Tom B.K. Goldtooth

Tom B.K. Goldtooth (born July 27, 1953) is a Native American environmental, climate, and economic justice activist, speaker, film producer, and Indigenous rights leader. He is active in local, national and international levels as an advocate for building healthy and sustainable Indigenous communities based upon the foundation of Indigenous traditional knowledge. Goldtooth has served as executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) since 1996 after serving as a member of the IEN National Council since 1992. Goldtooth (Dibe'lizhini' Clan) is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation. He is also huŋka Bdewakaƞtoƞwaƞ Dakota from Minnesota. He is known by his Dakota name of Mato Awaƞyaƞkapi, given to him by Pete Catches Sr. (Petaġa Yuha Mani), a Lakota holy man of the Spotted Eagle Way of the Oglala Lakota Nation. He currently resides near the small town of Bemidji, Minnesota and the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Early life Goldtooth was born in Farmington, New Mexico, near the Navajo Nation. His mother is Norma Bell Lee, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation and daughter of Melvin Lee (Dzi l t l'ahnii Clan) and Virginia Peslakai (Dibe'lizhini' Clan). His birth name is Bruce Kendall Goldtooth. His mother was the first Navajo and possibly the first Native American woman nationwide to obtain an undergraduate degree in microbiology, becoming a professional laboratory scientist (medical technologist). His biological father is unknown but said to be a Native American, possibly from a northern tribe. His step-father is Dennis Wesley Goldtooth, a member of the Navajo Nation from the Coal Mine Mesa/Tuba City area of Arizona, and one of many sons of Frank Goldtooth Sr., a renowned medicine man, known as Bȅȅsh Biwoǫ (Iron-Metal [Gold] Tooth). Tom was raised by Dennis W. Goldtooth, who retired after a long history as a Navajo policeman and self-employment as a contractor and rancher. In his early life, Goldtooth was raised by his maternal grandparents in Farmington while his mother pursued her college degree in San Diego. Later, he was reunited with his mother after her graduation and marriage to Dennis W. Goldtooth, a former U.S. Marine. His parents moved back to the Navajo Nation.