Vincent Craig, a Navajo Nation comedian, singer, songwriter, actor and creator of the Mutton Man cartoon strip, died on Saturday after a battle with cancer. He was 59.

Craig was born in Crownpoint, New Mexico. He began singing early on in life and eventually started composing music on a guitar.

Craig, who served in the U.S. Marines, started producing songs in the early 1980s and went on to release a series of recordings. Most were humorous and they struck a chord with listeners across Indian Country.

"He was very influential in my career and in my etiquette in comedy," Ernie Tsosie of the Navajo comedy duo James and Ernie told The Farmington Daily Times. "I think he was the first solo comic we opened for. Then he became a good friend of ours and I really looked up to him."

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Navajo comedian dies (The Farmington Daily Times 5/18)