WEBVTT 00:00:01.240 --> 00:00:04.306 good. Yeah, 00:00:04.339 --> 00:00:12.339 I guess one of the things that also needed to be raised and to add to my 00:00:13.349 --> 00:00:20.546 conversation on schools and education on the Navajo is that yes, it was 00:00:20.579 --> 00:00:27.206 hard to transform education from federal boarding schools away from the 00:00:27.239 --> 00:00:31.686 reservation back to the neighborhood nation on 00:00:31.719 --> 00:00:39.719 the Navajo reservation because what I saw was a gradual parental 00:00:40.009 --> 00:00:47.906 involvement that grew out of uh, that federal policy establishing schools 00:00:47.939 --> 00:00:55.939 on an indian reservation. And it was a tough time period where where we 00:00:56.679 --> 00:01:01.936 saw for, for example, for many years, the Navajo people were sent in their 00:01:01.969 --> 00:01:07.947 Children off reservation many many years and I was a product of that. And 00:01:07.980 --> 00:01:13.277 the parents never really had a role. They sent their kids away from the 00:01:13.310 --> 00:01:19.516 family environment, nine months out of a year. So the parents didn't have 00:01:19.549 --> 00:01:25.217 us for, for except for three months out of the year. And so in the long 00:01:25.250 --> 00:01:29.307 run, who's going to win out in terms of influencing their, their Children 00:01:29.340 --> 00:01:34.956 , of course, the federal government, what they were trying to do is going 00:01:34.989 --> 00:01:39.117 to win out because they have us for nine months and our indian parents 00:01:39.150 --> 00:01:45.477 only had us for three months. And so that was that kind of a dilemma that 00:01:45.510 --> 00:01:49.436 took place. And then all of a sudden for the federal government didn't 00:01:49.469 --> 00:01:56.057 turn right around and say where going to get ourselves out of educating 00:01:56.090 --> 00:02:00.217 the indian students away from the reservation boarding school, we're going 00:02:00.250 --> 00:02:05.647 to begin, uh, we're going to begin building schools back on your own 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:12.207 territory, back on your reservation. Now you have to learn how to 00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:15.166 participate 00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:21.207 in the running of schools and the teachings of uh, your own Children were 00:02:21.240 --> 00:02:27.217 then that's your responsibility in the neighborhood. Parents had a hard 00:02:27.250 --> 00:02:33.416 time dealing with that issue because they really didn't know what uh, the 00:02:33.449 --> 00:02:40.666 non indian people were saying to them and why they were saying that I 00:02:40.699 --> 00:02:47.886 guess on the downside was maybe someone of a Navajo traditional upbringing 00:02:47.919 --> 00:02:52.036 and thinking that that's an insult because yes, we love our Children and 00:02:52.069 --> 00:02:58.136 we liked and we love to have them here. But why are you still telling us 00:02:58.169 --> 00:03:01.376 how we should educate our Children? When you're on one hand, you're, 00:03:01.409 --> 00:03:05.427 you're telling us that we now need to be responsible for our own Children. 00:03:05.460 --> 00:03:09.506 But yet you're still telling us as parents what we should tell them how 00:03:09.539 --> 00:03:14.997 we should teach them what they should learn. So, uh, the uh, the insult 00:03:15.030 --> 00:03:22.506 was probably back on the, on the other foot. And so I saw some difficult 00:03:22.539 --> 00:03:29.636 times with the neighborhood parents trying to understand that dilemma. And 00:03:29.669 --> 00:03:37.669 of course when never a nation began taken a full control of their own 00:03:38.699 --> 00:03:43.747 educational institution in the systems, the local community. They went at 00:03:43.780 --> 00:03:51.267 it 100 once that was understood and uh, I guess the best evidence in terms 00:03:51.300 --> 00:03:57.606 of how that transformation was done was the teaching of Navajo culture, 00:03:57.639 --> 00:04:05.217 language and history, uh huh by the local institution and some may say 00:04:05.250 --> 00:04:12.737 that what kind of evidence do you have to show that one of the outstanding 00:04:12.770 --> 00:04:17.286 thing that I have been seen during the last several years when I go out 00:04:17.319 --> 00:04:23.236 and visit the schools. For example just this year I had an opportunity to 00:04:23.269 --> 00:04:30.606 go into a class to go into a classroom uh at the various high school 00:04:30.639 --> 00:04:34.796 starting at Gray Hills High School, Tuba City High School, Monument Valley 00:04:34.829 --> 00:04:39.976 High School in Canyon to and Monument Valley High in Utah, Shiprock High 00:04:40.009 --> 00:04:47.707 School, Window Rock, Benado Navajo Prep Crown Point High School to Apache 00:04:47.740 --> 00:04:52.877 high School gallop. Hi going into those high schools in the neighborhood. 