WEBVTT

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 Okay, my name is Peterson's, I don't have a middle name and I was born in

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Kings Canyon Arizona on the Navajo
nation and Kings Canyon is within the

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Hopi reservation. And there was an
Indian health service hospital that was

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shared between the two tribes. And we
live something like eight miles

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north of Kings Canyon. And uh, my
father had uh about an 8th grade

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education and he was one of these
individual that south education that

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wanted to learn the white man's land
in which white man's culture the way

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uh, the non indian people do business.
And so that was his desire. And

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because uh, those kinds of uh desires,
he uh, was able to enroll and get

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some education. My mother on the other
hand, never went to school uh, to

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this day. She doesn't know how to
speak english And between the two, they

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were very, very good partners in terms
of raising Children because one was

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a very traditional person and the
other one had some education and they

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mix the two very well. And the end
results was that the eight Children

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that they have and I'm the first one
that their eight Children that they

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had, they really, really instill into
them. The values of neighborhood

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tradition, the values of keeping your
tradition and then uh, the value of

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continuing to talk Navajo and to
really live the tradition and that was

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their teaching. And it was one of
those things where as a kid, you wonder

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, you wonder about certain things
there teamwork and to ensure that we

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enjoyed life and everything that we
needed was provided. And so we stayed

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there and we didn't even know, we
didn't even know that we were under Hopi

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reservation because there were all
these meetings and negotiations that

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was taking place right about at the
time between the Hopi Navajo nation

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and the federal government. And when
they did the hoping exclusive Hopi

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reservation and the partition uh the
land they put a fence around the

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original Hopi reservation. We ended up
on the inside and so we were given

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notice and we're told that we have to
move out of there. And uh so her

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family had to pick up pieces and move
outside of the Hopi reservation

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towards low mountain and just
immediately after that hope your reservation

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line. We were able to gather our
things and start shopping some trees to

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make our make our home there. And uh
so I remember I was a young man but I

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was expected to perform a lot, a lot
of responsibilities. Uh I had the

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shoulder because all of my younger
brothers and sisters, they were too

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small. They were too young to really
help out the family. So I had to help

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in the process of moving this medal in
the Hogan this medal in the corral

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herding the sheep over to a new place
where we were beginning our our new

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life our new home. And so that
happened right about happened right about

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that time. Nothing the war had broken
out and and my dad was called on to

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go into the services. Ultimately he
became a train Neverhood Nation code

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talker. But he never used the skills
that he learned in combat. The war

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was over before he was able to use
that. And so anyway, I

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was ready for school late and the
reason for that was there were only a

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few schools on the Navajo nation at
the time and there were mainly

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elementary school because they had
what they call outside the reservation

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boarding school for uh, ah, Children
who were in the 9th grade on up or

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8th grade on up. And these were just
small, small community schools. And

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at King's Canyons, it's been one of
the very few schools, it was always

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occupied with school kids and there
were hardly in your room for

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everyone's Children to enroll there.
Yeah, the school was too small for,

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for the community. So I ended up being
left out. And then that's why I

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didn't go to Kings Canyon boarding
school. And the other thing is that

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between my mother and my father, One
happened in education, the other one

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didn't. And then with my grandma and
my grandpa living always with her

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family in the same community. Uh,
there were a lot of discussions about my

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future and the future of other
Children. Uh, they really weren't so sure

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if it was the appropriate thing to do
to get an education because some

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members of my family wanted to have me
become a medicine man. And I guess

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the reason why they thought that is
that I showed at a young age, some

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interest, uh, in what the elderly
people, particularly the medicine people

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had to say. And uh, and I exhibit that
by going and joining them at a

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sweat bath or at a local ceremony when
the medicine man would come in and

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they would do their uh, sir ceremonies
and they would bring their

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paraphernalia as I was interested in
that. And then I was interested in

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their prayers and their songs. And my
grandfather, I remember and my

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grandmother kept on saying that I was
very interested in, uh, in scene and

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listening and looking and talking with
some elderly folks, I guess for me

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, it was really gaining knowledge, uh,
learning from the elderly and what

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they had to say because whatever they
said or saying or the prayers that

