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As a young boy, Leland was inspired by the paintings of his uncle, Howard Holiday. He started doing pencil drawings when he was seven years old. Thirsting to learn more about art, he started checking out library books. He loved seeing the work of Picasso, Jackson Pollack, and Georgia O'Keefe, but was especially blown away by the work of Jean Michele Basquiat.
In 1990 when he was sixteen years old, his mother brought home a set of acrylic paints. Leland would start painting in the morning and become so caught up that he would forget to eat. His days were filled with the joy of expressing his artwork. He would use anything he could find for materials; spray paint, house paint, found wood, old fence posts, practically anything that provided a surface for his exciting palette of colors. He surprises himself by changing the shading or colors. He never thinks about what someone may think of his work, whether or not they will like it.
Because of the carvings he was creating along with his brothers, he was almost immediately categorized as a folk artist, yet he felt he had much more to offer. About three years ago when he pushed to expand his expression, collectors were afraid to move with his changes and for some time he struggled internally and financially. Fortunately, that battleship finally turned and he is once again enjoying the freedom of painting his personal vision of color and expression.
His wife and family have been his greatest source of encouragement. He doesn't quite know why he creates the work that he does. He simply feels compelled to create. He feels there is a long road ahead, a good road with great opportunity for expressing his individuality.
The Holy
Beings formed the dog, male and female. The male dog was dressed with the dawn
and he was white. He traveled to the East. The female dog was reddish or brownish
yellow and she was dressed with the twilight. On their ears sat the Little Breeze.
Their ears were made from the winds, and at the tip of the tail also there is
a breeze. So when a dog passes another dog he can tell from the mouth to the
tip of the tail. Burned food was put on their noses and they were black. A medicine
stick, ke et an'dotishe, was placed inside their stomachs, and they say that
is why a dog never gets enough to fill him. As he has the wind at the ears and
at the tip of the tail he never gets lost. He knows many things, for he was
sent to guard the doorways of the people. The male dog was sent east of the
Carrizos and the female dog to a place now known as Tohatchi. The white dog
was a welcome animal. The people were good hunters and they fed him and petted
him and he grew fat. But the female dog went to evil people who beat her and
threw sticks at her and she grew poor and skinny. The dogs were told to meet
at a place called Tse ha gaye. There are burning minerals under the ground there
and one sees smoke. 12 They met there as instructed, but when they met the male
jumped on the female and threw her on the ground. The male dog treated her badly.
They fought as dogs do now. Then they crossed. The dog said: "People were
good to me and fed me lots of meat." The bitch said: "People were
cruel to me. They starved me all the time." So they changed places; the
white dog went to the home of the yellow dog, and the female went to the home
of the male. And after a time they met again at the same place. This time the
white dog had gotten the worst of the treatment and was thin and poor, whereas
the bitch was fat. So the two got even with each other. Then the two dogs started
out for a place called Nat ege saka'te, where a lone currant bush grows on a
plain south of Fruitland. A little ledge of rock and the lone currant bush are
all that are there. When the dogs reached the ledge of rock they sat side by
side with their backs toward the people who had been cruel to them. The one
dog sent his bad wish with the gas from his stomach, and the other dog sent
her bad wish from her backbone to the wicked people. The two them returned to
the place where they were made. Later, the people who had been cruel to the
dogs sickened. Their stomachs bloated, and they were very ill indeed. The being
who was called Dontso, the All-Wise Fly, came and said: "The only person
to make medicine here is Hasjelti himself; but don't tell anyone what I have
said. Keep it a secret." Now up to this time they had used ceremonies over
the sick, but they could not cure them. When Hasjelti made the medicine the
people recovered. This is where the Dog Ceremony 13 begins. The chant is here.
12- Informant's note: This is a place near Newcomb's Trading Post.
13- Informant's note: The medicine used in the Dog Ceremony is for stomach ailments.
They are: Informant's name: tse gan il chee; Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 187),
tsigha'jilchi, the dodder, Cuscuta unbellata. Informant's name: chil'dily ese;
Franciscan Fathers (1910, p.186), chil dilyisi, dodgeweed, Gutierezzia euthamiae.
Informant's name: da'e tinda; Franciscan Fathers (1912, p.77), da'hiqi'hi da',
hummingbird food, Scarlet Gilia, Gilia aggregata. These plants are boiled together
with native salts.
The dog (lechai), Khintqelgi dobidinshdidahi hashcheltqi bili dzilkae nat'ani, that fine young chief of the wide house, the inseparable companion and pet of the Talking God. Pg. 175
Dog (le'tca'i,
li'tca'i') (U) is an animal of bad luck that may spoil anything. The Navaho
ascribe to Dog the faults possessed by its relatives, Coyote and Wolf, and despise
him because 'he can't take care of himself.' The Mexican hairless seems to have
been better thought of. When Rainboy's sister prepared for her ascension, she
took with her a Mexican hairless dog.
A small watchdog, tied to a cliff opposite the canyon home of the gods, barked
sharply at the Stricken Twins.
Persons to whom dogs are unfriendly cannot foretell events. Those who divined
by listening put dog earwax, among other things, into their ears. A rite to
drive off the evil power of dogs was a part of the Night and Mountain chants
(Hill 1938, p. 75; 1935a, p. 66; Reichard 1944d, p. 155; Matthews 1902, pp.
103, 229; Newcomb 1938, p.47; Wyman-Kluckhohn, pp. 6, 27; Kluckhohn-Wyman, p.
188).
