Window Rock, known in Navajo as Tségháhoodzání, is a city and census-designated place that serves as the capital of the Navajo Nation, the largest Native American tribe by both land and tribal enrollment. The capital lies within the boundaries of the St. Michaels Chapter, adjacent to the Arizona and New Mexico state line. Window Rock is the site of the Navajo Nation governmental campus, which contains the Navajo Nation Council, Navajo Nation Supreme Court, the offices of the Navajo Nation President and Vice President, and many Navajo government buildings.
Lori Ann Piestewa was a United States Army soldier killed during the Iraq War. A member of the Quartermaster Corps, she died in the same Iraqi attack in which fellow soldiers Shoshana Johnson and Piestewa's friend Jessica Lynch were injured. A Hopi, Piestewa was the first Native American woman to die in combat while serving in the U.S. military and the first woman in the U.S. military killed in the Iraq War. Arizona's Piestewa Peak is named in her honor.
Annie Dodge Wauneka was an influential member of the Navajo Nation as member of the Navajo Nation Council. As a member and three term head of the council's Health and Welfare Committee, she worked to improve the health and education of the Navajo. Wauneka is widely known for her countless efforts to improve health on the Navajo Nation, focusing mostly on the eradication of tuberculosis within her nation. She also authored a dictionary, in which translated English medical terms into the Navajo language. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963 by Lyndon B. Johnson as well as the Indian Council Fire Achievement Award and the Navajo Medal of Honor. She also received an honorary doctorate in Humanities from the University of New Mexico. In 2000, Wauneka was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
Sacred Clowns is a crime novel by American writer Tony Hillerman, the eleventh in the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Police series, first published in 1993.
Miss Navajo Nation is a pageant that has been held annually on the Navajo Nation, United States, since 1952.
The Navajo Nation Presidential elections took place on November 7, 2006. Primary elections took place on August 8, 2006. Incumbent President Joe Shirley Jr. was re-elected, defeating 11 candidates, including former New Mexico State senator Lynda Lovejoy.
Blue Gap Boy'z is a 2008 American independent comedy film written and directed by Holt Hamilton. Blue Gap Boy'z was filmed primarily in Phoenix, Arizona, as well as on the Navajo Nation in Blue Gap, Arizona.
Harrison Begay, also known as Haashké yah Níyá was a renowned Diné (Navajo) painter, printmaker, and illustrator. Begay specialized in watercolors, gouache, and silkscreen prints. At the time of his death in 2012, he was the last living, former student of Dorothy Dunn and Geronima C. Montoya at the Santa Fe Indian School. His work has won multiple awards and is exhibited in museums and private collections worldwide and he was among the most famous Diné artists of his generation.
Radmilla A. Cody is a Navajo model, singer, and anti-domestic violence activist who was the 46th Miss Navajo from 1997 to 1998.
Pete & Cleo is a 2010 independent comedy-drama film written and directed by Holt Hamilton.
Ryan Singer is a Navajo contemporary painter living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is of the Tódich'íinii clan, born for Kinyaa'áani. Singer is known for his vibrant Pop Art-inspired takes on Native American and mainstream culture.
As far back as I can remember I have always loved art—drawing, painting, making music. What I like most about it is the freedom to create something—anything—from nothing. – Ryan Singer, 2009
Art of the American Southwest is the visual arts of the Southwestern United States. This region encompasses Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of California, Colorado, Nevada, Texas, and Utah. These arts include architecture, ceramics, drawing, filmmaking, painting, photography, sculpture, printmaking, and other media, ranging from the ancient past to the contemporary arts of the present day.
Pablita Abeyta was a Native American activist and sculptor born in Gallup, New Mexico, United States. She is the eldest daughter of Sylvia Ann (Shipley) Abeyta and artist Narciso Abeyta. She was named for her grandmother and her name Navajo name translates to "One Who Completes a Circle." Her family was originally from the Cañoncito Band of the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico, located west of Albuquerque. In 2000 the reservation decided to change its name to To'Hajiilee.
Phillip Sekaquaptewa was a Hopi artist and silversmith in Hopi silver overlay and stone inlay, featuring the lapidary genres of commesso and intarsia. Sekaquaptewa used colorful stones and shell for his Hopi silver overlay, not only plain silver decorated with chisel strokes on black oxide surfaces, a Hopi-signature technique known as matting.
Christine McHorse, also known as Christine Nofchissey McHorse, was a Navajo ceramic artist from Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Rebecca Roanhorse is an American science fiction and fantasy writer from New Mexico. She has written short stories and science fiction novels featuring Navajo characters. Her work has received Hugo and Nebula awards, among others.
Trail of Lightning is a 2018 fantasy novel, the debut novel by Rebecca Roanhorse. After a supernatural disaster destroys most of North America, Navajo monster-slayer Maggie Hoskie must navigate a world of monsters and gods. The novel won the 2019 Locus Award for Best First Novel and was nominated for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Nebula awards.
Many Farms Community School, Inc. (MFCS), is a tribally controlled K-8 school in Many Farms, Arizona, operated by the Navajo Nation. It is funded by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). MFCS has a boarding program to serve students who live at a distance from this community.
Jim Abeita is a Navajo oil painter from Crownpoint, New Mexico. He is best known for his realistic landscapes and portraits depicting his native people and their history and traditions. He was one of the first Native American artists to work in contemporary realism, painting with depth and shadow instead of in the flat-style traditional Native American art. Abeita is praised as a pioneering artist who modernized the Native American art scene, made it famous in the art market and paved the way for a new generation of artists.
Daisy Taugelchee was a Navajo weaver. The Denver Art Museum declared Taugelchee as "widely considered the most talented Navajo weaver and spinner who ever lived". In 2004 one of her rugs was featured on a United States Postal Service stamp.
