Artist

Leonard Willeto

born 1955-died 1984
Media - willeto_charlie_with_family.jpg - 90564
Charlie Willeto and family, undated. Digital scan of a damaged Polaroid. Image is courtesy of the Chuck and Jan Rosenak research material, 1990-1999, in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Active in
  • Nageezi, New Mexico, United States
Biography

Leonard Willeto was the son of well-known wood-carvers Charlie Willeto and Elizabeth Willeto Ignacio, and began carving in the 1970s. When he was sixteen years old he was run over by a pickup truck, was permanently disfigured and left school. Willeto carved no more than a hundred dolls before he committed suicide on August 2, 1984 (Chuck and Jan Rosenak, The People Speak: Navajo Folk Art, 1994).