We had the pleasure of meeting Elizabeth Vacit and her daughters when we would visit Sarah Leekya during our early trips to Zuni. Despite her advanced age (in her 80's at the time), she would spend part of each day at her beading table near the fireplace in her livingroom making these small figures.

Over the years we purchased a variety of her work and she made Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus figures, Mr. & Mrs. Peter Cottontail figures, Comanche Chiefs, Navajo ladies and Zuni ladies. Her granddaughter would send her beads from Chicago where she was attending school and it would take about one week for her to complete a single figure. We asked her once how she learned to bead and she replied (in Shiwi which her daughters translated) that her mother (Leekya's wife) had taught her. Then the daughters showed us a large beaded horse that Elizabeth's mother had made. It was a treasured family heirloom.

This Comanche Chief wears "fringed deer skin" britches, a colorful shirt and a "feathered" head-dress. He stands just under three inches tall and has a suede loop for hanging. (At Christmas time we always have a small tree that has nothing but Elizabeth's bead work on it. We've also had collectors who wear them as pendants.)