Navajo Indian Research Articles

"But Always My Thoughts Stay with Me, My Own Way": Intellectual and Creative Claims of Sovereignty by Indian Boarding School Students in The Colored Land : A Navajo Indian Book, Written and Illustrated by Navajo Children (1937)

Abstract: In 1937, Ruth K. Brandt, Supervisor of Elementary Education, in the federal Office of Indian Affairs, edited and published The Colored Land: A Navajo Indian Book, Written and Illustrated by Navajo Children with Scribner's Sons. Diné elementary school students from the Tohatchi Boarding School in New Mexico were the featured writers of much of the text with supporting illustrations composed by students from the Santa Fe Indian School. It was presented by its editors as evidence of the government's successful approach to assimilation through education. Situating their work within frameworks offered by contemporary Diné poets, I argue that these young children resisted acculturation and assimilationist efforts in the Reorganization Era by maintaining cultural values and traditions and even, in a few cases, issuing challenges to Western epistemologies and educational regimes. This early collection of published creative work by Diné writers and artists features undercurrents of resistance alongside literary and intellectual claims of sovereignty.

Dutton's Dirty Diggers: Bertha P. Dutton and the Senior Girl Scout Archaeological Camps in the American Southwest, 1947–1957

Dutton's Dirty Diggers: Bertha P. Dutton and the Senior Girl Scout Archaeological Camps in the American Southwest, 1947–1957

Settler Colonialism and Rural Environmental Injustice: Water Inequality on the Navajo Nation*

AbstractEnvironmental justice research highlights the distinct processes generating environmental problems in rural places. Rural communities of color suffer the dual disadvantage of spatial and racial marginalization, yet we know little about the role of race and racism within rural environmental inequality formation. This study draws on theories of settler colonialism and rural environmental justice to investigate the historical formation of water inequality in the American Southwest. In 1962, Congress authorized two water projects to divide the San Juan River between the Navajo Nation and New Mexico. The Navajo Indian Irrigation project (NIIP) would develop family farms on the Navajo Nation, while the San Juan‐Chama Project (SJCP) diverted water into the Rio Grande Basin for urban use. While New Mexico's project was completed ahead of schedule in 1973, the NIIP has yet to be finished today, almost six decades later. Using archival material, government documents, and secondary accounts, this study examines racial meanings in the years leading up to NIIP approval. Findings reveal that settler officials used the NIIP as a mechanism to appropriate Native resources. I show how racial projects within NIIP negotiations contributed to colonial domination by diminishing the political sovereignty of the Navajo Nation.

First Case Report of a Navajo Indian Patient with Morbihan’s Disease: Insight into Oculoplastic Treatment of a Rare Disease

Introduction: Morbihan’s disease is classically defined as primarily Caucasian disease of chronic and recurrent erythema and edema of the middle and upper thirds of the face. It is believed to be a rare complication of rosacea. The disease is often difficult to diagnose until more severe signs are visible. Medical management is the primary mode of treatment; however, it is not curative nor very successful. When there is visual impairment, oculoplastic surgeons are consulted for surgical debulking. Case Presentation: We present a 55 year old Navajo male who was referred from Indian Health Service Dermatology (IHSD) clinic to an oculoplastic surgeon in 2012 with a one year history of left upper lid (LUL) swelling. A LUL blepharoplasty was performed with improvement in vision. However, he returned a few years later with contralateral swelling. RUL blepharoplasty was performed and oral prednisone was started with modest improvement. He did not tolerate prednisone due to his diabetes so his treatment was stopped. The following year, he returned with bilateral eyelid swelling. He received subcutaneous triamcinolone eyelid injections yielding satisfactory results of decreased swelling. Despite this treatment, the edema returned after 6 months. Conclusion: This is the first reported case of Morbihan’s disease in the Navajo population. Two other Navajo patients have been diagnosed with Morbihan’s disease at IHSD. Multidisciplinary approach with dermatology and oculoplastic surgery is required for complex medical and surgical management. Future work includes research into genetic predilection of Morbihan’s in the Navajo population and targeted systemic treatment options.

