Column: Navajo youth a protector of his language

Friday, February 1, 2008  

"I was an ancient (25 years old) college freshman. By the time I got there, I knew which direction I wanted to go.

I hadn't given it a thought in high school and I certainly hadn't entertained any such ideas back in grade school.

Even if I had, it's doubtful my choice would have had anything to do with preserving a living culture— and my own living culture, at that.

These things came to mind in a conversation with Tavish Brown, a University of New Mexico student and the undergraduate recipient the 2007 Robert W. Young Scholarship for those studying Native American linguistics.

He grew up in Naschitti, N.M., located between Gallup and Shiprock on the Navajo reservation. He is 20, which strikes me as kind of young to be charged with the maintenance of a culture, but he's been preparing for the job for a long time.

"When I was in elementary school, I had one teacher who taught Navajo, and it was back then that I started to think about teaching the Navajo language," he said. "It was really interesting to me."

Then came a teacher at Newcomb High School who would challenge him even further.

"Our Navajo teacher warned us about how our language could be lost," he said."

Get the Story:
Jim Belshaw : Young Navajo Becomes a Protector of His Language (The Albuquerque Journal 2/1)

Relevant Links:
Navajo Nation - http://www.navajo.org