00:04:52.910 --> 00:04:58.757 This is only for this year. My own involvement. one of the things that is 00:04:58.790 --> 00:05:04.257 so outstanding that hit you is that any time you talk to the youngsters, 00:05:04.290 --> 00:05:09.897 the young people that are going to those institutions when they introduced 00:05:09.930 --> 00:05:16.806 themselves, they don't introduce themselves only simply using their name. 00:05:16.839 --> 00:05:21.697 That's that's secondary using your english name. But the first thing they 00:05:21.730 --> 00:05:29.647 say is I am this clan, my father's clan is this and my grandfather's clan 00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:35.736 , my maternal grandmother's clan is this. And uh and that's the first 00:05:35.769 --> 00:05:40.567 thing they see, they say to me when they're in the process of introducing 00:05:40.600 --> 00:05:45.327 themselves and then they say I want to go to your school at A. S. U. And I 00:05:45.360 --> 00:05:50.856 want to know what kind of classes you offer and what kind of scholarship 00:05:50.889 --> 00:05:56.767 and dormitory program do you have. So that's the first thing that they 00:05:56.800 --> 00:06:02.587 tell you and you know, and, and they're very proud of saying that, very 00:06:02.620 --> 00:06:10.087 proud of said, you could have never Heard 30 years ago. Uh, Navajo 00:06:10.120 --> 00:06:13.906 youngsters wouldn't, wouldn't tell you that they wouldn't know. They 00:06:13.939 --> 00:06:18.687 wouldn't really know because the whole educational institution, the system 00:06:18.720 --> 00:06:23.926 was trying to get them out of their Navajo goodness into modern, uh, quite 00:06:23.959 --> 00:06:29.817 ways of, of life and education that they were imposing on the indian 00:06:29.850 --> 00:06:35.416 students. And so by visiting these schools, that's what I hear. And the 00:06:35.449 --> 00:06:42.697 second thing they, they tell you about is these cultural instructions and 00:06:42.730 --> 00:06:47.996 neighborhood history. They will tell you that maybe there's less of that 00:06:48.029 --> 00:06:53.676 than the clan system. But the fact that they're making an effort, the fact 00:06:53.709 --> 00:06:56.866 that they know, they may not know all the details. They may not know the 00:06:56.899 --> 00:07:00.416 dates. They may not know all the things that happened specifically the 00:07:00.449 --> 00:07:05.176 novel people, but they know that there's a history, neighborhood history 00:07:05.209 --> 00:07:09.447 in the long walk, never whole history on all of these other events that 00:07:09.480 --> 00:07:15.856 took place. Now. For for me, uh, that's a great progress that the 00:07:15.889 --> 00:07:20.387 neighborhood nation is making because if we keep that up For the next 10 00:07:20.420 --> 00:07:26.767 2030 years, you're going to really have a nation onto itself, A nation 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:31.226 that is self determined. A nation that really understands where it has 00:07:31.259 --> 00:07:36.036 been in a nation that really, really understand where he wants to go. So I 00:07:36.069 --> 00:07:42.377 really, really think that never, who has has a future. Yes, We hear a lot 00:07:42.410 --> 00:07:50.410 about drug involvement, Yes. We hear a lot about alcohol and the meth that 00:07:50.920 --> 00:07:58.027 has a, uh, gone onto the Navajo nation among the youth. You know, those, 00:07:58.060 --> 00:08:04.726 those are man made things, those are problems that they're also challenges. 00:08:04.759 --> 00:08:11.166 And I think under myth controversy on the Navajo, the Navajo people 00:08:11.199 --> 00:08:15.156 really rose up in armed this year, last two or three years and they're 00:08:15.189 --> 00:08:19.736 really fighting it very effectively. And so it's going to take those kinds 00:08:19.769 --> 00:08:24.137 of community involvement, uh, to get these kinds of terrible things that 00:08:24.170 --> 00:08:27.606 are happening to the level of people in local schools and local community. 