Charlie Willeto Wood Carving of a Navajo Yei Figure [SOLD]

This is one of the most elaborately painted carvings by Navajo artist Charlie Willeto that we have had the pleasure of selling.  The skirt, belt, chest and even the armpits are filled with diamonds and corn plants. Both front and back are fully painted.

It is believed that Charlie Willeto began carving wood figures as a means of trading them for provisions for his family.  He found a receptive trader at Mauzy’s Trading Post near Bloomfield. NM. He is believed to have carved only 400 of the figures before his early death. Some were as small as a few inches and some as large as 5 feet or more. Some were flat and others round.  When Willeto first began carving these figurines, he used his wife’s dyes from her Navajo rugs, but they faded relatively fast, so he switched to commercial house paint. This figurine is painted with house paint.

Charlie Willeto’s carvings were actually preserved through an amazing chain of events, which illustrates the influence of Indian traders.  Nageezi was the closest post to the Willeto hogan, but the trader/postmaster there at the time was not interested in those carvings, so Willeto took them instead to the post at Lybroo, ten miles distant.  Jim Mauzy, the trader at Lybrook in the 1960s, was willing to exchange small amounts of foodstuffs for Charlie’s carvings even though they appeared strange to him.

Mauzy gave Willeto a few dollars’ worth of food in trade.  Later, he traded those carvings to Rex Arrowsmith for equal value of the food items.  Rex Arrowsmith had a trading post on Old Santa Fe Trail in Santa Fe. He was unsure of the value of them but took them from Mauzy as they were made.  Eventually, Arrowsmith sold about 400 of Willeto’s carvings in the 1960s and later. Mauzy and Arrowsmith share the responsibility for making Willeto famous.

Willeto got into the carving business out of necessity.  He was a Navajo Medicine Man and had spent a large part of his life learning the ceremonials necessary for overcoming the effects of illness in a patient. Several sandpaintings and numerous chants are required in a single ceremony and the ceremony may last up to nine days. There was a time when medicine men were considered wealthy because of the remuneration they received from a ceremony.  With the advent of government medical facilities throughout the reservations, the requirement for use of Navajo medicine men declined, as did their income. Willeto needed to find a way to support his family. Woodworking must have interested him and he gave it a try. It certainly was successful even if for only the last four years of his life.

There seems to be a time when the names Alfred Walleto and Charlie Willeto were used intermittently.  The only reference to the use of Alfred Walleto is in a catalog for an exhibit organized by Greg La Chapelle at the The Maxwell Museum of Anthropology in Albuquerque.  There seems to be no other reference to the use of Alfred Walleto of which we are aware.

Condition: this Charlie Willeto Wood Carving of a Navajo Yei Figure is in very good condition

Provenance: from a client in Pennsylvania

References:

- NAVAJO FOLK ART by Chuck and Jan Rosenak, Rio Nuevo Publishers, Tucson

- Navajo Folk Sculpture—Alfred Walleto, The Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, Albuquerque

Recommended Reading: Collective Willeto: The Visionary Carvings of a Navajo Artist, Museum of New Mexico Press

Relative Links: Navajo Nation - Diné, Charlie Willeto, Other Fine Collectibles