{"id":17277,"date":"2021-10-25T11:29:42","date_gmt":"2021-10-25T15:29:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=17277"},"modified":"2021-10-25T11:30:19","modified_gmt":"2021-10-25T15:30:19","slug":"cronkite-news-navajo-language-speakers-create-broadcast-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/10\/25\/cronkite-news-navajo-language-speakers-create-broadcast-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Cronkite News: Navajo language speakers create broadcast history"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Cuyler<\/a>
Cuyler Frank of the Navajo Nation began his career in communications at New Mexico State University where he provided audio and video content in Navajo for the agricultural college. Photo courtesy of Navajo Technical University <\/figcaption>\r\n
A call to preserve Navajo language leads two sports broadcasters on historic path<\/div>\r\n
Monday, October 25, 2021<\/div>\r\n
By Hannah Bronkema<\/div>\r\n
Cronkite News<\/DIV>\r\n
cronkitenews.azpbs.org<\/A><\/DIV>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nPHOENIX, Arizona — There is no literal translation of the word \u201ctouchdown\u201d in Din\u00e9, but that hardly mattered.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nHistory was made in the \u201cLand of Enchantment\u201d in September as two men from the Navajo Nation broadcast a college football game in their Native language<\/a>. Known as the \u201cRio Grande Rivalry,\u201d the Division I game between the University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University marked a pivotal juncture with the sport and the way it is called over the radio.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nWhile Cuyler Frank and Glenn King reveled in their historic moment, the road following the momentous occasion matters the most to the Navajo Nation duo, with a desire to preserve their Native language at the epicenter of what they do.\r\n

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\n\t\t\n\t\t\tFor first time, two Navajo broadcasters announce D1 college football game in Navajo language\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t
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For first time, two Navajo broadcasters announce D1 college football game in Navajo language<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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KRQE: For first time, two Navajo broadcasters announce D1 college football game in Navajo language<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n

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The road to radio, part 1<\/div>\r\nFrank, a New Mexico State alumnus, began his communications career through the university\u2019s agriculture communications department where he helped develop audio and video in Navajo to be used in how-to videos like cattle handling and sheep management.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nHis career in sports began through happenstance. Frank was in the studio speaking in Din\u00e9, the Native language of the Navajo, during one of his assignments when New Mexico State\u2019s then-athletic director, football coach and media director for the athletics program walked by and overheard him.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\u201cThe coach at the time was Hal Mumme and he came into the studio and asked what kind of language that is,\u201d Frank said. \u201cI told him, and he said we don\u2019t have that language, would you be willing to do a game?\u201d\r\n

<\/P>\r\nAn avid football fan, Frank never missed a game during his time at NMSU. It was during these games that he would jokingly pretend to be a play-by-play broadcaster for his friends as they sat in the stands, never imagining a day where he would be broadcasting professionally from the booth.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nIt was September 23, 2005, when Cuyler Frank became the answer to a Jeopardy question. He was the first person to announce a Division I football game in Din\u00e9, his voice taking over the airwaves on KRQE radio for all New Mexico State fans to hear.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nFrank would go on to call football and basketball games for nine seasons at New Mexico State before switching to his current role as station manager for 107.3 FM KCZY<\/a., a Navajo Technical University radio station located in Crownpoint, New Mexico.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\"107.3<\/a>

R. Capitan (left) and Mark Freeland (right) sit in the broadcast booth at 107.3 KCZY before Cuyler Frank\u2019s segment \u201cThe Hawk.\u201d Photo courtesy of Navajo Technical University <\/figcaption>\r\n

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The road to radio, part 2<\/div>\r\nGlenn King\u2019s journey into the broadcast booth began after his lengthy 16 years of service in the military as a Marine. When he returned to his hometown of Whitehorse Lake, New Mexico, King began to frequently listen to radio, noticing the mistakes and mishaps the hosts would make.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nA gentle nudge from King\u2019s mother in the early 1990\u2019s drove him towards his first job in radio with 1330 AM KGAK, a Navajo language exclusive station located in Gallup, New Mexico.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\u201cI said, \u2018They shouldn\u2019t say this, they shouldn\u2019t say that,\u2019 and that\u2019s when my mom was still around and she says, \u2018Well, why are you trying to correct them, you should go down there and apply for a DJ position,\u2019\u201d King said. \u201cThat\u2019s exactly what I did. I went down there and started in the radio business.\u201d\r\n

<\/P>\r\nKing used his knowledge of what was happening and what people were doing across Navajo Nation to tap into the heart of his listeners, guiding them through their day-to-day lives on the reservation, encouraging them to \u201ctake that next sip of coffee.\u201d\r\n