A New Generation of Medium Temperature Collector for Solar Cooling1

Prologue In the early 1970s, I began a research effort at Argonne National Laboratory to develop the nonimaging nontracking solar concentrator I had recently invented which became known as the compound parabolic concentrator or CPC. I had lots of help; in particular from lab director, Robert G. Sachs 1, Gale Pewitt, William Schertz, and many others. The lab recruited some of the best scientists in the world, in the relevant fields to work with me: for optics, Walter Welford, and for solar energy, Frank Kreith. Our first project was solar domestic hot water (DHW) for the “Breadsprings elementary school” in a Navajo Indian reservation near Gallup, NM. The collector was a threefold concentration nonevacuated CPC. Because threefold concentration can only accept solar motions for half the year, it was oriented for winter. Like every other project I ever collaborated on with Frank Kreith, it was a big success. I thought it was fitting to submit a paper on a recent “CPC” for much higher temperature (200 °C), totally stationary, and driving a double-effect absorption chiller.

(1) Asthma Needs Assessment on the Navajo Indian Reservation

(1) Asthma Needs Assessment on the Navajo Indian Reservation

Striving To Do Good: Well-Springs, Realities, and Paradoxes of Medical Humanitarian Work

Striving To Do Good:Well-Springs, Realities, and Paradoxes of Medical Humanitarian Work Renée C. Fox The voices that speak from the pages of these testimonial narratives are those of physicians who are engaged in medical humanitarian work. The preponderance of them are based in U.S. academic medical centers where they have clinical, teaching, and research responsibilities from which they regularly "commute" to care for patients in what the euphemistic language of "global health" terms "resource-limited," rather than "poor" countries." This "hybrid life," as one of the physicians (Robert Riviello) refers to it, has transported them periodically to numerous African societies (to Algeria, Ethiopia, Gabon, Morocco, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda), to Haiti, to India and Nepal, and to Guatemala and Mexico. Three of the "stories" are written by physicians at work in the countries where they were born (Prasanta Tripathy in Eastern India, Sridevi Seetharam and colleagues in Southern India, and Paul Pierre, in Haiti).Only one group of physician-coauthors (Maricruz Merino, Jonathan Iralu, and Sonya Shin) write about their experiences in practicing medicine among poor and socially disadvantaged patients on the American mainland—in the setting of the Navajo Indian reservation in Gallup, New Mexico. All these physicians describe their involvement in humanitarian medicine as emanating from their commitment to "social justice," to "saving lives," and to "caring for the poor"; to their universalistic convictions about "human solidarity," and the non- otherness of others; to their indignation about the inequities and injustices of the world, particularly with regard to access to health care (in the words of Jeffrey Deal, "[They] deserve better. They all do"); and to their "passionate" desire, not just their "sense of duty," to help rectify these wrongs (Richard Keiden). I was struck by the fact that none of them uses the word "suffering" to describe the plight of the persons whom they feel they have been called to medically assist. Three of the physicians express the wellsprings of their motivation in religious terms. Richard Keiden refers to a "guiding principle of Judaism" on which his medical humanitarian work has been founded—"tzedakah"—which "translates as charity but actually means righteousness," is based on a "concept of social justice," and is "an obligation, not a choice." Robert Riveillo says that at the time of his graduation from high school he envisioned his "life's work as a long-term missionary surgeon"; he invokes "loving mercy," as well as justice, "in this work of solidarity" that he has undertaken; and he poignantly admits that "most days I still long to pack my things, my family, and our efforts and move to Africa for a life of direct service." What Jeffrey Deal writes is the most explicitly and ardently religious of all. He identifies his work as a physician in Sudan with Jesus's "desire for us to care [End Page 115] for the poor and downtrodden in His stead." He is haunted by his "failure" to deliver alive a "partially born" baby girl who for him incarnated "the least of the least" of whom Jesus "spoke passionately." And in touching "ever so briefly . . . [that] one, tiny being [he] encountered . . . [on ] that hot morning in Sudan," he attests, he "touched Jesus." Jeffrey Deal is not the only one who was so stricken by the death of a baby or a child. For a number of these physicians (Sadath Sayeed, Maneesh Batra, and for Sridevi Seetharam, Lisa Adams and their colleagues), it was a tragedy that they found hard to bear with "detached enlightenment" (Sayeed), or to accept. The most demonstrably heartbroken and morally outraged among them is Sadath Sayeed, who "wept uncontrollably" over the death of a baby boy, born "at home" in Haiti, "probably in one of the hundreds of make-shift tent cities." The baby was not breathing continuously, and was "handed" to him to care for. At the close of the "story " about this experience that he recounts, Sayeed lashes out with fury and angst at those who were likely to ask him, "How was it in Haiti?" Do you want to hear "my real answer?" he replies: . . . [L]et me summarize my last patient for you: Good luck Dad...

