Okay, my name is Peterson's, I don't have a middle name and I was born in
Kings Canyon Arizona on the Navajo nation and Kings Canyon is within the
Hopi reservation. And there was an Indian health service hospital that was
shared between the two tribes. And we live something like eight miles
north of Kings Canyon. And uh, my father had uh about an 8th grade
education and he was one of these individual that south education that
wanted to learn the white man's land in which white man's culture the way
uh, the non indian people do business. And so that was his desire. And
because uh, those kinds of uh desires, he uh, was able to enroll and get
some education. My mother on the other hand, never went to school uh, to
this day. She doesn't know how to speak english And between the two, they
were very, very good partners in terms of raising Children because one was
a very traditional person and the other one had some education and they
mix the two very well. And the end results was that the eight Children
that they have and I'm the first one that their eight Children that they
had, they really, really instill into them. The values of neighborhood
tradition, the values of keeping your tradition and then uh, the value of
continuing to talk Navajo and to really live the tradition and that was
their teaching. And it was one of those things where as a kid, you wonder
, you wonder about certain things there teamwork and to ensure that we
enjoyed life and everything that we needed was provided. And so we stayed
there and we didn't even know, we didn't even know that we were under Hopi
reservation because there were all these meetings and negotiations that
was taking place right about at the time between the Hopi Navajo nation
and the federal government. And when they did the hoping exclusive Hopi
reservation and the partition uh the land they put a fence around the
original Hopi reservation. We ended up on the inside and so we were given
notice and we're told that we have to move out of there. And uh so her
family had to pick up pieces and move outside of the Hopi reservation
towards low mountain and just immediately after that hope your reservation
line. We were able to gather our things and start shopping some trees to
make our make our home there. And uh so I remember I was a young man but I
was expected to perform a lot, a lot of responsibilities. Uh I had the
shoulder because all of my younger brothers and sisters, they were too
small. They were too young to really help out the family. So I had to help
in the process of moving this medal in the Hogan this medal in the corral
herding the sheep over to a new place where we were beginning our our new
life our new home. And so that happened right about happened right about
that time. Nothing the war had broken out and and my dad was called on to
go into the services. Ultimately he became a train Neverhood Nation code
talker. But he never used the skills that he learned in combat. The war
was over before he was able to use that. And so anyway, I
was ready for school late and the reason for that was there were only a
few schools on the Navajo nation at the time and there were mainly
elementary school because they had what they call outside the reservation
boarding school for uh, ah, Children who were in the 9th grade on up or
8th grade on up. And these were just small, small community schools. And
at King's Canyons, it's been one of the very few schools, it was always
occupied with school kids and there were hardly in your room for
everyone's Children to enroll there. Yeah, the school was too small for,
for the community. So I ended up being left out. And then that's why I
didn't go to Kings Canyon boarding school. And the other thing is that
between my mother and my father, One happened in education, the other one
didn't. And then with my grandma and my grandpa living always with her
family in the same community. Uh, there were a lot of discussions about my
future and the future of other Children. Uh, they really weren't so sure
if it was the appropriate thing to do to get an education because some
members of my family wanted to have me become a medicine man. And I guess
the reason why they thought that is that I showed at a young age, some
interest, uh, in what the elderly people, particularly the medicine people
had to say. And uh, and I exhibit that by going and joining them at a
sweat bath or at a local ceremony when the medicine man would come in and
they would do their uh, sir ceremonies and they would bring their
paraphernalia as I was interested in that. And then I was interested in
their prayers and their songs. And my grandfather, I remember and my
grandmother kept on saying that I was very interested in, uh, in scene and
listening and looking and talking with some elderly folks, I guess for me
, it was really gaining knowledge, uh, learning from the elderly and what
they had to say because whatever they said or saying or the prayers that
they use. Uh, my, my curiosity was motivated and they looked at that as a
kid being interested in all of that. And so, and that was one spectrum,
the family debating whether I should go or not. On the other hand, I think