00:08:27.639 --> 00:08:31.606 It's up to them to get rid of that. No one's going to get rid of them for 00:08:31.639 --> 00:08:38.287 them. And so they're, they're basically involved in effectively come, uh, 00:08:38.320 --> 00:08:46.320 dealing with that. And so there's a lot of community cohesiveness based on 00:08:46.889 --> 00:08:51.167 what is happening at the local school. Many, many of the community 00:08:51.200 --> 00:08:55.717 activities really revolve in many cases around the school and what the 00:08:55.750 --> 00:09:02.106 school is able to achieve. And I'll give you one or two a good example, Uh 00:09:02.139 --> 00:09:05.907 , in the 19 00:09:05.940 --> 00:09:13.940 70s and 1980s, when the Navajo people in the, in Tuba City began taking 00:09:14.029 --> 00:09:19.927 the full control of their local schools at Tuba City High, They went all 00:09:19.960 --> 00:09:26.337 the way to support in there, high school sports program. And I remember 00:09:26.370 --> 00:09:33.687 the, going to high school basketball games and football games and I 00:09:33.720 --> 00:09:40.307 remember going to cross country and track meets and those kids were so 00:09:40.340 --> 00:09:48.340 proud of themselves and the tuba, city high school women's basketball team 00:09:48.940 --> 00:09:55.687 took the state championship maybe four or five times Uh, during that 20 00:09:55.720 --> 00:10:01.547 year, 15 year period Where to be city was # one. They won the state 00:10:01.580 --> 00:10:07.646 tournament and to have that state tournament here at the America West 00:10:07.679 --> 00:10:14.736 Arena where the phoenix Suns professional basketball team plays, they had 00:10:14.769 --> 00:10:21.856 those state tournament basketball tournament at that gymnasium and 00:10:21.889 --> 00:10:29.889 neighborhood people would come by the large numbers, fans, families, 00:10:30.340 --> 00:10:37.506 relatives, and they would fill that place up with never who supporters. 00:10:37.539 --> 00:10:43.067 And it was very hard for the people here in phoenix too, to understand 00:10:43.100 --> 00:10:49.996 that, To understand why the neighborhood people would drive 300 miles to 00:10:50.029 --> 00:10:55.577 come to support their high school basketball team. And so the way I saw 00:10:55.610 --> 00:11:01.606 that there was, there's a, there's a big community pride, there's a 00:11:01.639 --> 00:11:06.276 tremendous amount of support, support for the local school in those 00:11:06.309 --> 00:11:11.467 communities and natural people. Uh, you know, I love their love their 00:11:11.500 --> 00:11:16.016 Children, love their grandchildren, they go any distance how far they 00:11:16.049 --> 00:11:19.807 drove, it didn't matter how much it costs to get there. It didn't matter 00:11:19.840 --> 00:11:23.516 the fact was that they wanted to support their school, they wanted to 00:11:23.549 --> 00:11:28.947 support their Children. And so that's what happens. That's what happens 00:11:28.980 --> 00:11:34.947 when you educate and motivate the parents enough so that they go all the 00:11:34.980 --> 00:11:42.980 way to support the activities of their local uh, sports program. Now let's 00:11:43.759 --> 00:11:49.537 transfer that over to the city of phoenix. You know, I live in a school 00:11:49.570 --> 00:11:57.037 district here in the phoenix And it's a big five a school, they don't get 00:11:57.070 --> 00:12:05.070 that number at their basketball game, even at the state meet the state 00:12:05.080 --> 00:12:12.207 tournament, they don't get that number. And you know, there probably maybe 00:12:12.240 --> 00:12:18.856 1000 Or 2000 at the most that I have seen by non Indian teams. But 00:12:18.889 --> 00:12:25.467 wouldn't it was Navajo? It's not unusual to see 14,015,000 people at these 00:12:25.500 --> 00:12:30.766 games. And so I think people should just learn from that, that when you 00:12:30.799 --> 00:12:38.167 get the indian people involved in supporting Some worthwhile things like 00:12:38.200 --> 00:12:43.157 basketball games and supporting their Children, you know, they go out 100% 00:12:43.190 --> 00:12:48.807 and support and I'm only used in tuba City as an example. Well that 00:12:48.840 --> 00:12:53.266 happened with Window Rock High School, that happened with Monument Valley 00:12:53.299 --> 00:12:58.907 High school and this year with Ganado, the girls basketball team went all 00:12:58.940 --> 00:13:04.657 the way and took the state champion. Uh, and so it's something that, Uh, 00:13:04.690 --> 00:13:08.246 you know, the Neville people are very proud of and if you look at New 00:13:08.279 --> 00:13:13.927 Mexico, look what she broke high school did back in the 70s. You know, 00:13:13.960 --> 00:13:20.157 when they had that tremendous basketball team and the whole community of 00:13:20.190 --> 00:13:25.506 shipwreck going over to the pit in Albuquerque or university of New Mexico 00:13:25.539 --> 00:13:31.697 lobo basketball team plays and you know, during the state tournament, that 00:13:31.730 --> 00:13:38.136 place is just full to capacity with neighborhood supporters. And it was 00:13:38.169 --> 00:13:44.307 really, really something to see. And for me as an educator and as an 00:13:44.340 --> 00:13:51.057 observer, what the Navajo people really, really sold on is this self 00:13:51.090 --> 00:13:59.090 determination and I'm using only the sports progress as an example and I'm 00:13:59.730 --> 