Set of Four Wood Carved Navajo Yei Figures [SOLD]

This set of four carved wood and painted figures represents a portion of the Nightway Ceremony Diné of the Navajo Nation Supernaturals—Talking God, two female Yeis, and Water Sprinkler.

Talking God is dressed in a rust color shirt, blue pants, and with a white blanket wrapped over his shoulder. In his left hand he carries a gray and tan spotted fawnskin bag, and in his right hand a small medicine pouch. He wears an elaborate headdress. On his back is written Canyon de Chelly, Navajo Res. 1941, by 100 yr. Navajo cottonwood root. On one foot is written Clitso 1941, and on the other is Chin Lee Ariz.

The two Female Yeis wear red-orange kilts with black border decorations. Each wears a painted silver concho belt and bracelets on both arms. In their hands, they carry green tufts and wire yucca wands. Each wears a traditional blue square mask. They both have his signature on the bottom of the feet.

Erect Water Sprinkler wears a red-orange kilt. He holds a large spotted fawnskin bag in his left hand. In his right hand, he carries a green ruft and a yucca wand. He has two erect feathers on the back of his head. He is wearing a painted silver concho belt and bracelets on each wrist. His chest and back are painted with green nugget shapes arranged in a crossed manner on front and back. He is signed on the bottom of his foot.

Clitso Dedman was born in or around 1879 in Chinle, Arizona. As a teenager, he was sent to the Grand Junction Indian School. His education served him well, and he returned to Arizona a skilled blacksmith and carpenter. He was fluent in English, and was one of just a few of his peers who could read and write. Dedman worked for years in and around his hometown as a carpenter, mechanic, and stone mason.

In 1940, Dedman unexpectedly produced a set of four small carvings, which he gifted to a friend. They were depictions of figures from the Yeibichai Dance, the conclusion of the nine-day Nightway healing ceremony. Navajo trader McSparron, impressed by the quality of work, encouraged Dedman to continue carving. Dedman—now in his sixties, with health issues necessitating retirement from the laborious pursuits of his earlier life—devoted the rest of his life to exploring what was, at the time, an entirely new art form. Creating representations of ceremonial figures was frowned upon by the Diné people. Many believed in what has been referred to as a "Yeibichai curse," which would strike those who misused ceremonial figures with paralysis and blindness. Some have speculated that Dedman either did not believe in or felt that he was exempt from the curse, possibly because of his Catholic faith. However, it is worth noting that he is known to have omitted certain significant details from his figures' regalia, which suggests a somewhat significant measure of respect for tradition.

Dedman's works caught the attention of collectors and traders as they became more refined in the mid-1940s period. Today, they are sought by museums and private collectors alike because of both beauty and rarity.

Condition: very good condition

Provenance: this Set of Four Wood Carved Navajo Yei Figures is from the collection of a gentleman from Santa Fe

Recommended Reading: CLITSO DEDMAN, NAVAJO CARVER His Art and His World by by Rebecca M. Valette. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln

TAGS: Diné of the Navajo Nation, Other Fine Southwest Collectibles