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they use. Uh, my, my curiosity was
motivated and they looked at that as a

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kid being interested in all of that.
And so, and that was one spectrum,

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the family debating whether I should
go or not. On the other hand, I think

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this is led by my dad, he kept on
saying that I need to get an education

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that I need to learn how to speak the
white man's land witch. And I need

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to learn more about the way they do
things, their lifestyle and some of

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the things that, that they live by
that I needed to learn that not

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necessarily to become one of them, but
to be educated and to become aware

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of all the other things that white men
was able to bring to the Navajo or

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to the Navajo reservation, for example
cars, the language and the writing

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skills that they have. And he thought
that I should learn all of that and

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if I can do both, uh, that will make
me a better person. And so a

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tremendous pressure was laid right on
my shoulder where I had to make a

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personal decision in terms of what I
wanted to do. My aunt, my aunt Julia

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had several boys, big catholic boys,
my cousins, first cousins. one day

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they came to our hookah and they said
that they decided to all go to

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school at the fire far away places
called tuba city and that we had to

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drive all day uh, to get there because
there were no highways. There was

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all dirt road and we had to go through
the Hopi Nation and that we would

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be going through many of the Hopi
villages. And so one day they said that

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you need to get ready will come on
this day and we'll take you. And my

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question was, what do I need to take?
They say that the only thing you

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need to do is just get some clothes
that you own and that you should just

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jump into a pick up truck with us and
we'll go, uh,

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but I didn't have any clothes, the
only clothes that I owned was what was

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on my back and then they said that,
well, we'll give you some clothes,

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you're still a small boy and you're
bigger cousin has outgrown some of his

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clothes and so we'll give those to
you. And uh, and so I was all excited

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and I think by that time I had, I had
made my decision that yes, that's

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what I'll do. I'll go to school and it
was a big decision. It was, it was

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sad because, yeah, I had some, by that
time, maybe one or two more small

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uh, brothers and sisters and it was
one of those days where, uh, you know

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, you, on one hand, you're happy that
you're jumping in with your cousins

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to go to school. On the other hand,
you're leaving your mother and father

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behind at such a young age. I was
about nine years old. Now it's probably

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a little older in the, in the dominant
society for somebody to enroll at

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that age, but there just weren't any
schools on the neighborhood nation.

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There was just no place nearby where
we could go. And because of that, I

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went to the city Some 7 70-80 miles
away and I remember we had to stop

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twice to eat and, and to find some
gas, there were maybe only one or two

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gas stations and we ended up tuba city
boarding school. And when we got

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there, Uh huh I thought it was strange
to see all of these big, huge

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building made out of beautiful
sandstone. And that kind of caught my eyes

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and my curiosity because There were so
many rooms and it had two or 3

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floors and they said that this is
going to be your a place to live there.

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And they had two dormitories, one for
what they called the big boys

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dormitory, and one for the small boys
dormitory. They took me to the boy's

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small boys dormitory. And I remember
when I signed in, they gave us a

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small bag and they said this is going
to be your back and all the things

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that you need is in here. And then
when you put them in the appropriate

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place by your bed any time you have
dirty clothes, you also put him in

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here. And the helpers at the dormitory
well washed, we'll wash them for

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you for you for the first few times.
But then after that you're expected

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to wash your own clothes. And so in
the back was uh tooth powder,

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toothpaste soap, Mhm. A wash wash
towel. The bigger towels. And I thought

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that one of the strange thing was to
give you two real nice white sheets

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for your bed. and they said that one
is for uh to cover your bed and the

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other one is to cover you and you had
to sleep in between and they were

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cold. And then they also gave us some
some extra blankets and they gave me

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a bit And then they say that there's
going to be about 35-40 other

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students in here. And this is going to
have your name on it. And when I

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enrolled there I didn't have any
underwear t shirt and I just had the two

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pairs of pants and and maybe uh two
shirts and maybe a jacket to keep me

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warm. There was about it, my my shoes
was Maybe one that was oversized,

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it was maybe either too small or too
big for me and I didn't have socks.

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And so that was the things that that I
carry, the only things that I carry.

