Word: navahos
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...were the Bureau of Indian Affairs schools, which they called Washington beolta, the public schools, which they called belagona beolta (white man's schools), or the mission schools, called eeneishoodi beolta (for "those who drag their clothes," meaning the first Catholic priests who came to the reservation). The Navaho likes none of those places. White men's creations, they separate children from their families and tribal traditions, are largely inadequate, and have succeeded mainly in teaching young Indians to feel like second-class citizens. As one result, Indians have the country's highest illiteracy rate. Half...
Language and Legends. The community college is something else: dine beolta (the people's school) really belongs to the Navahos themselves. The college is primarily the creation of two men. President Robert Roessel Jr., 42, brought to his dream the experience of 20 years of teaching and school administration among the Navahos, plus the insight of his Navaho wife, Ruth, who is liaison officer for the college. Roessel's indispensable colleague was Raymond Nakai, the Navaho tribal chairman, who has advocated a community college on the reservation for more than a decade...
...working model: the Rough Rock Demonstration School, an elementary school that was started in 1966 with support from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of Economic Opportunity, but has an all-Navaho school board with total administrative authority. At Rough Rock, students learn Navaho language and history, along with such standard subjects as English, math and science. Medicine men come to the dormitories in the evening to tell tribal folk tales and legends. The Navaho's focus on family ties is never forgotten, and children are allowed to go home whenever their parents wish...
...college will accept any Navaho over 18 who applies-even adults who have never spent a day in school. Besides the familiar list of studies, the curriculum includes Navaho language and culture and a variety of vocational and craft courses. Roessel is confident the training will create a labor force that will attract industry to the area, cut the 70% unemployment rate and increase the $680 average yearly family income of reservation Navahos...
...N.C.C. is already making an impact far beyond Many Farms. Chippewa Indians from Minnesota have visited the reservation to investigate and are now working to establish a community college of their own. At least eight Pueblo tribes in New Mexico are talking seriously of following the Navaho example...