Green Serpentine Wolf Fetish Carving w/Bundle, ca 1960s - Edna Leki, Zuni

Description

In Brief
Beautiful, dark olive-green serpentine with charcoal-to-black striations
Arrowhead in offering is rose-pink shell, but not iridescent; is translucent on underside
Particularly nice teal turquoise tops the offering bundle, along with olive shell heishe beads
Has both leather and sinew wraps, as it should
Residue on bottom appears to be corn meal, probably from a fetish bowl
Length is 3 1/4 inches; height is 1 1/4 inches to top of turquoise
Dates to the 1960s, we believe, and is a transitional style
From a private Colorado collection
This carving is probably a fairly early example of Edna Leki's own carving style, though she would most likely have been middle-aged when she made it. The thumbnail biography below explains this in a bit more detail. The differences between her early and late work are subtle, and it's interesting to see how her style evolved over time. She had a well developed eye for color, and that can be seen here in the soft-pink shell arrowhead, which stands out against the dark-green serpentine. The beautiful piece of teal-colored turquoise may be left over from her time as a jeweler; it's backed with a black material and ready to set into a bezel. But with the black veining in the serpentine, it looks perfectly at home where it is.
Another interesting design choice is the horizontal lines in the tail. This is not typical; she usually made them either vertical or diagonal, but I believe that she decided to follow the very pronounced lines in the stone here, rather than going against them with vertical incising, which might have looked like plaid. (I have seen a few other Edna Leki fetishes made with horizontal lines, but not many.) Another difference, one that suggests an earlier date for this carving, is the slightly rounded back end of the arrowhead. Her later ones were straighter and had more pointed sides, and sometimes the back end was almost U- or V-shaped. The placement of the arrowhead on this animal suggests that she had been working on her own for a few years, since the tip is above the ears, not covering the entire head, which was a style favored by her father, Teddy Weahkee.
Edna Leki (1924-2003) is believed to have been the first female fetish carver at Zuni. She was one of two daughters of Teddy Weahkee, who was born about 1890. (Her sister was Mary Tsikewa.) Teddy Weahkee's carvings recalled the historic style of the late 19th century: the fetishes he saw while growing up. As a young man, he participated in the excavation of Hawikkuh, an abandoned prehistoric pueblo that had been occupied by the Zunis' forebears. He incorporated some of the features of artifacts found there into his own work, though he also found ways to make his own statements with his art. This concept of trying different things in order to develop an identifiable style seemed to resonate with Edna, whose fetishes acquired a look of their own.
Edna started out as a jeweler, but when her father grew old, she began helping him with his carvings and continued to assist him until he died, in 1965. Along the way, she must have discovered a preference for fetish carving, because she stayed with it for nearly 40 years after her father's death. Like her father, she never abandoned the traditional style, but she continued to experiment and introduce subtle new features in order to find her own unique artistic expression. While being the first female carver at Zuni was a distinction, being a carver with a distinctive style was equally significant, in my opinion, and Edna Leki achieved both. She also taught her two daughters and son to carve, thus perpetuating the family's legacy of excellence.
This carving is from a private Colorado collection of nicer-quality jewelry and fetishes acquired mostly between the 1950s and the 1970s.
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