doesn’t do much silverwork anymore, he is retired from the National Park Service<br>where he was a ranger at Canyon de Chelly. Willie, who lives in Chinle, said his<br>sons do a little silversmithing, but that they are busy and don’t have much time<br>for it.