<\/P>\r\nAfter a few years at 1330 AM KGAK, King transitioned to Farmington\u2019s KNDN 960 AM, another radio station that broadcasts exclusively in Navajo. Here he met a man from Tse Bonito, New Mexico, who persuaded King to begin volunteering for Christian broadcast station KHAC 880 AM.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nEventually King wanted to work in radio closer to home, so he began volunteering at 107.3 FM KCZY when it first launched as a community and educational broadcasting station in 2016.\r\n

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Navajo Sports Broadcast history<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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Jeopardy! Navajo Sports Broadcasting History<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n

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From airwaves to in person<\/div>\r\nFriends on the airwaves, the partnership between Frank and King began from afar in 2007 when King would help Frank correct his terminology and connect his audio to the radio station from games at NMSU remotely. However, it wasn\u2019t until 2018 that the Navajo Nation duo finally met in person.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nUnable to put a name to a face, when the dynamic duo began working together at KCZY neither initially recognized each other as they had only heard each other\u2019s voices.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\u201cWe were putting on a show together because King said, \u2018Hey let\u2019s go make a show and produce it.\u2019 So, we make a radio show together and we both thought, \u2018Hey we\u2019re a very novel show,\u2019\u201d Frank said. \u201cWe had been working together for six months and we never knew. I had never seen his face, only heard his voice. It didn\u2019t dawn on me, but he remembered me and I\u2019m grateful we are together.\u201d\r\n

<\/P>\r\nThey are still producing the same radio show they started all those years ago and while they still focus on football, the two are working on new ideas for the radio station and their students in an effort to help preserve their Native language.\r\n

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Decline of language<\/div>\r\nLike many other indigenous tribes, the Navajo have their own language \u2013 Din\u00e9 Bizaad. In 2021 the Navajo language was designated as \u201cvulnerable\u201d by UNESCO even though over 170,000 people still speak it.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nDr. Audra J. Platero, principal of the Ts\u00e9hootsoo\u00ed Din\u00e9 Bi\u2019\u00d3lta\u2019 immersion school in Window Rock, offered two explanations for the rapid decline of the language, according to a May 2021 article from CGTN, an international media organization.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nPlatero notes that during the forced boarding school era of the 1860\u2019s to 1978, many Navajos were forbidden to speak in their foreign language, resulting in generational trauma passed down from the Navajos who were children during this era. As they became parents, the experiences during the boarding school era often affected their ability to teach their own children Din\u00e9.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nA secondary factor hitting closer to home is Arizona Proposition 203, also known as English for the Children, a ballot initiative that was passed by voters on November 7, 2000. The proposition which made Arizona an \u201cEnglish-only state law\u201d requires all public school students who are \u201cEnglish learners\u201d to be taught in English immersion classes, further creating a divide in the preservation of their Native language.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nA survey conducted in 2017 by \u201cEthnologue: Languages of the World\u201d suggests there are over 171,000 fluent Navajo speakers worldwide, with 7,600 being only Navajo speakers. During this time AnCita Benally, the program manager for the Office of Standards, Curriculum and Assessment Development, a subsection of the Department of Din\u00e8 Education, predicted that in 2021, the census will show the decline of the Navajo language by as much as 30%.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n \"Glenn<\/a>

Glenn King spent 16 years with the Marines before entering the radio world and later volunteering for 107.3 KCZY. Photo courtesy of Navajo Technical University <\/figcaption>\r\n

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Preservation of language<\/div>\r\nIn conjunction with their ideas and lived experiences together, Frank and King are putting together an innovative way to help preserve Din\u00e9 through sport.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nWith no real translation between English terminology in sport and Navajo, the two have begun to assemble a translation glossary to guide Navajo listeners as well as pique the interest of those who may want to learn. To King, it\u2019s a practice that is reminiscent of the Navajo Code Talkers, the famed U.S. service members who used their knowledge of Native American languages to transmit secret Allied messages in World War II.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\u201cWhen we were broadcasting the football game, some of those terms that are used, like touchdown and even the positions where the players are, we had to come up with certain terminology for each thing like that because there\u2019s no Navajo translation,\u201d King said.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\u201cIt reminded me of the Navajo Code Talkers during World War II. They used code and made up code and I think about those kinds of things. That\u2019s what we are seeing and what we are doing.\u201d\r\n

<\/P>\r\nThrough collaboration with a Navajo translator at the technical college, the duo hope to make the glossary accessible digitally on their Facebook page and radio station website, with a larger plan to distribute the glossary across the reservation for their avid KCZY listeners and sports fanatics.\r\n

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