Popular rodeo announcer was drafted into business
Navajo Times | Terry Bowman Kyle E. Tom has become a favorite of the local rodeo crowd.
WINDOW ROCK
Through the fall heat of the 2014 Northern Navajo Fair, over the crowd of rodeo attendees and fair-goers in the dusty arena of the Shiprock Fairgrounds, a unique voice soared.
Navajo Times | Terry Bowman
Kyle E. Tom has become a favorite of the local rodeo crowd.
Curious, I craned my neck toward the booth above the stands and was stunned to see a Diné male with no trace of a Navajo accent. Since then, Kyle E. Tom has grown to be a favorite of the Navajo rodeo community.
“I get that a lot, people think I’m non-Native,” said Tom. Still, his Navajo heritage and unique voice has crowds laughing as he entertains them with jokes and anecdotes of past fair experiences during the bull riding competitions.
He is ’Áshįįhí (Salt Clan), born for Haltsooí Dine’é (Meadow Clan).
Announcing for rodeos and managing himself for business throughout the Southwest, Tom has thoroughly familiarized himself with the business of rodeos and fairs.
He is one of those lucky few who makes a living doing what he loves: performing and attending rodeos.
“You have to perform. It becomes psychological and structural,” said Tom, coming right off a busy weekend at the 2016 Gallup Inter-tribal Indian Ceremonial held at Red Rock State Park in Church Rock, New Mexico.
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Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow