Codijo “Chebon” Yazzie’s beadwork draws the eye with bright colors, bold patterns and beautiful textures. Only an up-close look at his designs reveals the attention to detail and intricacy of the beading. Each “seed bead” is millimeters in size and hundreds of them are strung together to adorn hats, neckties, vests and shoes. The skills he uses in his art are in his blood, carried on through a family legacy.

Codijo Yazzie’s mother, Rosine Tree, and his sister are both fashion designers, focusing on Native designs, and they showcase their work at fashion shows around the country. Last year, they were invited to have their designs in the first annual Indigenous Fashion Show at San Diego’s Sycuan Powwow. Yazzie attended the fashion show as a photographer. “I was inspired by all the designers that attended the fashion show, and I loved all the different styles and seeing the models walk down the runway,” says Yazzie.

Yazzie grew up in the Navajo Nation in Upper Fruitland, N.M. He’s Diné (Navajo) and Kiowa Camanche and identifies his clan as Tsenjikini Ta’baaha’ (Honey Combed Rock Edgewater) Tachii nii (Red Running into Water). He later moved to Logan where he creates his beaded designs. Yazzie’s older sister, Cheyleen, taught him how to bead. They started first with single-needle stitches, then graduated to two-needle stitching. “She also showed me how to do different techniques while working with seed beads,” says Yazzie, who practiced beading on small items for years. 

“As soon I got a hang of beading, I [started] making dream catchers, beaded necklaces, beaded handbags, beaded horse masks and beaded elk masks for my close friends and family for gifts.”

In teaching Yazzie how to bead, his sister continued a rich tradition in their family, which has a history studded with artists and designers (going back to his great, great, great grandfather, Haungooah, who has some of his hide paintings in the Smithsonian). “Growing up, [I saw] how talented my family is—watching them doing all kinds of Native American arts, painting, sewing and beadwork and Native American designs,” he says.

Yazzie’s beaded ties and hats are made with seed beads, buck skins and deer bone. “I wanted to do something different for Native fashion,” he says. “My ties and hats can be used for nice events, like weddings and graduations.” He directs photoshoots of his own work using local Native Americans in Cache Valley as his models. He sent some of his photographs to the organizer of the Indigenous Fashion Show in San Diego. Yazzie says she was looking to put more men’s fashion designs in the show this year, and she loved his beadwork and invited him to participate.

As he was inspired by his family and the Native American designers in the fashion show, Yazzie hopes his designs in the fashion show will inspire others. “I want our Indigenous young people to understand how it is important to carry different arts to express who we are,” explains Yazzie. “Our culture is important. This talent needs to be carried on.”  

Trading Post 

Native American designer Codijo Yazzie says he gets his art supplies, including the colorful seed beads for the beadwork on his projects, from the Native American Trading Post in Salt Lake City. The Trading Post also sells Powwow supplies, crafts, jewelry, blankets and music. Native American Trading Post, 3971 S. Redwood Rd., SLC, natput.com

See more stories like this and all of our culture and community coverage. And while you’re here, why not subscribe and get six annual issues of Salt Lake magazine’s curated guide to the best of life in Utah. 

WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAW) – Monday, Oct. 9 is known as Indigenous Peoples’ Day and to celebrate, the Central Wisconsin Indigenous Peoples’ Day Committee is holding a Pow Wow and Native American Art Market this weekend. Director of the Central Wisconsin Indigenous Peoples’ Day Committee Tricia Zunker joined Sunrise 7 to preview the event.

Grand entry of the Pow Wow will be happening at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday, and at noon on Sunday.

“That’s when all the dancers come in and fill the arena,” Zunker said. “They come in by dance category, it’s a beautiful sight to see and really, it’s open to anybody.”

Along with the Pow Wow, there will be a free traditional feast at 5 p.m. on Saturday. Throughout the weekend, there will be 30 Native American craft vendors and artists set up for the Art Market.

“With Indigenous Peoples’ Day, it just seems like a really fitting opportunity to celebrate Native American culture, our way of life, our continued existence and acknowledge we’re still here,” Zunker said.

The Pow Wow and Art Market is happening Oct. 7-8 at the Central Wisconsin Expo Center in Rothschild. Admission is free and everyone from the public is welcome to attend.

Copyright 2023 WSAW. All rights reserved.

The Wednesday night show hadn’t officially started, but the crowd was already starting to giggle in anticipation as the lights lowered at the event center at the Wildhorse Resort and Casino.



Thunder boomed over the sound system as the smoke machines whirred to life. A figure veiled in black walked the catwalk as a narrator talked about the people’s connection to the land and the work to preserve it for the next seven generations.

“We must assess our intention for mindful creation and destruction, for we are at the hands of both,” the narrator said.

