Arts, Entertainment & Culture

Friends gather at 1-year honor for Craig

By Ernie Bulow
Special to the Times

PINE TOP, Ariz., May 20, 2011

Saturday was a gorgeous day in the tall pines of the White Mountain Apache Reservation, a perfect day for the Apache custom of honoring a loved one on the one-year anniversary of his or her passing.

A nice crowd had gathered to celebrate the life and career of Vincent Craig: humorist, musician, artist, storyteller, veteran, policeman, carpenter and silversmith. It seemed like each speaker added a new career to the list.

The memorial began Friday evening with musical presentations by bands that had worked with Craig or were his friends. The legendary performer Paul Ortega took part in the festivities.

All of the speakers, no matter what their personal memories were, said the same thing about Craig - he was a man who enjoyed life and whose greatest desire was to bring joy to others. His career was dedicated to making other people laugh.

Craig's widow, Mariddie, also White Mountain Apache, gave the opening remarks. She stressed that Vincent never let his career interfere with his family and talked about how much he loved his adopted home in the White Mountains.

Tom Arviso Jr., who had a long friendship and business association with Vincent, said he believed that there was a time when people bought the Navajo Times just to catch up with the latest adventures of "Mutton Man," a cartoon character Craig used to make serious points in a humorous way.

Arviso admitted that Vincent usually pushed his deadline to the last minute. But those last minutes were precious to both of them.

"Sometimes he would show up at the office late," Arviso said. "We would sit in the office alone, talking about his nearly completed cartoon, and he would finish it on the spot. I enjoyed those times."

Of course Craig would tease Arviso about not finishing his piece.

"He could make a joke about anything," he said fondly.

Arviso also spoke about what a big supporter Craig was for the Navajo Code Talkers. Vincent and his brother were both Marines and their father, Bob Etcitty Craig, had been a code talker himself.

Gallup trader Ellis Tanner avoids public speaking, but he and Vincent Craig had a long history together. Craig always appeared at Tanner's Native Appreciation Days and gave freely of himself to the Navajo people, especially kids.

Tanner told of a time Vincent popped into the store looking pretty scroungy.

"He looked like he'd been run over by a wagon train," Tanner said. "He told me the Boy Scouts had run out of food, camping high in the Chuska Mountains, and he had come in for supplies."

Tanner gave him what he needed, but declined an invitation to join the boys in camp.

"Vincent could always draw a crowd, no matter what was going on," Tanner said.

Tanner also set up a joke once. He had a bunch of his employees armed with Big Hunk candy bars. As soon as Craig started singing the famous "Rita" song they threw the candy into the throng.

Tanner got a little choked up and said, "I really miss that guy."

He had talked for all of five minutes and he said at the end, "This is the longest speech I ever gave."

Vincent's sister Vivian from Crownpoint, the family home, spoke about her brother as a joker, a happy man, and a kind heart. She elaborated on Craig's military service, telling the audience he had been a chopper mechanic.

"He only joined the Marines when he did to get his brother an extra two weeks of leave," she said.

The family was proud of father Bob and his service during the war and the family commitment to the Marine tradition.

"Vincent always said the reason he never made it to Vietnam like his brother was because he didn't have a passport," she told the audience.

Vivian had personal stories like the family going on Mormon placement in Utah, and how Vincent's first job when he got out of the service was with the Navajo Nation Police.

"He always thought grandma's squaw skirt was bulletproof," she laughed. "That was always where he ran for protection."

Vincent's song, cinematographer Dustin Craig pointed out that his father's comedy often touched on serious subjects.

"He was about spiritual survival," Dustin said. "It goes over better to make fun of bad situations than to shout about them."

He added that his father was never afraid to speak out.

"I am always asked, 'What was your father really like?' and I answer, 'Just like what you see on stage.'"

Vincent's son Nephi, a chef, said that he had always seen his father as a chameleon.

"He would adapt instantly," Nephi said. "He could read an audience and feel how to reach them, what they wanted from him."

He got a great response when he mentioned one of his father's better-known songs, "The Legend of Chizzie" about a baby bronc rider who grows up to be a Marine.

"That was about my dad," he said.

Shiloh, Vincent's youngest son who works as a mechanic, told of his father's first visit to White Mountain when he was only 17 and how he fell in love with the country. When Vincent first met Mariddie she rejected him as a man without a purpose.

"It was Mother who straightened Dad out, and he always gave her credit," Shiloh said.

And he always considered the White Mountains his true home.

Paul Ortega, Mescalero Apache, gave the blessing on the food, invoking "the powers of the world" and the denizens of the wild. He gave part of the prayer in Apache.

There was a free banquet of barbecue for everyone, and then the entertainment continued. Keith Secola and his band were featured first and then Dottie Smith-Bain, Navajo, who presented her own songs honoring the military.

Knifewing, an Apache group called Sneezy Boys, the Voodoo Rhythm Band, and James Bilagody also were on the program.

All the groups had either played with Vincent Craig or knew him well.

Everyone agreed the day's activities would have pleased Vincent Craig and they all felt his spirit in the occasion.

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