Photograph of Hosteen Klah, circa 1930 [SOLD]

All Navajo boy babies are given the name “Away Eskay,” meaning “Baby Boy” until they exhibit some characteristic or some unusual mark is discovered on their bodies to suggest a name.

It was four or five yeas after his birth that Klah was given a name that would remain with him the rest of his life. It was noticed that he used his left hand more readily than his right, so he was called “Klah” which means “left handed.”

Klah is the best recognized of all Navajo Medicine Men of the 20^th century. It was he who undertook to learn all the sandpaintings associated with various healing ceremonies, and it was he who was the first to record a healing sandpainting in tapestry form. Prior to his doing this, it was fervently believed by the Navajo that doing so would result in serious illness to the perpetrator. When Klah escaped serious illness following weaving a sandpainting rug, he continued making them.

The Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art in Santa Fe was built specifically to house all of Klah’s tapestries, ceremonial effects, and drawings of his sand paintings. It was built in the shape of a Navajo hogan, or traditional house. Unfortunately, Klah passed away just months before the museum was dedicated in his honor. The museum’s name has now been changed to Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian to better define its expanded mission.

Klah was invited by the State of New Mexico to attend the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago in 1934 as the official Medicine Man for the exhibition. He accepted. This photograph was taken shortly before his departure for Chicago. This sepia-toned photograph of Klah comes from the collection of the famous Mularky’s Camera Shop in Gallup, NM.

Reference: Hosteen Klah: Navajo Medicine Man and Sand Painter by Franc Johnson Newcomb. University of Oklahoma Press. Norman. 1964.