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Yeibichai Dancers with Medicine Man and Patient
ca. 1991-1992
Tom Yazzie
Born: Fort Defiance, Arizona 1930
carved and painted cottonwood, sand
overall: 12 7/8 x 51 1/4 x 7 3/4 in. (32.7 x 130.2 x 19.7 cm.)
A (base): 3/4 x 51 1/4 x 7 in. (1.9 x 130.2 x 17.8 cm.)
B (medicine man): 10 1/2 x 4 x 3 1/2 in. (26.7 x 10.2 x 8.9 cm.)
C (woman with basket): 9 1/2 x 4 x 3 in. (24.1 x 10.2 x 7.6 cm.)
D (first man in mask): 12 x 3 7/8 x 3 3/4 in. (30.5 x 9.8 x 9.5 cm.)
E (first woman in mask): 8 7/8 x 3 1/2 x 3 in. (22.5 x 8.9 x 7.6 cm.)
F(second man in mask): 11 1/8 x 4 1/4 x 3 3/4 in. (28.3 x 10.8 x 9.5 cm.)
G (second woman in mask): 8 1/2 x 3 1/2 x 3 in. (21.6 x 8.9 x 7.6 cm.)
H (third man in mask): 11 x 3 1/2 x 4 in. (27.9 x 8.9 x 10.2 cm.)
I (third woman in mask): 9 1/2 x 3 3/4 x 3 3/4 in. (24.1 x 9.5 x 9.5 cm.)
J (fourth man in mask): 10 1/2 x 3 7/8 x 3 1/2 in. (26.7 x 9.8 x 8.9 cm.)
K (fourth woman in mask): 8 3/4
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Gift of Chuck and Jan Rosenak and museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
1997.124.103A-Q
Smithsonian American Art Museum
3rd Floor, Luce Foundation Center
The Yeibichai are supernatural beings who created the Navajo people and taught them how to live in harmony with the universe. This piece represents the Nightway ceremony of the Navajos, in which a medicine man calls upon the power of the Yeibichai to heal someone. The ceremony also involves a dance with fourteen people: six men, six women, a dancer representing the Talking God, and one representing the Water Sprinkler. Tom Yazzie has depicted all of the participants in this sacred ceremony in his carving, wearing their ceremonial masks and headdresses to resemble the Yeibichai.
For more information about this work visit the Luce Foundation Center.
Keywords
Ceremony - dance - Yeibichai Dance
Ceremony - Indian - Medicine Ceremony
Ethnic - Indian - Navajo
Figure group
Occupation - medicine - doctor
State of being - illness
sculpture
folk art
paint
sand
wood - cottonwood
About Tom Yazzie
Born: Fort Defiance, Arizona 1930




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