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And so there wasn't much to taking
care of all the clothes that you have

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because I just simply put it
underneath my bed and that's where my clean

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clothes was and I didn't have to worry
about all that. The other are

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things that other kids may take. And
so I had less worries. And that was

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tuba City dormitory. And I remember
when I enrolled there, the boys

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advisor and the matron

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our mother that was that the dormitory
was very helpful and give us those

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instructions. Uh huh. And then the
cafeteria was in between the boys

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dormitory and I mean the large boys
dormitory in the small boys dormitory.

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And when I first went to eat at the
cafeteria, there was variety of food

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that you could have. There was some,
there was some meat, there was a lot

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of vegetables, corn, watermelon,
squash,

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ah spinach beans, tomatoes. I could
identify some of those because we

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tried to raise some of those back home
things like potatoes and beans and

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but I didn't know how the others were
raised. I was, I kept wondering

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where they got it, where the school
got them and where do they come from

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and how they're raised and grown. And
so that was kind of like my

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curiosity. And several months after
enrolling

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they had a program there at the
boarding school, the tuber city where if

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you're interested in agriculture,

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you were taken to what they call the
pasture canyon and there was owned by

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the school by the federal government
and that's where they raise all these

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vegetables and saturday and sunday if
you wanted to be involved in that,

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you signed up and you tell your the
head of the boys dormitory advisors

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that that's what you want to do. And
so I signed up and I end up going to

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the pasture canyon many many weekends
and that was to learn how to plant

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food and vegetables. There was in
learning how to take care of horses that

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they used to plow. And I remember when
we went down to pasture Canyon

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which was about maybe seven or eight
miles maybe, even jan miles down the

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road and we went in a wagon, they
loaded us in the wagon, nice beautiful

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horses, one of these midsize draft
horses. And so when we went down there

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we had to learn how to use a plow, we
had to learn how to use the whole

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and rick and shovel and there was
plenty of water down there to irrigate

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the farm. And I remember we had to
pick tomatoes and we have to take

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potatoes out of the ground and we haul
all of these over to the, to the

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schools cafeteria and then the kitchen
workers, they're prepared them for

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food. And so it was a self contained
boarding school where you had to

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learn all of that. And mm for me that
was good because it meant extra

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activities that meant that a lot of
learning process and procedures that,

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that took place. Now some other boys
didn't like that because they looked

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at it as work as as a work and they
didn't want to do that. I for some

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reason I love doing it because I was
interested in how those things were

00:18:17.309 --> 00:18:23.086
raised were raised to begin with and
that's the only reason why I I went

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out so I wanted to learn how to take
care of horses because back home,

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that's what I did. And so that that
was bored in school. And uh and I, we

00:18:35.240 --> 00:18:40.417
stayed away from our parents. Our
parents never came to visit us During

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that nine months period. And I
remember even at some points I got so

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lonely, I got so lonely for, for my
parents that you sit under a tree and

00:18:53.339 --> 00:19:00.496
privately you cry. But at the same
time you don't want to have other boys

00:19:00.529 --> 00:19:06.897
see you cry because that was looked
upon as not being manly and perhaps

00:19:06.930 --> 00:19:11.056
still being a little boy. And so
basically that, that's what, that's what

00:19:11.089 --> 00:19:15.286
was happening in my own head. As I was
born, I was, I was going to

00:19:15.319 --> 00:19:20.467
boarding school And uh, so we never
got back in contact with her with our

00:19:20.500 --> 00:19:28.500
, with our parents. My father had,

00:19:29.039 --> 00:19:35.756
my father had obligations with the
United States Marine Corps and he was

00:19:35.789 --> 00:19:42.457
in and out of services at the time.
And so the month of May came and we

00:19:42.490 --> 00:19:48.877
were told that we're all are going to
take you home. And and I remember

00:19:48.910 --> 00:19:54.457
getting in the back of the truck and
uh, we were driven all the way back

00:19:54.490 --> 00:19:59.496
to Kings Canyon and when we got to
Kings Canyon, the call out your name

00:19:59.529 --> 00:20:06.907
who gets off at Kings Canyon trading
post. And I remember

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I was one of the people whose name was
called. And I got off the bus and I

00:20:11.450 --> 00:20:16.746
got my little, my little bag. I didn't
have a suitcase or luggage or

00:20:16.779 --> 00:20:20.877
anything like that. It was just a
paper sack with all my belongings. And I

00:20:20.910 --> 00:20:24.316
went over to the trading post and my
mother was sitting over on the north

00:20:24.349 --> 00:20:30.447
side underneath the tree. And when I
went to her, I remember she, she

00:20:30.480 --> 00:20:36.306
broke down crying and that was
wondering how come she was? She was crying.

