Steven Yazzie (born 1970) is a Native American artist, who is enrolled in the Navajo Nation and of Laguna Pueblo descent of his father's side.
[3] When he returned Yazzie discovered that his paternal grandfather had participated in World War II as a code-talker.
[3] Some projects Yazzie has headed include Digital Preserve, LLC and Postcommodity, the latter of which he helped found with Kade L. Twist (Cherokee Nation) and Nathan Young (Delaware/Pawnee/Kiowa/Cherokee).
He also co-founded the Museum of Walking with Angela Ellsworth, located on the Arizona State University campus in the Tower Center Building.
Riding down Monument Valley, he would try to replicate the landscape, including the buttes and mesas in view onto the easel attached to the wooden cart.
Yazzie has expressed feelings of distance from the Navajo and his family because he cannot speak the language,[2] so he used this project to try to understand the significance of these places more closely and personally.
[5] These colors and cardinal directions represent DIb' e Nitsaa, Sis' naajini, Tsoodzil, and Dook' o' słíí respectively.