Poikiloderma with Neutropenia: Report of Three Cases Including One with Calcinosis Cutis

Poikiloderma with neutropenia (PN), Clericuzio type (OMIM #604173) is a new, unique genodermatosis first described by Clericuzio etal (Am J Med Genet A, 2011, 155, 337) in Navajo Indian population. This disease is characterized by poikiloderma that usually develops in the first year of life and is associated with nail abnormality, palmoplantar hyperkeratosis, chronic neutropenia, and recurrent infections. The rash typically starts from the extremities and spreads centripetally to involve the trunk, face, and ears. Recently, a homozygous mutation in the C16orf57 gene on chromosome 16q13 was identified as a strong candidate as the gene responsible for PN. We report three cases of PN whose clinical presentations, laboratory investigations, and C16orf57 mutation support the diagnosis of PN. One child has developed multiple painful calcinosis cutis lesions. Early-onset poikiloderma should prompt a complete blood count as a screening test.

Politics in an Indian canyon? Some thoughts on the implications of ethnomathematics

Working with Navajo Indian informants in Arizona, USA we became aware of the capabilities of children and adults to find their way in vast and clearly “chaotic” canyons. One thing we did was describe what people actually did and said about their ways to find the way back home in such contexts. A second one was to use these data in order to build a curriculum book for a bicultural school on the Navajo reservation. We start from this example to ask what the political choices are, which we confront when working with such material: how much mathematics (or is it Mathematics) is needed in daily life? And what mathematics should we promote or develop, without becoming colonialist again? In Section 2, we discuss the meaning and the status of ethnomathematics, proposing that it would be the generic category which allows for a more systematic and comparative study of the whole domain of mathematical practices. In Section 3, we introduce the concept of multimathemacy (after multiliteracy) to discuss the political agenda of ethnomathematics. We argue that multimathemacy should be the basis of the curriculum in order to guarantee optimal survival value for every learner.

Mothers' and fathers' involvement with school-age children's care and academic activities in Navajo Indian families.

This exploratory study examined mothers' and fathers' reports of time involvement in their school-age children's care and academic activities. The study also explored the relationship between parents' socioeconomic status (SES) variables (age, education, income, work hours, and length of marriage) and their relative involvement with children. Mother and father dyads from 34 two-parent Navajo (Diné) Indian families with a second- or third-grade child participated in the study. Repeated measures analysis of variance showed that mothers invested significantly more time in children's care on demand and academic activities than fathers, but the differences in maternal and paternal perceptions of time involvement in routine care were not significant. The gender of the child did not influence the amount of time parents invested in children's care and academic activities. Mothers' involvement with children was not related to any of the SES variables. Fathers' involvement was significantly associated with work hours and length of marriage, and work hours produced significant interaction with fathers' involvement with children. Findings are discussed in light of gender role differences in parental involvement with children within Navajo families.

<i>Intercultural Student Teaching: A Bridge to Global Competence</i> (review)

Reviewed by: Intercultural Student Teaching: A Bridge to Global Competence Patti Marxsen (bio) Kenneth Cushner and Sharon Brennan, Eds. Intercultural Student Teaching: A Bridge to Global Competence. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. 246 pp. ISBN 1578865794 | 978-1578865796, $75.00 (hbk.); 224 pp. ISBN: 1-57886-580-8 | 978-1-57886-580-2, $32.95 (pbk.) Let's face it. Not only is the one-room schoolhouse a thing of the past, a teacher without a global perspective is the twenty-first century equivalent of a dinosaur strolling through a soon-forgotten forest. In an important new book entitled Intercultural Student Teaching: A Bridge to Global Competence, the "global profession" of teaching is described as if it were a new country. Gone are the local charms of cultural unity. Gone is the comfort zone of students who look and think alike. Craig Kissock of the University of Minnesota opens with a blunt but essential question aimed at colleges of education across America: "As an educator of teachers, are you preparing professionals who can effectively educate any child anywhere in the world, now and for the next forty years?" The pages that follow explain how this zinger of a question might be addressed by sending student teachers abroad, or at least into unfamiliar cultural situations. Thanks to well-written chapters by experienced educators and revealing excerpts from student-teacher journals, this book delivers both inspiration and information. By the end of chapter 1, "The Value of Learning to Teach in Another Culture" by co-editors Sharon Brennan and Kenneth Cushner, one begins to wonder why it has taken so long for this approach to teacher training to take hold. As they assess the state of opportunities for teachers in training, the authors acknowledge those early creators of field experiences in places as diverse as Kenya, China, Europe, and Central America. Among them, the Consortium for Overseas Student Teaching (COST), has sent over 110 young men and women to the same [End Page 80] school in Christchurch, New Zealand, over the past 20 years. The International Teacher Education program at California State University has over a decade of experience in placing bilingual student teachers in nearby Mexican schools. And Indiana University's School of Education spends two or three semesters preparing prospective teachers for 17 weeks on the Navajo Indian Reservation. With a note of gratitude to Brazilian educational philosopher Paulo Freire, this book reminds us that learning is always embedded in culture. Our global society calls for new definitions of education and, with it, new definitions of teaching. If we expect our children's horizons to extend beyond their own back yard, we need teachers who have crossed that "bridge to global competence" so eloquently promoted in this fine book. [End Page 81] Patti Marxsen Patti Marxsen is a writer, former French teacher, and former Project Manager for The Boston Research Center for the 21st Century. Email: thewritewoman@gmail.com Copyright © 2007 John Dewey Society