Not long after, the model shed her veil to reveal a bright yellow two-piece outfit adorned with tribal jewelry. The 2023 Northwest Native Fashion Show on the Umatilla Indian Reservation had begun.

The brainchild of two Indigenous economic development officials, the fashion show was meant to spotlight Native designers who were looking to jump from the realm of hobbyist to professional fashion, their work incorporating the traditional artisanry of their tribes with more contemporary designs.

As a part of the larger Northwest Native Economic Summit, the fashion show was meant to be a part of a growing movement to support Native-owned small businesses.

And on Wednesday, that movement walked the catwalk.

‘Dedication to their craft’

The first inklings for the fashion show came when Jacob Wallis was young

A member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation with Yakama and Niimiipuu heritage, Wallis was given the Native name Watáy — summer ermine — by his grandmother. He remembered that his family often got together to make clothes for variety shows at their church.

Wallis said he still has VHS tapes showing the clothing made at these family gatherings, “department store” quality in his eyes. Some of those family members died before they could be recognized for their talents, he said.

“I’ve always felt kind of sad that they passed away (with) people not really knowing their work and their dedication to their craft,” he said. “I’ve always envisioned there being some type of platform that we can have for those creatives to be able to shine … more than just, ‘Oh, we just did it for a variety show in a backyard’ situation.”

Those plans solidified after he met Casey Pearlman. Both Wallis and Pearlman work in tribal economic development — Wallis as the business services manager for Nixyaawii Community Financial Services on the Umatilla Indian Reservation and Pearlman as the director of business development at the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indian Economic Development Corp. in Portland.

The pair were at a training summit in Portland last year and Pearlman had helped organize a reception at the Center for Native Arts and Cultures. Wallis found himself inspired by the space and quickly found an ally in Pearlman.

“He kind of sashayed across the room and he looked around,” Pearlman recalled. “He said, ‘Did you plan this?’ And I said, ‘Yep.’ He said, ‘Oh, this is great. We should do a fashion show in here.’ And seven months later, we had our first fashion show here in Wildhorse.”

The first show was planned on a tight timeline for a small audience. Intended to act as a reception for the business summit, the first fashion show brought in 75 people.

With more time to plan the second show, Wallis and Pearlman upped their ambition. This year’s event still coincided with the summit, but it was open to the general public and ticketed separately. Three hundred people attended.

Wallis was motivated to put on these shows because he wanted to demonstrate to Indigenous creators that their clothing and crafts didn’t just have cultural or personal value, but monetary value as well. Visitors bought dozens of items displayed on the runaway last year, Wallis said.

Pearlman said they were also intentional in the way they planned the event. Not only were the designers Native, but also the DJ, makeup artists and hair stylists. Many were from the Columbia plateau tribes: the CTUIR, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, the Nez Perce Tribe and Yakama Nation.

“To put plateau designs made by plateau artists on a runway and for sale here, and just kind of model how these people deserve to be treated,” she said. “We’re happy to be that role model for the broader community.”

The pair can see the event expanding as a source of inspiration for other Native fashion shows on other reservations.

Wallis said the rise in Native designers and other tribal small businesses can be viewed as an expansion of tribal sovereignty.

“Our sovereignty has pretty much been limited to tribal enterprise and in tribal government, but we have so much more to develop. I think there’s been this level of hesitancy,” he said. “But the time is now and we’re making sure that we’re capitalizing on that.”

Self-reliance

Dave Tovey remembers when elders used to tell other tribal members that the Great Depression never reached the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

While many tribal members may not have had traditional employment, the director of Nixyaawii Community Financial Services said they still could rely on their traditions for subsistence and other needs. Tovey said his grandmother used to feed dozens of migrants who were traveling through Eastern Oregon looking for work.

As an economic development official who works for the CTUIR, Tovey said he’s looking to cultivate a similar spirit of self-reliance in the modern tribal economy.

“We need to make sure that, should the rest of the world fall apart, we still have a lot of the tools here to be self-reliant and keep our community safe and fed and secure,” he said.

Tovey is also the president of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indian Economic Development Corp. and helped bring this year’s economic summit back to Wildhorse. He sees the fashion show as a natural extension of that spirit.

Nixyaawii provides both consumer and small business loans to tribal members, but he said much of the economy in Indian Country is still informal.

“I think there’s a lot of stuff that happens on the reservation that’s not a recorded economy. [It’s] a lot of trade and a lot of other things,” he said. “We’re at that point [where] we’re trying to help people identify those areas and help them along that route.”

When Wallis and Pearlman contacted potential designers for the show, many of them saw themselves as hobbyists rather than professionals.

