Teddy Adakai Yazzie June 10, 1940 – January 31, 2022

Teddy Adakai Yazzie was born on June 10, 1940 to Guy Adakiah Yazzie and Bessie Lula Black on the Navajo Reservation on the Utah/AZ border.
He spent most of his childhood days herding sheep or looking for cows for the family.
When he wasn’t tied down with chores, he was out with cousins chasing wild horses to saddle and ride them.
He left home at the age of eight and went to boarding school, where he finished high school in an all Indian boarding school in Chilocco, OK.
Afterwards, he continued his education at the College of Eastern Utah in Price UT, where he graduated with an Associates of Arts degree.
Family was huge for Teddy. While in the Army and weeks before being shipped to Vietnam, his father passed. He was then honorably discharged and given a ticket back to the Navajo reservation, where he found himself helping his mother, working, and raising his younger siblings.
In 1977, he married Minnie Deal. Together they had six children, four boys and two girls. This set the course for a great life that meant the world to him.
He worked in the mining industry for 40 years, including Union Carbide in Dove Creek CO, Energy Fuels in Kanab UT, American Girl Mining in Winterhaven CA, and Getchel/TR/Barrick/Hollister mines in Winnemucca NV. He retired in 2013.
Supporting his family is what drove him. With integrity, he led by example what it meant to be a hard working, loyal and loving father. His youthful and energetic love for life, along with his smile and infectious laugh, always brought a smile to others.
Teddy is preceded in death by his mother Bessie Lula Black, father Guy Adakiah Yazzie Sr., and siblings Paul Guy Sr, Guy Yazzie Jr, and Kay Adakiah,