About Me
My name is Blackhorse Mitchell, bearing the name of two great people in the Navajo History. I was born in the early 1940s on a mesa in the Northern part of New Mexico close to the Colorado border and the Ute Tribal boundary. The name of the place is 'Tsezhin Bidaat'i'i', which my great Grandfather, Blackhorse, was named after. My maternal Grandfather was Charlie Mitchell of Tsaile, Arizona where my last name comes from.
I grew up herding sheep on the mesa called Palmer Mesa and down in the canyon called Salt Creek Canyon, which my great grandmother Asdzaan Todik'oozh was named after. She found the mesa as a very isolated place of peace in the fall of 1863. Since then,the ancestry of my clan has remained on the mesa.
I grew up on the mesa but left for boarding school to learn English in 1951. I was sent to Ignacio, Colorado, and from there I left for art school at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was there, in 1963, that I became a writer and Miracle Hill was born as my achievement in the literary profession. In May of 1978 I went to the University of New Mexico and earned my BS +14 in Elementary Education. I went on and got my MA +36 in Secondary Education from the same Institution in May 1993.
Presently I teach Navajo language full time at the Shiprock High School in Shiprock, New Mexico. Besides teaching at the State School, I work as an adjunct teacher for Dine College of Shiprock, where I give workshops in Navajo pottery, basketry, moccasin–making, and Navajo music.
Recently I finished a few more projects. I have a CD out by Cool Runnings Music, of Window Rock, Arizona titled "Where Were You When I Was Single" and a Documentary DVD — MUD, on Navajo pottery."
It has been my pleasure to share with you my artistic abilities and I welcome you to my world of artistic skills.
Blackhorse
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