{{Short description|Navajo artist and writer (1922–1997)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}} {{Infobox artist | birth_place = near Sheep Springs, New Mexico | awards = Arizona Mother of the Year 1968 | children = 2 | spouse = Russell Bennett | death_date = November 18, 1997 | birth_date = 1922 | death_place = Gallup, New Mexico }} '''Kay Curley Bennett''' (1922 – November 18, 1997),<ref name=":2" /> often known as '''Kaibah''',<ref name=":1" /><ref name="GalJourn">{{Cite magazine |last=Bulow |first=Ernie |date=2010-12-01 |title=Kay Bennett: The Lady Known As 'Kaibah' |url=https://issuu.com/gallupjourney/docs/december2010/20 |access-date=2025-06-11 |magazine=Gallup Journey |location=Gallup, New Mexico |pages=20–21 |language=en-US |format=PDF}}</ref><ref name="SO">{{Cite podcast |url=https://soundstudiesblog.com/tag/kaibah/ |title=Finding the Lost Sounds of Kaibah |website=Sounding Out! |last=Ernest |first=Marcella |date=2015-10-29 |last2=Nez |first2=Rachael |access-date=2025-06-11}}</ref> was a Navajo artist, dollmaker, musician, and writer. She was also an activist and very active in the Navajo community.<ref name=":5">{{Cite news |date=1997-11-15 |title=Obituary for Kay C. BENNETT |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/albuquerque-journal-obituary-for-kay-c/94747496/ |access-date=2025-06-12 |work=Albuquerque Journal |pages=24}}</ref>
== Life == Bennett was born in a hogan<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |date=May 1968 |title=Indian Center News |url=https://depts.washington.edu/civilr3/pdf/icn/ICN-may68.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241121225327/https://depts.washington.edu/civilr3/pdf/icn/ICN-may68.pdf |archive-date=2024-11-21 |access-date=2025-06-10 |publisher=American Indian Women's Service League |page=9 |language=en-US |via=University of Washington |volume=6 |issue=9}}</ref> at Sheepsprings Trading Post near Sheep Springs, New Mexico on the Navajo Reservation.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=1997-11-19 |title=Kay 'Kaibah' Bennett; Author, Navajo Nation Official |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-nov-19-mn-55415-story.html |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210807205103/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-nov-19-mn-55415-story.html |archive-date=2021-08-07 |access-date=2025-06-11 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> She was born to a traditional Navajo family who herded sheep.<ref name="GalJourn" /> She studied at Toadlena Indian School and completed her primary education there.<ref name="GalJourn" /> Then in the 1930s the Navajo Livestock Reduction program caused economic hardship for her family, and in 1935 Bennett went to live with a missionary family in California.<ref name="GalJourn" /> During World War II, she worked in Long Beach, California at an aircraft plant.<ref name="GalJourn" />
She moved back to New Mexico in the 1940s and became a dorm attendant at Toadlena Indian School. Then, from 1947 to 1952, she worked at the Phoenix Indian School as a teacher, interpreter, and head of special education.<ref name="GalJourn" />
She married Russell C. Bennett, an engineer from Missouri, in 1956.<ref name="GalJourn" /> They had two daughters. Bennett was named Arizona's Mother of the Year in 1968, and was the first Native woman in the state to be awarded the honor.<ref name=":0" />
From 1969 to 1972, she was the New Mexico Human Rights Commissioner.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bataille |first1=Gretchen M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9eaSAgAAQBAJ&dq=Kay+Curley+Bennett&pg=PA29 |title=Native American Women: A Biographical Dictionary |last2=Lisa |first2=Laurie |date=2003-12-16 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-95587-8 |language=en}}</ref> From 1974 to 1982, Bennett was on the Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial's board of directors.<ref name=":1" /> She was a supervisor for student teachers on the reservation from 1976 to 1984.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |date=1997-11-18 |title=Funeral Notices |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/141813088/ |access-date=2025-06-11 |work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch |page=31}}</ref> Bennett ran for Chairman of the Navajo Nation in 1984, but was disqualified before the election because she did not live on the Reservation.<ref name="GalJourn" /> She ran again in 1990 as a write-in canditate, challenging the rules (which would be changed later) that candidates must live on the Reservation and hold, or have previously held, an office or employment by the tribe. She did not win the election, but set a record as the first woman to run for the position.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":5" />
Bennett died on November 18, 1997 in Gallup, New Mexico,<ref name=":2" /> her town of residence.<ref name=":5" />
== Works == While Kaibah did use the name Kay Curley Bennett, she often used her Navajo name, Kaibah, as her artist name.<ref name="GalJourn" />
She wrote and illustrated books, wrote poetry, made Navajo dolls, designed clothing,and recorded music, including traditional Navajo music.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Kay Bennett on Native American Authors |url=https://www.ipl.org/div-natam-bin-browse-pl-a409/ |access-date=2025-06-11 |website=Internet Public Library |language=en-US}}</ref> She was also a poet<ref name="SO" /> and a clothing designer.<ref name="GalJourn" />
=== Music === Starting in the 1960s, she self-published her own albums.<ref name="SO" /> She made songs in the English and Navajo languages.<ref name="SO" />
