Volume 7 Number 3
May 1968

by Gary Witherspoon, Assistant Director for the Navaho Curriculum Center

The Rough Rock Demonstration School, along with many other schools serving Navaho children, recognizes the need for Navaho students to learn about their own culture, language and heritage as an integral part of their formal education. Without Navaho language and culture as an integral part of the curriculum, schools are seen by Navahos as foreign institutions, teaching foreign subjects and values in a foreign language and undermining the foundations of Navaho culture and social order. Teaching Navaho language and culture in the classroom enables Navaho children to positively identify with the schools they attend and to enthusiastically and securely pursue their academic work.

Another major reason for teaching Navaho culture and language in the schools Navahos attend is to provide the framework and environment for Navaho children to develop a positive self-image. It is a generally accepted principle that children need to have a positive self-image in order to live happily and develop normally. Indians are happy, secure and well-adjusted when they feel pride in their Indian identity. This pride comes from their culture and heritage. Indian culture gives Indian identity great distinction because it is the one thing which is distinctly their own.

Dr. Karl Menninger, the well-known and highly respected psychiatrist, has carefully analyzed the situations in many Indian schools and has concluded that schools enrolling Indians have failed utterly to include in a positive and meaningful way Indian culture in the curriculum. Dr. Menninger says this situation causes the Indian child to have his pride in himself eroded and his self-image badly marred. Thus, if the schools place no positive value on his being an Indian and attach no importance to his culture and heritage, the Indian child can be effectively isolated from his own culture and parents even though the school he attends may be in the middle of the reservation.

Because the Rough Rock Demonstration School is controlled by the local community through a locally elected and representative board of education, the community set for itself early the task of solving this problem. After just a few months of operation of the demonstration school, the local board instigated a program for the teaching of Navaho culture in the school curriculum on a daily basis.

A survey of local parents indicated that 97 percent of them supported the local board of education in its decision to implement a program of teaching significant areas of Navaho language, culture and heritage as an integral part of the school’s curriculum. Surveys of Navaho parents in other school districts also have shown overwhelming support for such a Navaho program. Among the profound reasons parents gave in support of Navaho language and culture being taught in the school, the following were predominant:

Not long after the demonstration school began the program of teaching Navaho culture in the classrooms, a serious problem became very apparent. There were no textbooks, teacher guides, course sequences, workbooks, visual aids, etc., to use in teaching Navaho culture in a classroom setting. Many schools and many individual teachers want to include instruction in Navaho culture as an integral part of their curriculum but have had a difficult time in trying to do so. We have a long list of schools and teachers who want all the books and, materials we can produce, so that they can begin programs of teaching Navaho culture in the classrooms of their schools.

The Navaho Curriculum Center was established to serve the enormous need and demand for curricular materials dealing with Navaho history and culture. The Center began in February, 1967, with a grant from Tide I of Public Law 89-10. It operated on this grant from February to June, 1967. The program involved the writing of seven books.

The Navaho people themselves are involved in the book project in six ways: First, Navaho adults tell the stories into a tape recorder; second, Navahos themselves select the areas in which the books are to be written; third, Navahos select the stories to be used in the book; fourth, Navahos translate the tapes from Navaho into English; fifth, Navaho artists illustrate each book, and finally, a Navaho evaluation committee determines their distribution and effectiveness. The seven books prepared in this manner include the following:

All of the above-mentioned books are accurately illustrated by five well-known Navaho artists: Hoke Denetsosie, Andy Tsinajinnie, George Mitchell, Woodie Little and Clifford Beck, Jr.

In order to continue the successful and much needed work of the Navaho Curriculum Center, a second grant was obtained from Title I of Public Law 89-10. The Office of Economic Opportunity also provided additional funds for the Center to supplement the grant from Public Law 89-10. The project for this second grant period involves the writing of 12 more textbooks dealing with Navaho history and culture. The areas to be covered by these books include two additional sets of biographies of successful Navahos, two books on incidents in Navaho history, two books on Navaho legends and mythology, two primary readers, one book each on Navaho social organization, Navaho tribal government, Navaho sacred places, and Navaho science and ethnobotany.

In terms of materials, plans for a third grant period are designed primarily for the production and creation of classroom materials to supplement the 19 textbooks produced under the two original grants. In addition, the scope of the program has been enlarged and its service area expanded.

The Navaho Curriculum Center for the year 1968-69 will serve four principal functions:

The Curriculum Center will serve all schools enrolling Navaho children, not just the demonstration school. Its materials, both published and original sources, and resources also will be made available to individual teachers teaching Navahos. At present, more than 25 schools and 250 individual teachers have expressed interest in the materials produced by the Center and in obtaining technical assistance for implementing a Navaho social studies program. Many people have also come to the Center in search of information and data on Navaho history and culture.

The first major function of the Center is to produce curricular materials based on Navaho history and culture. As mentioned earlier, the emphasis in this area will be to produce teacher guides and workbooks to go with the 19 textbooks produced under the two previous grants. In addition to these teacher guides and student workbooks, the Center will also prepare unit and course outlines for different grades, covering both the scope and sequence of subject matter.

Audio-visual materials also will be prepared to go along with the textbooks and the course outlines. These audio-visual materials will include such things as maps, film strips, records, pictures, charts, illustrations and audio tapes.

Rather than emphasize the publishing of textbooks, the center will publish individual units dealing with various areas of Navaho culture and history. Subject areas for these units will include individual Navaho ceremonies, Navaho games, Navaho kinship structure, clan origins, incidents in Navaho history, origins of the sweathouse, Navaho hunting methods, livestock raising and farming, Navaho divination, Navaho arts and crafts, current tribal and local governmental programs, future needs and opportunities, and Navaho education.

The second major function of the Navaho Curriculum Center will be to provide technical assistance to other schools and teachers wishing to implement a Navaho social studies program. This assistance will be rendered in several ways. First, all materials and source information will be made available to schools and teachers upon request. Second, members of the Curriculum Center staff will travel to the schools requesting technical assistance and help them firsthand to implement a Navaho culture program. Third, curriculum staff members would also be available to assist various schools evaluate their Navaho culture programs.

The third major function of the Center is to be a depository for primary and secondary resource information on Navaho history and culture. The depository will serve as a museum for Navaho artifacts and paraphernalia. It also will collect primary historical information and records, in addition to secondary sources such as books, theses, papers, dissertations, articles, and journals dealing with Navaho history and culture.

Tapes on Navaho mythology, history, ceremonies and songs also will be collected. The depository will thus provide a reference center for anyone working in Navaho education and needing information on some area of Navaho history or culture. The users of this depository should be among its main contributors.

A fourth major function of the Center, and particularly its director, is to supervise and coordinate the teachers of Navaho language and culture at the Rough Rock Demonstration School. These teachers will be paid from another source but will work as members of the Center staff. They will use the materials and ideas of the Center to determine their effectiveness in the classroom. The teachers will also be able to contribute many valuable ideas and suggestions to the writing and publishing through their awareness of the problems and needs of the classroom teacher.

Thus the Navaho Curriculum Center contributes substantially to making the demonstration school a Navaho school, and is a direct product of local Navaho interest reflected through the parents and the board of education. It also provides, along with other parts of the curriculum, the basis from which our students can face the future with faith and confidence and have the skills and knowledge with which to make intelligent choices about their future and the types of work they wish to pursue.