Charlie Willeto was a Navajo medicine man who became a folk artist in his later years. He carved wood figurines and sold them to a trading post. Today, they are valuable collector’s items today.

Charlie Willeto is also known as Alfred Willeto, a name he took when he began to create wood figurines, which is a common practice for Navajo’s who move into a different profession. His creations number into the many hundreds.

Many believe that the upraised arms which are seen on many of his carvings is due to his medicine man background. Similarly, Willeto’s figurines resemble the supernatural Yei, a Navajo spirit or other forces of nature. He used natural wool dyes on many of his first carvings and found them to fade with time. He shifted to household paint which he frequently painted onto the figures with a stick. The simple, untrained folk artist’s carving became valuable collector’s items.

Willeto, a medicine man, actually violated the Navajo taboo of creating sacred images in his wood carvings. However, because he was a medicine man he was acceptable perform cleansing rituals after creating the taboo religious images.

His carved images earned him critical acclaim after his death at age 67.