00:20:36.339 --> 00:20:42.847
She says, I'm just happy, happy for
you that you have grown, you're a big

00:20:42.880 --> 00:20:49.516
boy now and you look a little
different. And so it was, it was a happy cry

00:20:49.549 --> 00:20:56.576
on her part. And so she says that we
have a wagon here, we want you to

00:20:56.609 --> 00:21:04.609
drive back. And she was with my
grandfather and one of her other sipowicz.

00:21:07.039 --> 00:21:13.397
And so we drove back to where we are,
where we were living some 12, 15 mi

00:21:13.430 --> 00:21:20.707
to low mountain. And so that was my
first year in school and there was

00:21:20.740 --> 00:21:27.286
very intriguing. It was a lot of
learning for the first year and then the

00:21:27.319 --> 00:21:32.546
next year I went to what they call big
boys dormitory when I enrolled

00:21:32.579 --> 00:21:36.617
again with my cousins. And I remember
when I went to that second dormitory

00:21:36.650 --> 00:21:42.006
, uh tuba City.

00:21:42.039 --> 00:21:47.197
The thing that really caught my
memory. I shouldn't say memory. The thing

00:21:47.230 --> 00:21:54.546
that really caught my eye was there
was a man by the name of Byron Synergy

00:21:54.579 --> 00:22:02.579
any and he was a tall Navajo person,
nice looking And he had 2, 3 little

00:22:03.920 --> 00:22:11.357
boys and he was just such a wonderful,
wonderful man and educator

00:22:11.390 --> 00:22:19.177
and Byron. Signage in the was the one
that taught me a lot of things about

00:22:19.210 --> 00:22:27.210
life and about school and about what
to be and what not to be. And he was

00:22:29.339 --> 00:22:34.996
very, very concerned with every kid
there was going to school there and

00:22:35.029 --> 00:22:41.937
always talk to them in Navajo. And so
that was Barnes in Virginia now in

00:22:41.970 --> 00:22:49.447
school, at the boarding school there
in, in, in timber city, the teachers

00:22:49.480 --> 00:22:55.127
and the boys advisor, they all drill
into our heads that we need to use

00:22:55.160 --> 00:22:58.667
the english land, which as much as
possible because you're here to learn

00:22:58.700 --> 00:23:03.417
english, you're here to learn the
white man's ways. And the issue used the

00:23:03.450 --> 00:23:06.707
, the

00:23:06.740 --> 00:23:13.097
never heard language as little as
possible because you should only use it

00:23:13.130 --> 00:23:19.707
when you have to communicate so that
you understand things a lot better.

00:23:19.740 --> 00:23:24.907
And so they really frown on us
speaking

00:23:24.940 --> 00:23:27.707
the neighborhood language.

00:23:27.740 --> 00:23:35.367
It was also a giant experience for me
too be grown up with the little boys

00:23:35.400 --> 00:23:40.046
and that's when I got involved in
interest in athletics. We had a baseball

00:23:40.079 --> 00:23:48.079
team, we had a basketball team, we had
try to have a football team and uh

00:23:48.589 --> 00:23:54.437
, so it was a lot of physical
activities that took place at the same time

00:23:54.470 --> 00:24:01.086
going to a classroom every day and I
got to learn how to get along with

00:24:01.119 --> 00:24:06.907
all the other other kids and when I
was going to school there, my cousins

00:24:06.940 --> 00:24:12.536
when they grew their clothes, they
would always give them to me. And so

00:24:12.569 --> 00:24:20.569
that's, that's a how I was able to
generate enough clothing so that I

00:24:23.369 --> 00:24:29.506
could remain in school. It was one of
those things where my cousins were

