Background
Benally was born in 1975. Together they grew up on Black Mesa, Tusayan, and Flagstaff, Arizona but their father is from Black Mesa, Navajo Nation.
Benally was born in 1975. Together they grew up on Black Mesa, Tusayan, and Flagstaff, Arizona but their father is from Black Mesa, Navajo Nation.
Benally is also an activist, artist, silversmith, and filmmaker. They are Jewish born for Navajo. On their father"s side they are of the Wandering People, and born for the Bitter Water Clan.
Benally has made many documentary shorts.
He directed a documentary called "The Snowbowl Effect," which addresses proposed ski area development on Arizona"s San Francisco Peaks. He is currently in production of a feature film he wrote and directed called "Power Lincolnshire." He was also the coordinator of the southwest Native American Film and Video Festival at the Museum of Northern Arizona in 2004 and 2005.
He has co-founded grassroots projects such as the Taala Hoghan Infoshop, Indigenous Action Media, Outta Your Backpack Media Project, Flagstaff Activist Network and the Save the Peaks Coalition. "Our generation has a whole lot of anger," says Benally.
"We can try to turn negative into positive, be productive." In May 2010, Klee was part of a direct action where he and 5 others locked down at Tucson Border Patrol Headquarters to protest border militarization on Indigenous lands and Arizona Bachelor of Science 1070.