The Return of Navajo Boy

This program will be held in-person at the Newberry. Please register below. 

The Return of Navajo Boy chronicles the extraordinary journey of the Cly family, whose lives are forever altered by the rediscovery of a 1950s film reel. For decades, the Cly family has been captured in photographs and films shot in Monument Valley, including Hollywood Westerns and a rare home-movie by John Ford. But when Bill Kennedy, a white man from Chicago, arrives in 1997 with a silent film titled Navajo Boy, he unknowingly sparks a remarkable chain of events. The film, made by his late father, features the Cly family and reveals the long-lost presence of Elsie Mae Cly Begay’s infant brother, John Wayne Cly, who was adopted by white missionaries in the 1950s and vanished without a trace. As Elsie watches the film, she recognizes her younger self and family members, including her late mother, and begins to share her family’s untold history of the American West, Native representation in film, and the effects of uranium mining in Monument Valley. When John Wayne, now living in New Mexico, learns of the film’s return, he reaches out to the Clys, and the film culminates in an emotional reunion, marking the long-awaited return of a lost brother. This Sundance Film Festival selection offers a poignant exploration of family, identity, and the power of forgotten images to heal old wounds.

Following the screening, there will be a panel discussion with members of the Cly family. 

This event is put on in partnership with Groundswell Educational Films and is a part of programming connected with our free exhibition, Native Pop!, running March 20 through June 19, 2025.

Speakers

John Wayne Cly was taken from his Navajo family in Monument Valley by white missionaries and raised in a Christian home for Native American orphans near the continental divide in Thoreau, New Mexico. John graduated from Thoreau High School and worked as a uranium miner for several years before starting his long-term job as a fire bus driver, transporting Native American fire fighters from their communities to fires across the west. John works as a silversmith/jewelry maker in Zuni, New Mexico where he enjoys the company of his children and grandchildren.

A great-great grandmother, Elsie Mae Begay, is a longtime resident of Monument Valley, Utah (Navajo Nation). She was raised by her photogenic grandmother, Happy Cly, one of the most photographed women in the world. Elsie has worked as a fruit picker, tour guide, and housekeeper at Gouldings Lodge. She attended the intermountain boarding school in Utah. Elsie Mae has presented The Return of Navajo Boy in many Navajo communities, colleges and in congress where she educates audiences about Navajo lives and uranium contamination in Navajo lands.

Cost and Registration

This program is free and open to all. Advance registration required.

Registration opens June 1.

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Past Public Programs

Check out video recordings of past Newberry public programs on our YouTube channel.