00:24:29.539 --> 00:24:34.506
so kind in letting me

00:24:34.539 --> 00:24:38.887
have their clothes, the ones that
don't fit him anymore Because there was

00:24:38.920 --> 00:24:44.496
2, 2 boys that were bigger than me.
And so because my mother and father,

00:24:44.529 --> 00:24:48.207
they couldn't, they couldn't buy
clothes,

00:24:48.240 --> 00:24:53.127
they just didn't, they just didn't
have the money. And uh and so you had

00:24:53.160 --> 00:24:58.506
to learn how to shift for yourself at
an early age in terms of how you can

00:24:58.539 --> 00:25:04.867
get some of these things for for
yourself. And so from there I went and

00:25:04.900 --> 00:25:11.377
and I enrolled in Tuba City Boarding
School in 1947 in 1949. two years

00:25:11.410 --> 00:25:17.707
later I was out of there and I went to
Flagstaff Public school called

00:25:17.740 --> 00:25:20.907
South Beaver

00:25:20.940 --> 00:25:27.107
because my father got a job at Belmont

00:25:27.140 --> 00:25:33.937
west of Flagstaff. And that was during
the korean war and a lot of the

00:25:33.970 --> 00:25:40.726
Navajo people were call to services to
help United States and the armed

00:25:40.759 --> 00:25:48.759
forces to load a lot of those bombs
ammunition and put them on trains and

00:25:48.839 --> 00:25:55.627
they were sending those across the sea
for our armed forces to use in the

00:25:55.660 --> 00:26:00.197
in the war. And so he he worked there
for several years and I went to Soft

00:26:00.230 --> 00:26:08.230
Beaver Elementary and and then from
there, yeah, I was persuaded by the

00:26:09.650 --> 00:26:15.546
principal and by the people who were
working in education and again by my

00:26:15.579 --> 00:26:21.586
cousins, the same group that I went
with two tuba city boarding school and

00:26:21.619 --> 00:26:27.276
they were on their way to phoenix into
the school and they said you should

00:26:27.309 --> 00:26:34.607
come alone again. And we're all signed
up to go to phoenix,

00:26:34.640 --> 00:26:42.640
uh uh we are are going to go on this
state and you you should, you should

00:26:43.099 --> 00:26:49.076
come this time, we're not going to
take the pickup truck, we're gonna meet

00:26:49.109 --> 00:26:55.377
a bus. That's going to take all of
these boys at Chin lee Arizona and

00:26:55.410 --> 00:27:03.410
these are the dates and you should
come. And so I signed up to go to

00:27:04.740 --> 00:27:12.740
phoenix indian school and again, we
were always poor and when I went to

00:27:14.740 --> 00:27:21.236
Chin lee to get on the bus along with
other students, they were going to

00:27:21.269 --> 00:27:26.736
phoenix indian school, I didn't have a
luggage, nice luggage. So I use

00:27:26.769 --> 00:27:34.407
gunny sack to carry all my clothes and
in some cases

00:27:34.440 --> 00:27:39.707
flour sack to carry my clothes in. And
I saw where all the boys have these

00:27:39.740 --> 00:27:46.556
nice luggage and suitcase and they
used to laugh about how I was carrying

00:27:46.589 --> 00:27:54.589
my clothes. And so that was probably
my biggest moment was to get in on

00:27:54.769 --> 00:28:02.769
that bus and being driven along with
maybe 40 30 students in two busses to

00:28:02.980 --> 00:28:10.006
come all the way across the Navajo
nation into Holbrook Winslow Flagstaff

00:28:10.039 --> 00:28:18.039
and and then coming into phoenix and
seeing these palm trees and all the

00:28:20.319 --> 00:28:27.816
cities, the big tall building that
there was really something to see. And

00:28:27.849 --> 00:28:32.486
I ended up at phoenix indian school
and when I got the phoenix indian

00:28:32.519 --> 00:28:35.177
school, I was

00:28:35.210 --> 00:28:42.187
enroll in what they call Neverhood
special program and that was a five

00:28:42.220 --> 00:28:48.957
year program. It was not a regular
high school, it was a special program

00:28:48.990 --> 00:28:54.086
that was initiated by the federal
government for those students that we're

