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New Mexico Approves First-Ever Navajo Textbook
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by PEP | July 31, 2008 at 02:54 am
458 views | 75 Recommendations | 16 comments
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Over the past several years, one of the topics of concern for many tribal peoples in my area has been a simple one. Their children could elect to learn German, French, or Spanish in school. In fact, some curricula, especially for the college-bound, demanded a language elective.
But, even though there were people who could teach the language, there was no option to learn your own tribe's language. This decision by New Mexico to adopt a Navajo-based book may lead to other efforts to include Native American languages and cultures.
Navajo wëlapènsit. Yun wëlakèxën. Ntalënixsi. (The Navajo have a good rich inheritance in their culture. This is a good road. I speak in Lenape. Note: "This is a good road" means this is a good way to go, a good decison, in one sense. But the exact phrase "good road" has greater implications within a traditional world.)
In the Navajo language, there's no one word that translates into "go" — it's more like a sentence.
"There are so many ways of 'going,'" said Evangeline Parsons Yazzie, a Navajo professor at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. "It states who is going, how many of us are going, where are we going. So the tense, the adverb, the subject, the number of people, all of that is tied up in one little tiny verb."
Those verbs are part of what makes the Navajo language one of the most difficult to learn, she said. Yazzie is hopeful a book she recently wrote will provide a user-friendly way for New Mexico students to learn not only the language but the culture of a tribe that long has tied the two elements.
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (16)
at 04:06 on July 31st, 2008
PEP, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 04:38 on July 31st, 2008
PEP, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 04:43 on July 31st, 2008
PEP, I like this story. It's good stuff.
I echo Johnny's sentiment - I'd have totally missed this story, if it weren't on NP
at 04:46 on July 31st, 2008
PEP, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 04:59 on July 31st, 2008
PEP, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 05:11 on July 31st, 2008
PEP, I like this story. It's good stuff.
I am happy to read some thing good and Positive, it was about time!
at 05:29 on July 31st, 2008
PEP, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 05:41 on July 31st, 2008
PEP, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 06:43 on July 31st, 2008
PEP, I like this story and its content. It is great news for the Navajo People. It's good stuff.
at 06:51 on July 31st, 2008
Hi ya'll, thanks for the flags and kind comments. I, too, think this is an important step. Paschen, I like bringing good news when I can find it. :)
at 07:11 on July 31st, 2008
PEP, I like this story. It's good stuff.
Excellent story and excellent news!
at 08:02 on July 31st, 2008
PEP, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 08:19 on July 31st, 2008
Excellent, but late. Hope to see the same for other nations of New Mexico and in other states. Many worry that their languages will be lost, young people not as interested in the 'old ways.'
at 08:41 on July 31st, 2008
Good news again--over the past decade, there's been a resurgence of cultural and language (the language is the culture in many ways) interests and actions in most tribes. Some have started "immersion" schools, patterned after the original started in Hawaii. I was at an indigenous languages conference with the folks from Hawaii and many tribes. The culture isn't "old ways"--it's part of modern life as we adapt to the changes in the modern world, just like everyone else.
Many tribes, including the smaller ones, have created voice recordings of elders who are fluent in their language, and then created language courses.
at 08:43 on July 31st, 2008
I'm so glad you are enjoying this story. Thanks again for the flags and nice comments.
at 09:28 on July 31st, 2008
PEP, I like this story. It's good stuff.