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Rick Manuel was born in Sacaton, Arizona in 1950. He grew up on the Tohono O’Odham reservation in the Santa Rosa Village and is usually referred to as Tohono O’Odham. He is registered with Gila River Pima through his mother and with the Tohono O’Odham through his father. He began experimenting with overlay in 1976 and Rick is a self-taught silversmith that makes his jewelry using the overlay technique in different pictorial designs depicting life in the Sonoran Desert. Overlay jewelry has become his trademark. Rick now gains inspiration for new designs from ants, horned lizards, plants, basket weavers, games the tribe plays, collection of the saguaro fruit and the traditions of the Tohono O’Odham. Rick is the only Tohono O’Odham Silversmith