00:28:54.119 --> 00:29:02.119
late enrolling. We were too big to, to
start off, let's say at great 23 or

00:29:02.890 --> 00:29:09.147
four, we were too big for that. And so
they, they started this naval

00:29:09.180 --> 00:29:13.937
special program and you could only go
to school for five years and then

00:29:13.970 --> 00:29:18.306
you got a certificate at the end of
that five year period. And the

00:29:18.339 --> 00:29:25.847
challenge when I enrolled at the
phoenix indian school was for the people

00:29:25.880 --> 00:29:30.066
who were responsible for running the
program. To say this is a special

00:29:30.099 --> 00:29:34.967
program. You could stay within the
system and get your certificate in five

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.306
years or you can accelerate,

00:29:39.339 --> 00:29:44.367
you're learning experience. You can
tried to pick up two grades in one

00:29:44.400 --> 00:29:49.746
year and if we think that you're
capable of doing that will just go at

00:29:49.779 --> 00:29:57.779
your own speed and a drag across right
across from the indian school where

00:29:58.720 --> 00:30:02.826
we were staying, they said that that's
uh, there's a regular high school,

00:30:02.859 --> 00:30:09.447
you could, you could graduate from
here and then go there or you could do

00:30:09.480 --> 00:30:14.467
so well academically that we'll just
put you in a regular high school

00:30:14.500 --> 00:30:20.897
program. And one of the things that I
saw there as I was being brought

00:30:20.930 --> 00:30:26.296
into the special program for Navajo
was the high school had athletic teams

00:30:26.329 --> 00:30:28.407
,

00:30:28.440 --> 00:30:36.266
they had football, they had cross
country track, they had baseball team,

00:30:36.299 --> 00:30:43.036
they had basketball team. And uh and
we went to their games and I was, I

00:30:43.069 --> 00:30:51.069
really became interested and I wanted
to play. But the

00:30:51.119 --> 00:30:55.836
the school said that you can't really,
you can't really do that while

00:30:55.869 --> 00:30:58.806
you're on the special program

00:30:58.839 --> 00:31:04.207
because we really don't know

00:31:04.240 --> 00:31:10.246
how that would interfere with your,
with your classwork. And the only way

00:31:10.279 --> 00:31:17.387
is if you transfer over to, mm hmm. To
the high school system. So then I

00:31:17.420 --> 00:31:22.236
asked my teacher what it would take to
do that. And she gave me some goals

00:31:22.269 --> 00:31:25.907
to follow and some

00:31:25.940 --> 00:31:31.556
assignments that I should be doing.
And so I did very well. I did very

00:31:31.589 --> 00:31:35.826
well for that one year in the second
year they put me into high school. So

00:31:35.859 --> 00:31:43.177
I started out as 1/9 grade student.
And uh, and I think even at the 9th

00:31:43.210 --> 00:31:49.607
grade, I spent a year then the They
put me in the, in the 10th grade,

00:31:49.640 --> 00:31:54.197
going to my second year. And so when I
got to the 10th grade, I was

00:31:54.230 --> 00:32:02.230
eligible for all of the other school
activities. And I became uh

00:32:02.539 --> 00:32:08.836
a team or joined at the team in
basketball, football and track my first

00:32:08.869 --> 00:32:15.246
year there As a 10th grader. And then
they had a school election in my

00:32:15.279 --> 00:32:23.279
10th grade, my sophomore year for the
incoming income in. Mhm

00:32:24.539 --> 00:32:31.667
students. And the following the year
junior year Uh two for what they call

00:32:31.700 --> 00:32:38.107
student council. And I was elected, I
was elected

00:32:38.140 --> 00:32:44.887
as a treasure for the student council
just the year that I joined the high

00:32:44.920 --> 00:32:50.306
school. And so that that's what
happened, that's how I got interested in

00:32:50.339 --> 00:32:53.006
class

00:32:53.039 --> 00:32:59.056
government, school government. And we
begin talking about a lot of human

00:32:59.089 --> 00:33:06.407
issues, school issues. And at the same
time I was participated in sports.

