Tohe was born in Fort Defiance, Arizona, the daughter of a Navajo code talker.[2]
She grew up speaking both Diné bizaad/Navajo language and English and was punished in school for speaking her native language due to assimilation.[4] She earned a B.A. from the University of New Mexico in 1975, an M.A. from the University of Nebraska in 1985, and a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska in 1993. She has been affiliated with Arizona State University since 1994.[5]
^McClinton-Temple, Jennifer; Velie, Alan (2010), "Tohe, Laura", Encyclopedia of American Indian Literature, Infobase Publishing, pp. 361–362, ISBN9781438120874