Tamarah Begay
Tamarah Begay is the first Navajo woman to be a licensed architect. A member of the Navajo Nation, the largest Indigenous group in the country, she also founded the first architectural firm owned by a Navajo woman, in Albuquerque, N.M.3
Begay’s firm, Indigenous Design Studio + Architecture LLC, works with Indigenous communities across the American Southwest, and Begay has been noted for designs that engage the environment while remaining true to the culture and heritage of the communities with which she works.4
She accomplished all this in a traditionally male-dominated profession at a time when there are relatively few women-owned architectural firms in the U.S.