Kay ‘Kaibah’ Bennett; Author, Navajo Nation Official

Kay “Kaibah” C. Bennett, 77, author and teacher who was the first woman to run for the presidency of the Navajo Nation. Born on the Navajo reservation near Sheep Springs, N.M., Bennett ran for tribal president in 1990. Her books included “Kaibah,” about her childhood; “A Navajo Saga,” about a family living in the 1880s; and “Keesh, the Navajo Indian Cat,” for children. She served on the intertribal ceremonial board of directors from 1974 to 1982, supervised student teachers on the reservation from 1976 to 1984, and held jobs as a teacher, interpreter and head of special education at the Phoenix Indian School from 1947 to 1952. On Thursday in Gallup, N.M.