==== Discography ====
* ''Kaibah'' * ''Navajo Love Songs'' (1970) * ''Songs from the Navajo Nation'' (1992)
=== Writing === * ''Kaibah: Recollections of a Navajo Girlhood'' (1964) is Bennett's autobiography about her childhood.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Weisiger|first=Marsha|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RGxvfdxkrTMC&dq=Kay+Curley+Bennett&pg=PA272|title=Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country|date=2011-11-15|publisher=University of Washington Press|isbn=978-0-295-80319-7|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dunkel |first=John |date=1965-09-01 |title=Review |url=https://online.ucpress.edu/scq/article-abstract/47/3/341/84862/Review?redirectedFrom=fulltext |journal=Southern California Quarterly |language=en-US |volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=341–342 |doi=10.2307/41169950 |issn=0038-3929 |jstor=41169950 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> * ''A Navajo Saga'' (1972)<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bennett |first1=Kay |title=A Navajo saga |last2=Bennett |first2=Russ |date=1972 |publisher=Naylor Co |location=San Antonio, TX |language=en-US |oclc=555131896}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Merrill |first=Ann |date=1969 |title=A Navajo Saga by Kay and Russ Bennett |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/528797 |journal=Western American Literature |language=en-US |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=78 |doi=10.1353/wal.1969.0068 |issn=1948-7142 |s2cid=166142557 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> is a historical novel co-written by Bennett and her husband.<ref name="GalJourn" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Merrill |first=Ann |date=1969 |title=A Navajo Saga by Kay and Russ Bennett (review) |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/104/article/528797 |journal=Western American Literature |volume=4 |issue=1 |page=78 |doi=10.1353/wal.1969.0068 |issn=1948-7142|url-access=subscription }}</ref> It is noted as a well-researched account of Navajo history in the 1860s–including the Long Walk and the Treaty of Bosque Redondo–from a Navajo perspective.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Liebler |first=H. Baxter |date=1970-07-01 |title=A Navajo Saga |url=https://dx.doi.org/10.2307/45058912 |journal=Utah Historical Quarterly |language=en-US |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=277–278 |doi=10.2307/45058912 |jstor=45058912 |issn=0042-143X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> * ''Keesh, the Navajo Indian Cat'' (1989) is a children's book, written and illustrated by Bennett.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="GalJourn" />
== Legacy == Some of Kaibah's artwork (including her dolls) have been shown in art exhibitions in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |title=Art of Indigenous Fashion |url=https://iaia.edu/event/art-of-indigenous-fashion/ |access-date=2025-06-11 |website=Institute of American Indian Arts |language=en-US}}</ref> One of her dolls is displayed at Canyon Records, a Native American record label based in Phoenix, Arizona.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Schilling |first=Vincent |date=2012-06-19 |title=For 60 Years, Canyon Records Has Been Introducing the World to Native Music |url=http://ictnews.org/archive/for-60-years-canyon-records-has-been-introducing-the-world-to-native-music/ |access-date=2025-06-11 |website=ICT News |language=en-US}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [https://www.jstor.org/stable/4137375 Mixed Messages: Pablita Velarde, Kay Bennett, and the Changing Meaning of Anglo-Indian Intermarriage in Twentieth-Century New Mexico] ''Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies,'' Vol. 26, No. 3 (2005), pp. 101–134 (34 pages) University of Nebraska Press * Some dolls by Kay C Bennett: ** [https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/object/NMAI_281904 Female doll (1965)] at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) ** [https://www.si.edu/object/NMAI_281905?width=85%25&height=85%25&iframe=true&destination=sisearch/collection-images%3Fpage%3D10 Female doll (before 1966)] at the NMAI ** [https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/object/NMAI_272872 Female doll (1967)] at the NMAI ** [https://www.santafenewmexican.com/pasatiempo/art/museum_shows/hello-dollies-pint-sized-effigies-depict-native-people-in-stereotypical-ways/article_e6600bbb-d7c2-504e-8a84-258fe6d5caee.html Doll (1995)] ''-'' image from ''Gathering of Dolls: A History of Native Dolls''
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Kay Curley}} Category:1922 births Category:1997 deaths Category:20th-century American singer-songwriters Category:20th-century American women singers Category:20th-century Native American artists Category:20th-century Native American women Category:20th-century Native American writers Category:American dollmakers Category:American women children's writers Category:American children's writers Category:American women memoirists Category:Artists from New Mexico Category:Native American children's writers Category:Native American fashion designers Category:Native American memoirists Category:Native American people from New Mexico Category:Native American women memoirists Category:Navajo artists Category:Navajo women artists Category:Navajo women writers Category:Navajo writers Category:Navajo-language singers Category:People from Gallup, New Mexico Category:People from San Juan County, New Mexico Category:Writers from New Mexico