this is led by my dad, he kept on saying that I need to get an education
that I need to learn how to speak the white man's land witch. And I need
to learn more about the way they do things, their lifestyle and some of
the things that, that they live by that I needed to learn that not
necessarily to become one of them, but to be educated and to become aware
of all the other things that white men was able to bring to the Navajo or
to the Navajo reservation, for example cars, the language and the writing
skills that they have. And he thought that I should learn all of that and
if I can do both, uh, that will make me a better person. And so a
tremendous pressure was laid right on my shoulder where I had to make a
personal decision in terms of what I wanted to do. My aunt, my aunt Julia
had several boys, big catholic boys, my cousins, first cousins. one day
they came to our hookah and they said that they decided to all go to
school at the fire far away places called tuba city and that we had to
drive all day uh, to get there because there were no highways. There was
all dirt road and we had to go through the Hopi Nation and that we would
be going through many of the Hopi villages. And so one day they said that
you need to get ready will come on this day and we'll take you. And my
question was, what do I need to take? They say that the only thing you
need to do is just get some clothes that you own and that you should just
jump into a pick up truck with us and we'll go, uh,
but I didn't have any clothes, the only clothes that I owned was what was
on my back and then they said that, well, we'll give you some clothes,
you're still a small boy and you're bigger cousin has outgrown some of his
clothes and so we'll give those to you. And uh, and so I was all excited
and I think by that time I had, I had made my decision that yes, that's
what I'll do. I'll go to school and it was a big decision. It was, it was
sad because, yeah, I had some, by that time, maybe one or two more small
uh, brothers and sisters and it was one of those days where, uh, you know
, you, on one hand, you're happy that you're jumping in with your cousins
to go to school. On the other hand, you're leaving your mother and father
behind at such a young age. I was about nine years old. Now it's probably
a little older in the, in the dominant society for somebody to enroll at
that age, but there just weren't any schools on the neighborhood nation.
There was just no place nearby where we could go. And because of that, I
went to the city Some 7 70-80 miles away and I remember we had to stop
twice to eat and, and to find some gas, there were maybe only one or two
gas stations and we ended up tuba city boarding school. And when we got
there, Uh huh I thought it was strange to see all of these big, huge
building made out of beautiful sandstone. And that kind of caught my eyes
and my curiosity because There were so many rooms and it had two or 3
floors and they said that this is going to be your a place to live there.
And they had two dormitories, one for what they called the big boys
dormitory, and one for the small boys dormitory. They took me to the boy's
small boys dormitory. And I remember when I signed in, they gave us a
small bag and they said this is going to be your back and all the things
that you need is in here. And then when you put them in the appropriate
place by your bed any time you have dirty clothes, you also put him in
here. And the helpers at the dormitory well washed, we'll wash them for
you for you for the first few times. But then after that you're expected
to wash your own clothes. And so in the back was uh tooth powder,
toothpaste soap, Mhm. A wash wash towel. The bigger towels. And I thought
that one of the strange thing was to give you two real nice white sheets
for your bed. and they said that one is for uh to cover your bed and the
other one is to cover you and you had to sleep in between and they were
cold. And then they also gave us some some extra blankets and they gave me
a bit And then they say that there's going to be about 35-40 other
students in here. And this is going to have your name on it. And when I
enrolled there I didn't have any underwear t shirt and I just had the two
pairs of pants and and maybe uh two shirts and maybe a jacket to keep me
warm. There was about it, my my shoes was Maybe one that was oversized,
it was maybe either too small or too big for me and I didn't have socks.
And so that was the things that that I carry, the only things that I carry.
And so there wasn't much to taking care of all the clothes that you have
because I just simply put it underneath my bed and that's where my clean
clothes was and I didn't have to worry about all that. The other are
things that other kids may take. And so I had less worries. And that was
tuba City dormitory. And I remember when I enrolled there, the boys
advisor and the matron
our mother that was that the dormitory was very helpful and give us those
instructions. Uh huh. And then the cafeteria was in between the boys
dormitory and I mean the large boys dormitory in the small boys dormitory.
