Leroy Dejolie

"I see my work more as a mission than a job," says LeRoy DeJolie. "It is my lifetime ambition to help preserve the heritage our Navajo ancestors desired for succeeding generations--a heritage that intertwines with the land. For many of our people, that heritage is vanishing from their lives and memories as they are swept into the more dominant cultures around us." His appreciation for the land began as a young Navajo shepherd, away from the noise and grime and traffic, jams of cities. He...See more

"I see my work more as a mission than a job," says LeRoy DeJolie. "It is my lifetime ambition to help preserve the heritage our Navajo ancestors desired for succeeding generations--a heritage that intertwines with the land. For many of our people, that heritage is vanishing from their lives and memories as they are swept into the more dominant cultures around us." His appreciation for the land began as a young Navajo shepherd, away from the noise and grime and traffic, jams of cities. He attended schools in Phoenix and Los Angeles, but his heart remained anchored to the red-rock canyons, mesas, and sage-coverage rangeland of the Kaibito Plateau, the plateau just south of Navajo Mountain, in the farthest reaches of northern Arizona. See less