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. His stepfather became a Navajo Nation policeman stationed in Tuba City, Arizona, and later in the northwestern remote area of the reservation called Navajo Springs, near Marble Canyon, Arizona, and located in the area known as the Vermilion Cliffs-Colorado Plateau area located along the Colorado River.
Tom often stayed with his paternal grandmother, Margaret Goldtooth in Tuba City, with many visits with his grandfather Bȅȅsh Biwoǫ. His mother was a medical technologist working in Page, Arizona, a rural boom town of the 1960s that brought workers from throughout the country for the construction of United States second largest dam, Glen Canyon dam. Page later became a tourist center of water recreation from the damming of the Colorado River and creation of Lake Powell. Tom attended high school at Page. His parents later moved from Navajo Springs to Page.
During these years, Tom Goldtooth became active in the Boy Scouts of America and earned his Life Scout award. He was a candidate for the Eagle Scout award, almost completing the requirements, but moved away from Page to Winslow when his mother relocated. In recognition of his youth leadership he was initiated into the Order of the Arrow. He later received the Vigil Honor, as the highest honor that the Order of the Arrow can bestow upon its members. The early scouting experience along with following the Goldtooth family tradition as cattle and horse ranchers along with the Navajo Hunter Way culture and Diné ceremonies, became the building blocks for his leadership in years to come. Through family hunting trips in Arizona, Goldtooth became an outdoor enthusiast and learned to respect and protect the environment.