Evaluating the quality of medical care. 1966.

Evaluating the quality of medical care. 1966.

Division of Household Labor and Family Functioning in Off‐Reservation Navajo Indian Families*

The division of household labor and family functioning of mothers and fathers was examined in 28 off‐reservation Navajo Indian families. Mothers invested significantly more time in cleaning, food, and child‐related tasks than fathers, but mothers and fathers equally participated in household maintenance. In their perception of how they and their family functioned, mothers and fathers reported similar zzlevels of coping and competence, but mothers demonstrated significantly more commitment, cohesion, and communication skills than fathers. Overall, fathers showed high levels of involvement in household labor and family functioning. Findings are discussed with respect to family functioning and gender roles in 2‐parent Navajo families.

Doctor Saving Time

Except for those of us living in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Arizona (excluding the Navajo Indian Reservation), and the eastern time zone portion of Indiana, the ritual of setting our clocks forward one hour on the first Sunday of April is observed in homes and communities across the US. Though it dates back to an idea of Benjamin Franklin, Daylight Saving Time (DST) was not firmly established until passage of the Uniform Time Act of 1966.

A Tribute to a Founding Father: David Van Tassel and National History Day

ON JUNE 3, 2000, the National History Day (NHD) community was saddened by the sudden loss of David Van Tassel, NHD's founder. Although we mourn his loss, we also celebrate his life and legacy. I cannot think of anything more powerful or exciting than to have an effect on a young person, to change a life in some positive way-to watch the light bulb go on and to feel that you had something to do with that. David Van Tassel did that for millions of young people through National History Day. His influence extends to the barrios of Los Angeles, to inner-city Houston, to Navajo and Lakota Indian reservations, to small, rural mid-western towns and to wealthy and middle class suburbs. Through National History Day, David created a vehicle to reinvigorate the teaching and learning of history. But more important than that, what he produced was something that truly changes lives. It all began in 1974 when, concerned about the devalued nature of history in the nation's elementary and secondary schools, David Van Tassel, professor of history at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, sought to bring the past to life for students and teachers. His idea was a competition through which middle and high school students present historical research in papers, table-top exhibits, dramatic performances, and multi-media documentaries. These products would be en-

Changing Woman: Postcolonial Reflections On Acts 16.6-40

Most contemporary interpreters of Acts 16.6-40 describe Paul's journey in Mace donia as a 'missionary journey to Europe'. This essay challenges that designation, arguing that it is a colonialist geographic identification with no actual textual basis, and one that has helped foster the ideology of modern colonialist missionary movements. Nevertheless, the essay goes on to note that there is solid textual evi dence for arguing Acts 16.6-40 does indeed mark a change in Paul's missionary activity, one that is now more explicitly in conflict with Roman colonial power. After identifying the evidence for this, the essay takes a cue from Musa Dube Shomanah's 1997 Vanderbilt dissertation and argues that Lydia and the pythonic slave girl function as 'border women' whose presence evokes a colonialist 'land- possession type-scene' similar to those related with Rahab (Josh. 2), the Syro Phoenician woman (Mk 7), and the Samaritan woman (Jn 4). The struggle for the ideological possession of the land and women reminds the author of the border woman from his own childhood on the Navajo Indian Reserva tion in Arizona, and two novels that deal with Navajo and pueblo Native American border women (Laughing Boy, by Oliver La Farge, and Ceremony, by Leslie Mar mon Silko). While the Navajo border woman in the first novel reflects a similar ideology as Acts 16.6-40, despite the author's intention; the latter novel offers an insightful postcolonial appropriation of mythic border women which can revitalize the biblical metaphor and deconstruct its colonialist ideology.

