Adee Dodge - by Nancy Mattina (Hardcover)

About the Book

Nancy Mattina offers the first biography of Navajo artist Adee Dodge (1912-92), who aimed to bridge the gap between Navajo and Western philosophical traditions through his writing, comparative scholarship, and art.

Book Synopsis

Adee Dodge: Navajo Artist, Intellectual, and Individualist chronicles the life of Navajo artist and intellectual Adee Dodge (1912-92). Born on the Navajo Reservation near Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, Dodge studied anthropological linguistics at Columbia University, taught Navajo literacy at Indian Bureau boarding schools on his reservation, rose from private first class to captain in the army during World War II, and founded Adee Dodge Enterprises, Inc., the first uranium prospecting and mining firm owned by a Navajo. At age forty, by then living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Dodge began to paint allegorical pictures grounded in Navajo wisdom traditions and aesthetics. By 1960 he was an acclaimed Southwest Native watercolorist based in Arizona's Phoenix metro area. His devotion to interpreting the Navajo worldview in modernist form earned him praise as the best of the Navajo painters of his day. Upon his death, Dodge left behind a rich record of his intellectual history that has since been conserved at major museums and archives.

Written from a postcolonial perspective, this biography conveys Dodge's assessment of the contributions the Navajo Nation might yet make to the American experiment, if only Americans would honor their promise to treat tribal peoples with dignity and respect.

Review Quotes

"Adee Dodge is an underrecognized Indigenous artist and intellectual in the scholarly record. During his lifetime he received high acclaim from Native art collectors, academics, curators, and aficionados, as well as other Navajo artists for his paintings. This book provides new insights into why much of Dodge's work went unpublished and why, despite his success as an artist, he was and largely continues to be marginalized from other modern Native painters in most scholarship on this subject."--Laura E. Smith, author of Horace Poolaw, Photographer of American Indian Modernity

"Nancy Mattina has written an important biography of a largely unknown Native American artist and scholar who, despite his flaws and lack of recognition during his lifetime, sought to bring greater understanding of the relationship between Navajo culture and non-Native Americans. When considering Dodge's scholarly work, his attempts to share his Navajo culture with a non-Native audience, and his unique style of artwork, it's apparent that his story has been waiting to be told for some time."--Alan Petersen, curator of fine arts at the Museum of Northern Arizona

About the Author

Nancy Mattina taught research and nonfiction writing at Prescott College until her retirement in 2016. She is the author of Uncommon Anthropologist: Gladys Reichard and Western Native American Culture.