Goldtooth, Tom B.K.
Tom B.K. Goldtooth
Tom Goldtooth of the Navajo Nation is the Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network. In this role, he has successfully established and expanded an organization comprising 250 Indigenous communities. Their collective efforts address various critical issues, including climate justice, energy, environmental toxins, water resources, globalization, trade, and sustainable development. Recognized as a prominent advocate for environmental justice, he received prestigious accolades in 2010 from the Sierra Club and the NAACP as a “Green Hero of Color.” Furthermore, he played a significant role in co-producing an award-winning documentary film, “Drumbeat for Mother Earth,” shedding light on the profound impact of bio-accumulative chemicals on Indigenous communities.
Goldtooth, T. B. (2017). Respect for Mother Earth: original instructions and indigenous traditional knowledge. The Wiley Blackwell companion to religion and ecology, 460-470.
Goldtooth, T. B., & Awanyankapi, M. (2010). The state of Indigenous America series: Earth Mother, pinons, and apple pie. Wicazo Sa Review, 25(2), 11-28.
Goldtooth, T. B. (2004). Stolen resources: continuing threats to indigenous people’s sovereignty and survival. Race, Poverty & the Environment, 11(1), 9-12.
Goldtooth, T., & Network, I. E. (2005). We only have one Mother Earth. Indian Country Today.
Goldtooth, T. (2020). INDIGENOUS JUST TRANSITION. Climate Justice and Community Renewal: Resistance and Grassroots Solutions.
Tom BK Goldtooth’s early life is rooted in Farmington, New Mexico, near the Navajo Nation. Goldtooth is Dine and Dakatoa. His birth name is Bruce Kendall Goldtooth, and his ceremonial name is Mato Awanyankapi, meaning the bears overlook him. Goldtooth’s biological father’s identity is unknown, but it is believed he was of Native American descent, possibly from a northern tribe. Goldtooth is the son of Norma Bell Lee, an enrolled Navajo Nation member, and the daughter of Melvin Lee (from the Dzi l t l’ahnii Clan) and Virginia Peslakai (from the Dibe’lizhini’ Clan). His mother was a trailblazer, becoming one of the first Native American women to earn an undergraduate degree in microbiology, subsequently forging a career as a medical technologist in a professional laboratory setting.
When he was young, Goldtooth lived with his maternal grandparents in Farmington while his mother was in college in San Diego. When his mother graduated and married Dennis W. Goldtooth, the family relocated to the Navajo Nation. Dennis W. Goldtooth, from the Coal Mine Mesa/Tuba City area of the Navajo Nation and a former U.S. Marine, was a Navajo Nation policeman. This area is within the Vermilion Cliffs-Colorado Plateau region along the Colorado River. Dennis was a son of Frank Goldtooth Sr., a well-known medicine man known as Bȅȅsh Biwoǫ (Iron-Metal [Gold] Tooth).
As a child, Goldtooth also spent significant time with his paternal grandmother, Margaret Goldtooth, in Tuba City and frequently visited his grandfather, Bȅȅsh Biwoǫ. His mother was a medical technologist in Page, Arizona, where Goldtooth attended high school. This 1960s boom town attracted workers constructing the Glen Canyon Dam, the second-largest dam in the United States. Page later evolved into a water recreation hub following the Colorado River damming and the creation of Lake Powell.
Goldtooth was active in the Boy Scouts of America and earned a Life Scout award. He was on the path to receiving Eagle Scout when his mother relocated, and they moved to Winslow. Goldtooth’s youth leadership was recognized with the Vigil Honor, the highest distinction the Order of the Arrow conferred upon its members.
Goldtooth’s scouting experiences, his family’s ranching tradition, and the cultural heritage of the Navajo Hunter Way and Diné ceremonies laid the foundation for his future leadership. His family’s hunting trips in Arizona instilled in him a deep appreciation for the outdoors and a profound responsibility to protect and preserve the environment.
Goldtooth enrolled at Arizona State University in 1971 to earn a degree in Industrial Design as part of the Department of Engineering. However, in 1973, he left university and enlisted in the U.S. Army.
During his service in the U.S. Army, Goldtooth was stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington, where he specialized in Finance and Accounting within the Army’s payroll division. During this period, Goldtooth actively engaged with the Army’s Human Relations program, aiming to combat racism. He emerged as a leader who organized Native soldiers, fostering unity in the post-Vietnam era. His military service concluded honorably in 1976, after which he immersed himself in the Puget Sound Native communities, participating in sports, pow-wows, and social activities.
Continuing his pursuit of education and community support, Goldtooth earned an Associate of Arts in Human Services from Tacoma Community College (TCC). He also dedicated himself to serving as a Peer Counselor at TCC, aiding Native students in pursuing higher education goals. He also volunteered as a board member at the Tacoma Indian Center. Through these experiences, he developed a deep-seated desire to obtain a social work degree, allowing him to address the social welfare needs of Native American families. After completing his A.A. at TCC, he enrolled in the Social Work (Program at Pacific Lutheran University but did not complete his degree, as he decided to relocate to the Navajo Nation.
Goldtooth became the Fort Defiance Regional Bi-State Social Services Director of the Navajo Nation. Drawing from his experiences in American Indian Child Welfare Act hearings in Washington State’s Puget Sound region and insights gained from Northwest Coast Native women regarding the importance of protecting children and families, he provided influential leadership in enhancing casework related to domestic and sexual abuse cases within the Navajo reservation.
In 1981, Goldtooth and his family moved to the Lower Sioux Community in southwest Minnesota. He became Executive Director at the St. Paul American Indian Center, commuting between rural Minnesota and St. Paul. During his tenure, he introduced the American Indian Family Services program, which included an Indian foster care initiative. Goldtooth collaborated with Wilford Gurneau, Red Lake Anishinaabe, who aided in the development of Minnesota State’s inaugural all-Indian urban foster care program. It was during his time at the St. Paul American Indian Center that Tom initiated the Back to Mother Earth Program, offering Native children and parents the opportunity to reacquaint themselves with indigenous agricultural practices through urban gardening and cultural education experiences, such as learning lodge construction, game animal processing, tanning, and sweat lodge ceremonies. In the mid-1980s, Tom ventured into a small-scale residential/commercial demolition business that focused on recycling deconstruction materials.
In 1991, Goldtooth became the Coordinator for the Red Lake Nation environmental program, concentrating on the closure of three open landfill dumps. In this position, he realized the significant lack of capacity for implementing essential environmental protection programs on Native lands. His prominence in environmental and economic justice within Native territories gained significant traction when he was chosen by Native delegates at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in Washington, DC, in 1991 as the Native spokesperson for the Summit’s plenary sessions. In 1991, he joined the Indigenous Environmental Network, a new organization born from needs identified by grassroots Indigenous activists at a 1990 gathering.
Goldtooth serves as the executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, headquartered in Bemidji, Minnesota. In 2010, he received the NAACP and Sierra Club accolades as a “Green Hero of Color.” In 2015, Goldtooth received the prestigious Gandhi Peace Award in 2015. Currently residing near the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Bemidji, Minnesota, Goldtooth’s legacy extends through his son, Dallas Goldtooth, who is actively involved in environmental advocacy with the Indigenous Environmental Network.
Seeds of Wisdom. 2023. Tom Goldtooth. Retrieved September 25, 2023 from https://www.seedsofwisdom.earth/elder/tom-goldtooth/.
Tom B.K. GoldTooth. (2023, September 19). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_B.K._Goldtooth.