Risk factors for conduct disorder among Navajo Indian men and women.

To describe the risk factors for conduct disorder before age 15 among Navajo Indians. The study was based on a survey of a stratified random sample of adult Navajo Indians between the ages of 21 and 65 living on and adjacent to two different areas of the Navajo Reservation. There were 531 male and 203 female respondents. The average age (SD) of the men was 38.7 (10.5) years and of the women 35.5 (9.0) years. Conduct disorder was diagnosed retrospectively using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule first developed for the Epidemiological Catchment Area study. The responses were combined into a continuous scale. Significant risk factors for increased scores on the conduct disorder scale were: histories of physical and sexual abuse in childhood; abusive maternal drinking; a small number of households per camp; younger age; and being male rather than female. Measures of social status and religion in which subjects were raised were not significant. Many of the risk factors that are associated with conduct disorder in other populations are also risk factors in the Navajo population. There is suggestive evidence that some of these risk factors have become more common since World War II, raising the possibility that conduct disorder has become more prevalent, as is thought to be the case nationwide.

Alcohol dependence and conduct disorder among Navajo Indians.

The purpose of this study is to examine the association between conduct disorder before age 15 and subsequent alcohol dependence, and to describe the lifetime prevalence of alcohol dependence among Navajo Indian women and men. This was a case-control design which included both men (n = 735) and women (n = 351) and in which the Diagnostic Interview Schedule was used for the diagnosis of the lifetime history of alcohol dependence and conduct disorder. Alcohol dependent cases were selected from inpatient and outpatient treatment programs (204 men, 148 women). Whenever possible, controls were matched for age, sex and community of residence and were randomly selected and interviewed until a nonalcohol dependent individual was found. Among the men, there were 374 alcohol dependent controls and 157 nonalcohol dependent controls. Among the women, the figures were 60 and 143, respectively. When combined, the controls comprise samples of the adult male and female populations from which estimates of lifetime prevalence of alcohol dependence, and of the amount of alcohol dependence in the population attributable to conduct disorder, may be inferred. Conduct disorder is a risk factor for alcohol dependence among both men and women. Lifetime prevalence of alcohol dependence in this population is high (70.4% for men and 29.6% for women), but the amount of alcohol dependence in the population attributable to conduct disorder is low. On the other hand, among the alcohol dependent, those with conduct disorder had the most severe alcohol- and nonalcohol-related problems. The potential limitations of the study are those common to case-control designs, especially biased recall by cases. There are also potential sampling biases among the controls. It is shown that none of the potential biases invalidate the findings, which support the hypothesis that in this population conduct disorder is a risk for alcohol dependence. The implications for primary prevention of alcohol dependence are discussed.

Fathers’ Participation in Childcare Within Navajo Indian Families

Fathers’ and mothers’ reports of their participation in early caregiving tasks and the amount of social support they received regarding their involvement with their infants were examined for 28 two‐parent Navajo Indian families. Mothers were significantly more involved in basic caregiving activities than fathers. Fathers invested about sixty percent as much time as mothers did in direct caregiving tasks. Mothers and fathers did not differ on the degree to which they reported receiving social supports for childcare tasks. Navajo parents received significantly more extrafamilial and/or institutional sources of support than family support for early caregiving activities. Navajo fathers were highly involved with their young children. The results are discussed in relation to role differences in early caregiving within Navajo families.

Minority Representation, Resistance, and Public Policy: The Navajos and the Counties

This article examines Navajo Indian representation on the governing boards ofsix county governments in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. External pressures, especially decisions by the federal government, have encouraged increased Navajo representation and changes in county policies that benefit people on the reservation. Beyond this, the findings for individual counties are consistent with previous research in suggesting that the size of the Navajo population as a percentage of the county population is an important factor affecting Navajo success in winning seats and the allocation of benefits to reservation residents. Yet, opposition to Navajo representation, the ability of Navajos to secure office, and the policy significance of their representation are far more complex than usually suggested by the relevant literature based largely on black and Hispanic experiences.