Alberta Hannum (1906–1985)

Spin a Silver Dollar is about a trading post on the Arizona part of Navajo reservation in the 1930s. It tells about an Anglo couple, the Lippencotts, who bought and ran the Wide Ruins trading post in Arizona for four years. But the story is really about the self taught naturally talented Navajo Artist Beatien Yazz. Bill and Sallie Lippencott noticed a small boy who was carving images on rocks and gave him some paper crayons and watercolors. Navajo people do not reveal their real name to anyone. They all have a name they are known by, Beatien Yazz means Little No Shirt and he also was called Jimmy at school. The book is illustrated with a number of Little No Shirt's paintings. The author, Alberta Hannum, wrote about the Navajo without the condescension seen in so much writings about native people from that time. The book was first published in 1946. The story ends with the Lippencotts leaving the reservation for World War II service. The book does not mention that Beatien Yazz grew up to be one of the best known Native Artists and lived to a great old age. As far back as I can remember this book was always in my parents house. My mother loved the book and on a trip to the Southwest desert she located and bought a painting by Yazz. I've had this book since my mother's death and now I finally read it myself. I see why she treasured it. The title Spin a Silver Dollar has little to do with the story. In one brief instance a young Navajo man came in the trading post and spun a silver dollar on the trading post countertop.… (más)