Spin a Silver Dollar

by Alberta Pierson Hannum, Beatien Yazz (Illustrator)

Viking Press c1945, 3rd printing February 1946. Hardcover blue fabric cover, 173 pages.

Hardcover

First published October 29, 1945

About the author

Born in 1906.
Died in 1985.

Reviews

[Angela H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about a white couple who moved away from their normal lifestyle to own a trading post on a Navajo reservation in Arizona. The book spans for a timeline of 4 years with accounts of how they built up their shop and the relationships with the Navajo. There is a little Navajo boy who doesn't say much, but is full of surprises, with a great personality. He expressed this through his paintings. The environment around him are the main themes in his painting and the young white couple loved them. They made friends with the local fool and the medicine man. They helped many Navajos in their time there, and after the 4 years they had strong friendships and loved the reservation with all their heart. This book shows that even though you don't know how other people live, it doesn't mean they are any different than you. It also shows that even though things can get hard, as long as you believe in each other you can get through anything.

[Michael McCue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spin a Silver Dollar is about a trading post on the Arizona part of Navajo reservation in the 1930s. It tells about an Anglo couple, the Lippencotts, who bought and ran the Wide Ruins trading post in Arizona for four years. But the story is really about the self taught naturally talented Navajo Artist Beatien Yazz. Bill and Sallie Lippencott noticed a small boy who was carving images on rocks and gave him some paper crayons and watercolors. Navajo people do not reveal their real name to anyone. They all have a name they are known by, Beatien Yazz means Little No Shirt and he also was called Jimmy at school. The book is illustrated with a number of Little No Shirt's paintings. The author, Alberta Hannum, wrote about the Navajo without the condescension seen in so much writings about native people from that time. The book was first published in 1946. The story ends with the Lippencotts leaving the reservation for World War II service. The book does not mention that Beatien Yazz grew up to be one of the best known Native Artists and lived to a great old age. As far back as I can remember this book was always in my parents house. My mother loved the book and on a trip to the Southwest desert she located and bought a painting by Yazz. I've had this book since my mother's death and now I finally read it myself. I see why she treasured it. The title Spin a Silver Dollar has little to do with the story. In one brief instance a young Navajo man came in the trading post and spun a silver dollar on the trading post countertop.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of a white couple, Bill and Sallie Lippincot (aka Sallie Wagner) who bought a rundown trading house (Wide River)in Navajo country. There they encouraged the tremendous artistic talent of a Navajo boy, Beatien Yazz, who was to become world famous. It is part trading post story (setting things up, improving the buildings, encouraging a return to the production of blankets using natural dyes, hosting visitors; this was the part I liked best), part anthropological description of Navajo culture as seen through Sallie's eyes (which was a lot less patronizing then I feared it would be), and part story of Beatien Yazz's art. Color illustrations of his art enhance the book immensely. The author must have worked closely with Sallie; she did not publish her own account of these years till much later.

[Scott Drake · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful story of early 20th century life of a southwest trading post in Navaho country. The interaction of the white proprietors with tribe members and their revered ways is quite interesting and frequently humorous. Great characters! Delightful illustrations.