A member of the CTUIR, designer Melinda Broncheau’s career got started out of necessity when she couldn’t afford to buy her children traditional clothing as a single mother. She relied on the traditions taught by her mother and grandmother and taught herself techniques if there was something she didn’t know.

“I think that mindset is a designer person,” she said. “If there’s something you want, and you put your own little spin on it, it’s your design now.”

With the help of Nixyaawii, she was able to open her own business, Ruby’s Indian Supplies and Crafts, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Broncheau was excited to show off her wares at the fashion show Thursday, even if she didn’t want to bask in the spotlight. After the models finished showing off her clothes, she kept her curtain call brief as the audience serenaded her with applause.

Minturn-based Weston Snowboards has launched several new lines this season featuring designs from Crystal Worl, who specializes in the formline art of the Alaska native Tlingit people.

The collaboration is part of a larger effort between Worl, Weston and others to raise awareness for the urgent situation in Alaska involving salmon harvesting.

Worl, who is herself Tlingit, said on Weston’s new Skyline-model skis and Backwoods- and Eclipse-model snowboards, she drew from her people’s artistic style in an effort to be communicative with the project.

“There’s a whole set of principles and way of creating the art, it’s very complex and something that’s passed on from mentor to apprentice,” she said. “Growing up, we didn’t call it art. It’s on our regalia, it’s on our houses, it’s a way of communication, it’s our literature.

“This formline design is used so that when I’m wearing my regalia, someone will look at my regalia and see my clan crest on there, and they’ll be able to tell who I am, where I’m from, and their relationship to me and my family,” Worl added. “It’s a whole book of information just from one design.”

Support Local Journalism

Donate

Worl said the salmon depicted on her Weston boards represents “Xáat Kusteeyí,” a Tlingit term for “The Salmon Way of Life,” which focuses on protecting salmon and salmon habitat so the salmon can provide people with sustenance in return.

Crisis on the Kuskokwim

Worl grew up attending something she calls “fish camp,” where kids learn to filet and smoke fish.

But in recent years, fish camp has been canceled, she said.

“We’ve been going to fish camp and harvesting fish in the Kuskokwim River forever, something my grandfather passed on to his kids and on to me and my family,” she said. “But the past three years we haven’t been allowed to, because the number of salmon is too low.”

It’s a crisis for the native people of Alaska who live by Xáat Kusteeyí.

“It’s urgent,” Worl said. “It affects our small communities in Alaska, but it does ultimately affect everyone … the way the world is collecting salmon is not sustainable. We won’t have salmon in the future.”

Worl said she thinks about the situation every day, and it has altered the way she thinks about her art. Using the communicative formline style of her people, she now seeks to spread a message communicating the urgency of the salmon harvesting situation in Alaska.

“Part of creating an art piece that commemorates salmon is also telling people the importance of salmon and also the importance of learning to harvest them respectfully in a way that’s not wasteful,” she said.

Haa Aani Alliance

Worl has attended art school and taken on extensive studies including a three-year apprenticeship with Haida artist Robert Davidson, a master of the craft. But her first and most influential mentor was her brother, Rico Worl.

Rico carved out the recognition and respect of a corner of Alaskan skateboard culture with his signature style, eventually requesting the assistance of Crystal.

“My older brother was hand-painting skateboard decks and selling them online, and he was doing so well that it was hard to keep up with orders,” she said. “He started sending me blank decks, and I started hand painting them.”

The siblings formed Trickster Company, and while Crystal’s art continued to be featured on skateboards, she had yet to appear on a snowboard before the Weston collaboration.

Trickster Company, along with Weston, Zeal Optics, Smartwool, Pret, and MountainFLOW Eco-Wax, have now joined forces to form the Haa Aani Alliance. Has Aani is a Tlingit word meaning “our land.”

In addition to the Weston skis and snowboards, the Haa Aani Alliance will launch a collection of goggles, socks and accessories featuring Worl’s artwork, with a portion of proceeds benefiting nonprofits Yukon Salmon, Wild Salmon Center and the North Atlantic Salmon Fund.

Worl is a skier and enjoys the sport and its connection to Alaska. She also wants to make it clear that by putting her art on its products, these companies are supporting indigenous art, not appropriating it.

“I’m a small business owner, and like any other modern-day business, we want buyers and collectors to feel really excited about repping our gear, whether it be something they buy from the Trickster website, or they buy this snowboard or skis,” she said. “I want everyone to wear it and rock it, and I want people to be stoked about the art, and the story, and share the story, share the values that come with it, learn from it, and shred on the mountain with these boards and be excited to tell other people about it.”

Sophie Thun and Laurence Sturla, whose works will be shown in the fair’s Focus section, discussed their work and their lives in the Austrian capital.