Born on 8 November 1953 to Lucille Deschenne Tapahonso (Salt Water clan) and Eugene Tapahonso Sr. (Bitter Water clan), Luci Tapahonso is widely considered to be one of the foremost and most influential contemporary Diné (Navajo) poets and storytellers. The middle child of eleven, Tapahonso was born in Shiprock, New Mexico, and raised on the largest reservation in the United States: the Navajo homeland of Dinétah, which straddles the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.

In these traditional Navajo surroundings, Tapahonso learnt English as a second spoken language after her native tongue, Diné (Navajo). Her initial education, at the Navajo Methodist Mission Boarding School in Farmington, New Mexico, ensured that Engl

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First published 01 August 2001

Citation: Tillett, Rebecca. "Luci Tapahonso". The Literary Encyclopedia. 1 August 2001.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4312, accessed 9 February 2010.]