Beatien Yazz

Early life Hoska Ye Ta Das Woot was born to Joe and Desbah Toddy on the Navajo Reservation near Wide Ruins, Arizona. He often went by his English-language name Jimmy Toddy, as well as by variations of Bea Etin Yazz ("Little No Shirt" in Navajo). As a young child, he colored with crayons and enjoyed making art. Bill and Sallie Lippencott, who ran the Wide Ruins Trading Post, recognized his talent and encouraged his art.

Yazz attended the Wide Ruins Day School, followed by two years at the Santa Fe Indian School. Then he studied for three years at Fort Wingate Indian School and one year at the Sherman Indian High School.

When he returned to the reservation after the war, he dedicated himself to art. In the late 1940s he received a scholarship to study under painter Yasuo Kuniyoshi as part of a summer program at Mills College. During this program, he was able to paint with oil paint from a live model.

Art career Though Yazz worked for a time as a police officer in Fort Defiance, Arizona and as an art teacher at Stewart Indian School in Carson City, Nevada, he dedicated most of his adult life to creating art full time. His paintings "record the natural movement of light and air with powerful drama." Alberta Hannum wrote two popular books about his life, including illustrations by Yazz. Spin a Silver Dollar: The Story of a Desert Trading-post (Viking Press, 1945) (original title as published in 1945: Spin a Silver Coin)told of his early life meeting the Lippencotts, and its sequel Paint the Wind (1958) Spin a Silver Dollar was condensed by Reader's Digest and was presented on Cavalcade of America.

In addition to exhibiting and selling paintings, Yazz also created works on commission. He created some tiles for Gila Pottery, designed fabric on commission for Tumble-weed Prints, and had his work reproduced as greeting cards for a number of companies.

By the 1970s, Yazz had developed severe eye problems and deteriorating eyesight. A Navajo Medicine man told him this was punishment for painting sacred Navajo figures.

Collections Some of his works have been in the permanent collection of institutions including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Gilcrease Museum, the Logan Museum of Anthropology, the Museum of New Mexico, the Philbrook Museum of Art, and the Southwest Museum of the American Indian.

Works Spin a Silver Dollar: The Story of a Desert Trading-post (1945), by Alberta Hannum Paint the Wind (1958), by Alberta Hannum Yazz: Navajo Painter (1983), with Sallie Wagner and J.J. Brody