And when I first went to eat at the cafeteria, there was variety of food
that you could have. There was some, there was some meat, there was a lot
of vegetables, corn, watermelon, squash,
ah spinach beans, tomatoes. I could identify some of those because we
tried to raise some of those back home things like potatoes and beans and
but I didn't know how the others were raised. I was, I kept wondering
where they got it, where the school got them and where do they come from
and how they're raised and grown. And so that was kind of like my
curiosity. And several months after enrolling
they had a program there at the boarding school, the tuber city where if
you're interested in agriculture,
you were taken to what they call the pasture canyon and there was owned by
the school by the federal government and that's where they raise all these
vegetables and saturday and sunday if you wanted to be involved in that,
you signed up and you tell your the head of the boys dormitory advisors
that that's what you want to do. And so I signed up and I end up going to
the pasture canyon many many weekends and that was to learn how to plant
food and vegetables. There was in learning how to take care of horses that
they used to plow. And I remember when we went down to pasture Canyon
which was about maybe seven or eight miles maybe, even jan miles down the
road and we went in a wagon, they loaded us in the wagon, nice beautiful
horses, one of these midsize draft horses. And so when we went down there
we had to learn how to use a plow, we had to learn how to use the whole
and rick and shovel and there was plenty of water down there to irrigate
the farm. And I remember we had to pick tomatoes and we have to take
potatoes out of the ground and we haul all of these over to the, to the
schools cafeteria and then the kitchen workers, they're prepared them for
food. And so it was a self contained boarding school where you had to
learn all of that. And mm for me that was good because it meant extra
activities that meant that a lot of learning process and procedures that,
that took place. Now some other boys didn't like that because they looked
at it as work as as a work and they didn't want to do that. I for some
reason I love doing it because I was interested in how those things were
raised were raised to begin with and that's the only reason why I I went
out so I wanted to learn how to take care of horses because back home,
that's what I did. And so that that was bored in school. And uh and I, we
stayed away from our parents. Our parents never came to visit us During
that nine months period. And I remember even at some points I got so
lonely, I got so lonely for, for my parents that you sit under a tree and
privately you cry. But at the same time you don't want to have other boys
see you cry because that was looked upon as not being manly and perhaps
still being a little boy. And so basically that, that's what, that's what
was happening in my own head. As I was born, I was, I was going to
boarding school And uh, so we never got back in contact with her with our
, with our parents. My father had,
my father had obligations with the United States Marine Corps and he was
in and out of services at the time. And so the month of May came and we
were told that we're all are going to take you home. And and I remember
getting in the back of the truck and uh, we were driven all the way back
to Kings Canyon and when we got to Kings Canyon, the call out your name
who gets off at Kings Canyon trading post. And I remember
I was one of the people whose name was called. And I got off the bus and I
got my little, my little bag. I didn't have a suitcase or luggage or
anything like that. It was just a paper sack with all my belongings. And I
went over to the trading post and my mother was sitting over on the north
side underneath the tree. And when I went to her, I remember she, she
broke down crying and that was wondering how come she was? She was crying.
She says, I'm just happy, happy for you that you have grown, you're a big
boy now and you look a little different. And so it was, it was a happy cry
on her part. And so she says that we have a wagon here, we want you to
drive back. And she was with my grandfather and one of her other sipowicz.
And so we drove back to where we are, where we were living some 12, 15 mi
to low mountain. And so that was my first year in school and there was
very intriguing. It was a lot of learning for the first year and then the
next year I went to what they call big boys dormitory when I enrolled
again with my cousins. And I remember when I went to that second dormitory
, uh tuba City.
The thing that really caught my memory. I shouldn't say memory. The thing
that really caught my eye was there was a man by the name of Byron Synergy
any and he was a tall Navajo person, nice looking And he had 2, 3 little
boys and he was just such a wonderful, wonderful man and educator
and Byron. Signage in the was the one that taught me a lot of things about
life and about school and about what to be and what not to be. And he was
very, very concerned with every kid there was going to school there and
always talk to them in Navajo. And so that was Barnes in Virginia now in
school, at the boarding school there in, in, in timber city, the teachers
and the boys advisor, they all drill into our heads that we need to use
the english land, which as much as possible because you're here to learn
english, you're here to learn the white man's ways. And the issue used the
, the
never heard language as little as possible because you should only use it
when you have to communicate so that you understand things a lot better.
And so they really frown on us speaking
the neighborhood language.
