Lee Edaakie — Zuni Silversmith
Lee Edaakie was a Zuni lapidary and silversmith of the 1930s and 1940s, who sold his work through the trader C. G. Wallace. Joseph Stacey's Turquoise Blue Book and Indian Jewelry Digest calls him a "Zuni master craftsman" and shows a run of his pieces from the Wallace collection: carved turquoise in modified double squash blossom forms, 1933; a necklace of Green Blue Gem turquoise, 1936; a superfine turquoise cluster, 1942; and a coral and turquoise cluster necklace (Stacey 1975, pp. 34, 36, 39).
William and Sarah Turnbaugh's Indian Jewelry of the American Southwest names him among the carvers who took up the style of small fetish forms early (Turnbaugh 2007, p. 54). Nancy N. Schiffer's Turquoise Jewelry shows a triangular green Nevada turquoise pendant set in silver and a large turquoise nugget bolo tie of his (Schiffer 2008, pp. 53, 59). Hougart's entry for his brother, Theodore Edaakie, gives Lee's birth year as 1914 and records that he, too, sold through the Wallace operation (Hougart 2022, p. 113).
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References
- Stacey, Joseph, ed. Turquoise Blue Book and Indian Jewelry Digest. Arizona Highways Collectors Series. Phoenix: Arizona Highways, 1975.
- Turnbaugh, William A., and Sarah Peabody Turnbaugh. Indian Jewelry of the American Southwest. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2007 (first published 1988).
- Schiffer, Nancy N. Turquoise Jewelry. Revised 4th edition. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2008.
- Hougart, Bille. Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks: Silversmiths, Designers, Guilds and Traders. 5th edition. Washington, DC: BilleHougartBooks, 2022.
- Schaaf, Gregory, with Angie Yan Schaaf. American Indian Jewelry I: 1,200 Artist Biographies, ca. 1800-present. American Indian Art Series, Vol. 5. Santa Fe: CIAC Press, 2003. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2003.
From the Library: Schaaf, American Indian Jewelry I (2003)
2003 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2003, not today.
Schaaf (2003) entered him with a second spelling:
“Lee Edaakie (Lee Itaikie)”
— Schaaf (2003), p. 145 [5]
Schaaf (2003, p. 145) recorded Lee Edaakie as a Zuni jeweler active from before 1933 in cluster, nugget and silver-leaf, mosaic and channel inlay work and silver beads, with his work in the Ohio University and C.G. Wallace collections and in the 2002 exhibition Jewels of the Southwest at the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture in Santa Fe. [5]
Schaaf (2003, p. 290) named Lee Edaakie among the Zuni jewelers who sometimes collaborated with Dan Simplicio, with Leekya Deyuse, Teddie Weahkee and Leo Poblano. [5]
This profile is maintained in support of Native American silversmiths and compiled from published references. See something inaccurate, or want to add to it? Contact us.