12 Facts About Hosteen Klah

Hosteen Klah was a Navajo artist and medicine man.

Hosteen Klah was born to Navajo parents Hoksay Nolyae and Ahson Tsosie in 1867 in the Tunicha Valley of New Mexico, USA.

Able to avoid residential schooling, Klah learned traditional Navajo spirituality from their uncle, who was a medicine man.

Hosteen Klah was trained in healing ceremonies that involved dancing, chanting, singing, and sandpainting- the act of creating temporary designs on the ground using colored dirt and shells.

Hosteen Klah was able to fully memorize and perform their first ceremony by only ten years old.

Nadleehi is one of the genders recognized by the Navajo people as people who take on both traditionally male and female roles, in Hosteen Klah's case, being a healer and a weaver.

Hosteen Klah was reportedly not interested in women and never married.

Hosteen Klah mastered multiple traditional art forms, most notably sandpainting and weaving.

Hosteen Klah taught their weaving techniques and designs to their two nieces before passing in 1937.

In 1921, Hosteen Klah was introduced to Mary Cabot Wheelwright, a Boston heiress.

In 1942, the Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art published Navajo Creation Myth - the Story of the Emergence by Hosteen Klah, Recorded by Mary C Wheelwright.

Hosteen Klah died on February 27,1937, from pneumonia, and is buried on the grounds of the Wheelwright Museum.