It was also a giant experience for me too be grown up with the little boys
and that's when I got involved in interest in athletics. We had a baseball
team, we had a basketball team, we had try to have a football team and uh
, so it was a lot of physical activities that took place at the same time
going to a classroom every day and I got to learn how to get along with
all the other other kids and when I was going to school there, my cousins
when they grew their clothes, they would always give them to me. And so
that's, that's a how I was able to generate enough clothing so that I
could remain in school. It was one of those things where my cousins were
so kind in letting me
have their clothes, the ones that don't fit him anymore Because there was
2, 2 boys that were bigger than me. And so because my mother and father,
they couldn't, they couldn't buy clothes,
they just didn't, they just didn't have the money. And uh and so you had
to learn how to shift for yourself at an early age in terms of how you can
get some of these things for for yourself. And so from there I went and
and I enrolled in Tuba City Boarding School in 1947 in 1949. two years
later I was out of there and I went to Flagstaff Public school called
South Beaver
because my father got a job at Belmont
west of Flagstaff. And that was during the korean war and a lot of the
Navajo people were call to services to help United States and the armed
forces to load a lot of those bombs ammunition and put them on trains and
they were sending those across the sea for our armed forces to use in the
in the war. And so he he worked there for several years and I went to Soft
Beaver Elementary and and then from there, yeah, I was persuaded by the
principal and by the people who were working in education and again by my
cousins, the same group that I went with two tuba city boarding school and
they were on their way to phoenix into the school and they said you should
come alone again. And we're all signed up to go to phoenix,
uh uh we are are going to go on this state and you you should, you should
come this time, we're not going to take the pickup truck, we're gonna meet
a bus. That's going to take all of these boys at Chin lee Arizona and
these are the dates and you should come. And so I signed up to go to
phoenix indian school and again, we were always poor and when I went to
Chin lee to get on the bus along with other students, they were going to
phoenix indian school, I didn't have a luggage, nice luggage. So I use
gunny sack to carry all my clothes and in some cases
flour sack to carry my clothes in. And I saw where all the boys have these
nice luggage and suitcase and they used to laugh about how I was carrying
my clothes. And so that was probably my biggest moment was to get in on
that bus and being driven along with maybe 40 30 students in two busses to
come all the way across the Navajo nation into Holbrook Winslow Flagstaff
and and then coming into phoenix and seeing these palm trees and all the
cities, the big tall building that there was really something to see. And
I ended up at phoenix indian school and when I got the phoenix indian
school, I was
enroll in what they call Neverhood special program and that was a five
year program. It was not a regular high school, it was a special program
that was initiated by the federal government for those students that we're
late enrolling. We were too big to, to start off, let's say at great 23 or
four, we were too big for that. And so they, they started this naval
special program and you could only go to school for five years and then
you got a certificate at the end of that five year period. And the
challenge when I enrolled at the phoenix indian school was for the people
who were responsible for running the program. To say this is a special
program. You could stay within the system and get your certificate in five
years or you can accelerate,
you're learning experience. You can tried to pick up two grades in one
year and if we think that you're capable of doing that will just go at
your own speed and a drag across right across from the indian school where
we were staying, they said that that's uh, there's a regular high school,
you could, you could graduate from here and then go there or you could do
so well academically that we'll just put you in a regular high school
program. And one of the things that I saw there as I was being brought
into the special program for Navajo was the high school had athletic teams
,
they had football, they had cross country track, they had baseball team,
they had basketball team. And uh and we went to their games and I was, I
really became interested and I wanted to play. But the
the school said that you can't really, you can't really do that while
you're on the special program
because we really don't know
how that would interfere with your, with your classwork. And the only way
is if you transfer over to, mm hmm. To the high school system. So then I
asked my teacher what it would take to do that. And she gave me some goals
to follow and some
assignments that I should be doing. And so I did very well. I did very
well for that one year in the second year they put me into high school. So
I started out as 1/9 grade student. And uh, and I think even at the 9th
grade, I spent a year then the They put me in the, in the 10th grade,
going to my second year. And so when I got to the 10th grade, I was
eligible for all of the other school activities. And I became uh
a team or joined at the team in basketball, football and track my first
year there As a 10th grader. And then they had a school election in my
10th grade, my sophomore year for the incoming income in. Mhm
students. And the following the year junior year Uh two for what they call
student council. And I was elected, I was elected
as a treasure for the student council just the year that I joined the high
school. And so that that's what happened, that's how I got interested in
class
government, school government. And we begin talking about a lot of human
issues, school issues. And at the same time I was participated in sports.
