Word: navajoized
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...founder of Rolling Stone and the managing editor of the Washington Post took part, as did two of the most conservative newspaper columnists in the U.S. Gloria Steinem and the Knicks' Bill Bradley were there, and so were a former Heisman Trophy winner, a Nobel Laureate, a Navajo tribal leader, nine college presidents, 15 mayors and Governors, 14 Congressmen and Senators, and scores of businessmen, teachers, lawyers and economists. The occasion: a two-day conference held in Washington by TIME on the subject of leadership...
...ritual chants and dances performed weekly by the Navajo men and women are centuries old, but the octagonal sanctuary where the tribal ceremonies take place is spanking new. With its earth floor and eternal flame at the base of a six-story building, the sanctuary is the center of a $15 million campus designed by Indian medicine men and paid for largely by federal funds. Navajo Community College, which moved to its new 1,200-acre campus at Tsaile in northeastern Arizona three years ago, is the first entirely Indian-operated and -controlled institution for higher learning on a reservation...
...change all that, N.C.C. offers 23 courses in the Navajo language, history and culture. Students learn from Indian teachers how to shape clay without a wheel, sew moccasins with sheep sinews or shape baskets with sumac fibers. Andrew Natonabah is one of four medicine men who teach Navajo psychology, medicine, dances and tribal lore, and who often cure mentally disturbed students "by dancing them free of evil spirits." Says he: "When they leave here, our students understand more about their culture and are better prepared to meet the white man's world...
Besides Indian-related courses, 214 other subjects are offered, some of which lead to Associate of Arts or Applied Science degrees. Twenty-two students from last year's graduating class have gone on from the two-year Navajo school to four-year colleges or universities. Edison Hatathli, 18, president of the student body, was a high school dropout. "When I came here, I was lost," he says. "Now I want to study art at Berkeley and then return to serve my people." Other students can get certificates in vocational studies that include auto mechanics, nursing and drafting...
Says Atcitty: "We want to offer the means for every Navajo to have a better life-on the reservation or off-but we want to build on the strong foundation of our own culture. That works best...