00:33:06.440 --> 00:33:14.440
And and I looked at that as something
that occupies my time. And because

00:33:14.559 --> 00:33:21.637
going to a boarding school is hard,
it's hard because you're isolated, you

00:33:21.670 --> 00:33:26.107
live in a dormitory, you live in the
compound, you don't really have

00:33:26.140 --> 00:33:34.076
access to the outside world and and
participated in sport and in all that

00:33:34.109 --> 00:33:40.276
these school activities just keeps you
occupied and doesn't allow you to

00:33:40.309 --> 00:33:48.309
go crazy. And so that's what I did and
that it was kind of like my way out

00:33:48.839 --> 00:33:56.506
with the boarding school system. They
didn't have the best academic

00:33:56.539 --> 00:34:02.207
situation there. Yeah, they

00:34:02.240 --> 00:34:08.387
the school really taught a lot of
vocational education and they looked at

00:34:08.420 --> 00:34:15.006
their job as educating. The indian
students haven't then become painters,

00:34:15.039 --> 00:34:22.146
electricians, carpentry and sheet
metal work. And then after you graduate

00:34:22.179 --> 00:34:29.006
them put them out on the job, it
wasn't really geared towards uh college

00:34:29.039 --> 00:34:35.477
because there's only few students that
went on to community college for

00:34:35.510 --> 00:34:41.626
example. And so, but that was not the
emphasis. And And when I was

00:34:41.659 --> 00:34:47.106
graduating in 1958,

00:34:47.139 --> 00:34:51.947
it was really, really scary. Thinking
about, I've been in a boarding

00:34:51.980 --> 00:34:58.407
school system all these years where I
got fet, got my food, I got my bed,

00:34:58.440 --> 00:35:03.287
I could stay there and I could go to
school and I never really, really had

00:35:03.320 --> 00:35:11.320
to worry about me myself, how I can
function in the outside world. And so

00:35:12.539 --> 00:35:20.307
approaching graduation during my
senior year, knowing that in May, they're

00:35:20.340 --> 00:35:24.436
gonna kick us out of this campus and
you had to learn how to shift for

00:35:24.469 --> 00:35:28.677
yourself. That was really scary, scary
feeling. So, I decided that what I

00:35:28.710 --> 00:35:33.307
should do is is go to college

00:35:33.340 --> 00:35:40.126
and uh to enroll at a college, you
have to have recommendation from

00:35:40.159 --> 00:35:48.057
teachers and none of the teachers that
I had would recommend me as an

00:35:48.090 --> 00:35:54.767
academic student that's capable of
going to college. Mhm. I remember one

00:35:54.800 --> 00:36:02.800
teacher telling me that I don't want
to embarrass the school and myself

00:36:04.329 --> 00:36:10.376
by recommending that your a college
material, that you should go down to

00:36:10.409 --> 00:36:16.367
college because you're just not,
you're a carpenter, you're a mason,

00:36:16.400 --> 00:36:22.686
you're a painter. And that's as far as
you probably would go and you

00:36:22.719 --> 00:36:29.256
should remain there, don't agonize
about the idea of improving your your

00:36:29.289 --> 00:36:33.206
stature by thinking that you're going
to make it in college. And so don't

00:36:33.239 --> 00:36:41.239
bother me. And so that kind of angered
me. That was mad. Yeah. And I

00:36:41.239 --> 00:36:47.316
thought to myself, well, that teacher
doesn't know me that well and the

00:36:47.349 --> 00:36:53.637
only person that probably knows me
well on that campus was the coach and I

00:36:53.670 --> 00:37:01.670
remember it was coach joe family let
and he was a basketball and the

00:37:02.380 --> 00:37:09.106
football coach. And so I went to the
coach and I explained to him what I

00:37:09.139 --> 00:37:15.327
had in mind that I had some thoughts
about going on to a community college

00:37:15.360 --> 00:37:20.267
, but I was having a tough time trying
to get recommendations from

00:37:20.300 --> 00:37:26.947
teachers and the coach says that,
well, you could either listen to that or

00:37:26.980 --> 00:37:34.097
you could challenge all of that and
enroll and he says,

00:37:34.130 --> 00:37:40.117
let me see if I can figure out
something and talk to some people and where

