Klee Benally's sister announced his passing. He was a Navajo man who fought for Indigenous peoples' rights and environmental problems. In terms of age, he was 48.
According to Jeneda Benally, Benally passed away on Saturday at a hospital in Phoenix. No one knows what killed him.
At Flagstaff's Arizona Snowbowl ski resort, Klee Benally was an outspoken critic of snowmaking. Holy to no less than thirteen indigenous communities is the mountain on public property.
At the 2014 demonstration outside the NFL stadium in metro Phoenix, he joined other activists in denouncing the derogatory team name that the Washington, D.C. franchise had used in the past, since he opposed police brutality and racial profiling.
After decades of mining uranium ore from the Navajo Nation to fuel American nuclear weapons during the Cold War, Benally pushed for the reclamation of the resulting abandoned mines.
Aiming to combat homelessness, the ordinance had prohibited camping on public grounds in Flagstaff; he also voiced his opposition to this measure.
In 2018, Benally stated, "There is no compassionate way to enforce the anti-camping ordinance" in response to officials' refusal to change the 1995 law. "Our relatives living on the streets without shelter already have it tough."
Along with his brother and sister, Benally formed the Native American punk rock band Blackfire, where he also played guitar.