Clitso Dedman, Diné Folk Art Artist

Clitso Dedman was a Diné of the Navajo Nation folk artist who discovered his signature creative practice late in life. His works, the majority of which depicted groups of sixteen Yeibichai Dance participants, 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.

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.

Later, he would marry, adopt Catholicism, and shift his energies toward working as a trader in his wife’s hometown of Nazlini. Dedman, notably, was one of the first Diné people to achieve success in the anglo-dominated field of reservation trading. After expanding and selling his trading post to Ganado trader John Lorenzo Hubbell, Dedman returned to Chinle, where he befriended trading post owner Cozy McSparron. Dedman supervised the successful expansion of McSparron’s business and home while operating his own blacksmith shop. During this time, he separated from his first wife and married Mary Brown, a skilled weaver who was also a devout Catholic.

References:
- Rebecca M. and Jean-Paul Valette, The Life and Work of Clitso Dedman, Navajo Woodcarver (1879?-1953), American Indian Art Magazine, 25:2 (Spring 2000), pp. 54-67. 

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