And and I looked at that as something that occupies my time. And because
going to a boarding school is hard, it's hard because you're isolated, you
live in a dormitory, you live in the compound, you don't really have
access to the outside world and and participated in sport and in all that
these school activities just keeps you occupied and doesn't allow you to
go crazy. And so that's what I did and that it was kind of like my way out
with the boarding school system. They didn't have the best academic
situation there. Yeah, they
the school really taught a lot of vocational education and they looked at
their job as educating. The indian students haven't then become painters,
electricians, carpentry and sheet metal work. And then after you graduate
them put them out on the job, it wasn't really geared towards uh college
because there's only few students that went on to community college for
example. And so, but that was not the emphasis. And And when I was
graduating in 1958,
it was really, really scary. Thinking about, I've been in a boarding
school system all these years where I got fet, got my food, I got my bed,
I could stay there and I could go to school and I never really, really had
to worry about me myself, how I can function in the outside world. And so
approaching graduation during my senior year, knowing that in May, they're
gonna kick us out of this campus and you had to learn how to shift for
yourself. That was really scary, scary feeling. So, I decided that what I
should do is is go to college
and uh to enroll at a college, you have to have recommendation from
teachers and none of the teachers that I had would recommend me as an
academic student that's capable of going to college. Mhm. I remember one
teacher telling me that I don't want to embarrass the school and myself
by recommending that your a college material, that you should go down to
college because you're just not, you're a carpenter, you're a mason,
you're a painter. And that's as far as you probably would go and you
should remain there, don't agonize about the idea of improving your your
stature by thinking that you're going to make it in college. And so don't
bother me. And so that kind of angered me. That was mad. Yeah. And I
thought to myself, well, that teacher doesn't know me that well and the
only person that probably knows me well on that campus was the coach and I
remember it was coach joe family let and he was a basketball and the
football coach. And so I went to the coach and I explained to him what I
had in mind that I had some thoughts about going on to a community college
, but I was having a tough time trying to get recommendations from
teachers and the coach says that, well, you could either listen to that or
you could challenge all of that and enroll and he says,
let me see if I can figure out something and talk to some people and where
you can enroll at one of the community colleges here in the state of
Arizona. So one day he called me and he says that there's a a place for
you at
Arizona Western college in, it wasn't in humor, it was on the road to to
Los Angeles. What do they call that place? There's Arizona Western college
out there, poverty, that's the blind area. Right, black area. Yeah, it was
that, that institution. He says that you could play basketball there. I
talked to the coach and you could play basketball there. So I think I went
out there, we drove around, I visit the place and then the next thing he
says or you could come and go to phoenix college and which is just down
the street and you could walk that we don't need a transportation, you
could walk there. And so the coach was really responsible for getting me
started at phoenix college and and when I went there meant that basketball
coach and, and he put me on the team and for that I got a tuition waiver
and I was able to eat and buy books and all of that as long as I was on
the team. And so that was really nice of The two coaches to work those out.
And so I graduated from Phoenix College in 1958 with an a a degree. Then
I went to Arizona State University, the huge Arizona state University I
thought at the time and, and I went to school here for
three years And I graduated in 1963 with a degree in elementary education
and I got my green, then I went back to wind er up and I got a job at
Window Rock High School, working for the state. And uh, just just as a
young, a young man and always like working with a young people, uh, the
students there and then
just like anything else, I got a little disgruntled because I thought that
by doing what I was doing, I was confined to a classroom that I was
interested in what was on the outside, looking at the window, looking out
and I wanted to do more that I was capable and able to do more than just
sitting in the classroom being with that being with students. And so one
day I was talking with some Navajo people that were working for the tribal
government. They say they have a position open here at design and
construction. They're looking for estimators and you could become an
estimated where they will give you a blueprint. Can I help blueprint of a
building? And then from looking at the blueprints you could figure out how
much the building is going to cost and then what kind of materials people
have to buy, Construction company have to buy and how much money it will
take to build that. So you have to figure out the labor cost as well as
the material costs. And so basically that that was the position that they
were advertising and so I applied and uh I applied and I got hired.
You want to take a break your voices water? Let's see. So
uh huh
Thankyou