00:37:40.150 --> 00:37:45.577
you can enroll at one of the community
colleges here in the state of

00:37:45.610 --> 00:37:51.327
Arizona. So one day he called me and
he says that there's a a place for

00:37:51.360 --> 00:37:53.896
you at

00:37:53.929 --> 00:38:01.929
Arizona Western college in, it wasn't
in humor, it was on the road to to

00:38:02.300 --> 00:38:08.247
Los Angeles. What do they call that
place? There's Arizona Western college

00:38:08.280 --> 00:38:16.280
out there, poverty, that's the blind
area. Right, black area. Yeah, it was

00:38:17.000 --> 00:38:21.566
that, that institution. He says that
you could play basketball there. I

00:38:21.599 --> 00:38:26.427
talked to the coach and you could play
basketball there. So I think I went

00:38:26.460 --> 00:38:30.736
out there, we drove around, I visit
the place and then the next thing he

00:38:30.769 --> 00:38:35.427
says or you could come and go to
phoenix college and which is just down

00:38:35.460 --> 00:38:39.646
the street and you could walk that we
don't need a transportation, you

00:38:39.679 --> 00:38:46.097
could walk there. And so the coach was
really responsible for getting me

00:38:46.130 --> 00:38:53.267
started at phoenix college and and
when I went there meant that basketball

00:38:53.300 --> 00:39:01.300
coach and, and he put me on the team
and for that I got a tuition waiver

00:39:03.500 --> 00:39:11.500
and I was able to eat and buy books
and all of that as long as I was on

00:39:11.619 --> 00:39:17.787
the team. And so that was really nice
of The two coaches to work those out.

00:39:17.820 --> 00:39:24.197
And so I graduated from Phoenix
College in 1958 with an a a degree. Then

00:39:24.230 --> 00:39:28.927
I went to Arizona State University,
the huge Arizona state University I

00:39:28.960 --> 00:39:36.486
thought at the time and, and I went to
school here for

00:39:36.519 --> 00:39:44.519
three years And I graduated in 1963
with a degree in elementary education

00:39:47.820 --> 00:39:55.820
and I got my green, then I went back
to wind er up and I got a job at

00:39:56.739 --> 00:40:01.867
Window Rock High School, working for
the state. And uh, just just as a

00:40:01.900 --> 00:40:06.896
young, a young man and always like
working with a young people, uh, the

00:40:06.929 --> 00:40:10.876
students there and then

00:40:10.909 --> 00:40:18.909
just like anything else, I got a
little disgruntled because I thought that

00:40:20.309 --> 00:40:24.836
by doing what I was doing, I was
confined to a classroom that I was

00:40:24.869 --> 00:40:30.376
interested in what was on the outside,
looking at the window, looking out

00:40:30.409 --> 00:40:36.026
and I wanted to do more that I was
capable and able to do more than just

00:40:36.059 --> 00:40:43.137
sitting in the classroom being with
that being with students. And so one

00:40:43.170 --> 00:40:49.956
day I was talking with some Navajo
people that were working for the tribal

00:40:49.989 --> 00:40:54.586
government. They say they have a
position open here at design and

00:40:54.619 --> 00:41:02.367
construction. They're looking for
estimators and you could become an

00:41:02.400 --> 00:41:08.267
estimated where they will give you a
blueprint. Can I help blueprint of a

00:41:08.300 --> 00:41:14.986
building? And then from looking at the
blueprints you could figure out how

00:41:15.019 --> 00:41:21.756
much the building is going to cost and
then what kind of materials people

00:41:21.789 --> 00:41:27.106
have to buy, Construction company have
to buy and how much money it will

00:41:27.139 --> 00:41:33.117
take to build that. So you have to
figure out the labor cost as well as

00:41:33.150 --> 00:41:40.227
the material costs. And so basically
that that was the position that they

00:41:40.260 --> 00:41:48.260
were advertising and so I applied and
uh I applied and I got hired.

00:41:50.409 --> 00:41:58.409
You want to take a break your voices
water? Let's see. So

00:41:59.010 --> 00:42:02.077
uh huh

00:42:02.110 --> 00:42:04.110
Thankyou