This article's thesis is that a cross-cultural brokerage composed of Indians and non-Indians was essential for bringing the Navajo Community College (NCC) to fruition. To explain this brokerage, the study first examines the concept of cultural brokerage and then uses the concept as a lens through which to explore the roles of various…

Describes the influence of the Progressive Education movement, with its emphasis on experiential learning and community schools, on Bureau of Indian Affairs schools during the 1930s. Discusses the subsequent development of bilingual education programs for American Indian students and offers recommendations for improving the education of Navajo…

Originally written for Navajo elementary school students, this book chronicles the history of the Navajo people from prehistory to 1868. The book presents a sympathetic history of a people who depended on their tenacity and creative adaptability to survive troubled times. Chapters examine how Navajo culture changed from that of an early hunting…

Presents an overview of the history of Navajo language literacy. Discusses efforts of missionaries to transcribe a written Navajo language, early native language instruction using the Bible and religious texts, the first Native teachers, development of Navajo dictionaries and grammar books, and memories of the school experiences of a present-day…

Highlights the lifelong work of linguists Robert W. Young and William Morgan in developing written Navajo. In contrast to technical orthographies, Young and Morgan developed a practical orthography that took advantage of native speakers' implicit knowledge and opened up possibilities for producing materials in written Navajo. Young and Morgan also…

Dr. Robert W. Young discusses what led him to work in the Navajo Nation and to begin studying Navajo, the method he used for developing a Navajo orthography, his professional relationship with Dr. William Morgan, the system they used to develop an English-Navajo dictionary, his views on language loss, and his greatest accomplishment--a reservation…

An Anglo faculty member remembers the early years of Navajo Community College, now Dine College, on the Navajo Reservation. Student-led inquiry circles differentiated the curriculum from those of other colleges and explored areas that the faculty, especially Anglo teachers, would not have. The board of regents was more involved than is customary,…

This paper documents a single year in the history of Navajo education from the perspective of the Navajo Agent Dennis Matthew Riordan. It draws on Riordan's correspondence, 1882-83, with the Secretary of the Interior, with Captain Richard Henry Pratt at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, and with his brother. In December 1882, Riordan arrived…

In this autobiography, Lori Arviso Alvord describes her journey to become the first Navajo woman surgeon and her realization of the benefits of Navajo philosophy to the healing process. Raised on the Navajo reservation by a White mother and a Navajo father and grandmother, Alvord learned to walk in two worlds. Encouraged to get an education, she…

Weaves a Navajo elementary teacher's anecdotes from her own and her father's educational experiences with archival materials to provide a historical context for Navajo literacy. Discusses early written Navajo; the role of schools and churches in the expansion of written Navajo; and the advancement of Navajo linguistics during John Collier's…

This book recounts the Phoenix Indian School's history from 1935 to its closing in 1990. In the 1930s, the Bureau of Indian Affairs' philosophy of assimilation declined in importance, as evidenced by termination of the boarding school's militaristic discipline, greater recognition of tribal traditions, and early experimentation in bilingual…