00:14:05.697 following one other thing that's happening The last two years. For example 00:14:05.730 --> 00:14:12.006 , last night I was reading about the spell and be that just took place at 00:14:12.039 --> 00:14:16.616 the national level here about a week, two weeks ago. And there were some 00:14:16.649 --> 00:14:21.067 neighborhood kids that went all the way to, that went all the way to 00:14:21.100 --> 00:14:26.366 Washington D. C. And uh, and they participated, sure they lost that and 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:30.746 they got eliminated in the second round or so, you know. But the thing 00:14:30.779 --> 00:14:36.776 about it is that we're up there, we're up there, we're on the, on the 00:14:36.809 --> 00:14:42.317 verge of having one of our never who youngsters become a national champion 00:14:42.350 --> 00:14:49.486 in spelling spelling bee program the contest. And so it's the Navajo 00:14:49.519 --> 00:14:54.756 people in the Navajo Children are the future of the Navajo nation. And 00:14:54.789 --> 00:14:59.116 they're doing all of these things because the Navajo parents are giving 00:14:59.149 --> 00:15:04.417 them that, that desire that the support that they really, really need to 00:15:04.450 --> 00:15:09.697 do something very well in the community. Uh, and, and there never will, 00:15:09.730 --> 00:15:14.957 kids are very proud of doing all of these things, Look at what happened in 00:15:14.990 --> 00:15:22.990 the community of pinion where you have a young Navajo 8th grader Garry 00:15:24.039 --> 00:15:29.366 Yossi and what he was able to invent to help out his mother to reduce her 00:15:29.399 --> 00:15:37.399 electricity bill by inventing a water heater and a gadget that he used to 00:15:38.600 --> 00:15:46.407 heat his home, his trailer and then for abc television to come out in May 00:15:46.440 --> 00:15:48.746 and 00:15:48.779 --> 00:15:56.779 bill in this a nice, beautiful home for him and his mother. And that's 00:15:58.549 --> 00:16:03.417 going to get a lot of national intention. Uh And people are going to view 00:16:03.450 --> 00:16:11.006 that in terms of what this young young neighbor who a boy was able to 00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:15.547 invent just simply because he was really dedicated to his mother and 00:16:15.580 --> 00:16:21.587 dedicated to looking at the overall problem that never a nation faces. And 00:16:21.620 --> 00:16:28.366 so uh I look at these different events and what Gary Gary as what Gary 00:16:28.399 --> 00:16:32.827 Yossi has done is not going to stop there because the home that they built 00:16:32.860 --> 00:16:40.860 for him is all green green home uh there that home is recycling its own 00:16:41.250 --> 00:16:46.957 water self contained, it's recycle and recycle its own water. And the 00:16:46.990 --> 00:16:54.990 water that they recycle is used to to irrigate the little grass and and 00:16:56.320 --> 00:17:02.217 other flowers that the family is grown outside of their home. And then 00:17:02.250 --> 00:17:05.006 they have solar 00:17:05.039 --> 00:17:10.276 solar panel that generates electricity. They have a wind panel that also 00:17:10.309 --> 00:17:15.326 generates electricity. And as I understand it from the engineers that help 00:17:15.359 --> 00:17:21.536 designed that facility here at S. U. The solar panel plus the wind 00:17:21.569 --> 00:17:29.207 generated power uh that will produce enough to take care of their home 00:17:29.240 --> 00:17:36.137 throughout the year. And there's going to be excess power. Uh That N. T. U. 00:17:36.170 --> 00:17:41.647 A. Is going to buy from him uh neighborhood tribal utility authority, the 00:17:41.680 --> 00:17:47.207 organization that provides uh electrical services to homes on the 00:17:47.240 --> 00:17:55.076 neighborhood nation. And Garrett Yossi, this 8th grade kid and now A 9th 00:17:55.109 --> 00:18:03.109 Grade High School Student made a commitment by saying that I would like to 00:18:03.230 --> 00:18:08.867 have all of my excess electricity to go to my neighbors. Uh my uncle and 00:18:08.900 --> 00:18:14.976 my aunts and my grandma and my grandpa. And so even at that young age he 00:18:15.009 --> 00:18:17.907 has such a responsibility 00:18:17.940 --> 00:18:23.147 towards his his own relatives in his own community and whatever he 00:18:23.180 --> 00:18:29.016 invented, he was passing it around to get the result of what he was able 00:18:29.049 --> 00:18:33.707 to come up with. And when when I see something like that happened, you 00:18:33.740 --> 00:18:37.226 know that's that's the future of the neighborhood nation. We don't have 00:18:37.259 --> 00:18:42.326 any indication right now for all we know is that the Navajo people might 00:18:42.359 --> 00:18:48.306 start demanding that their homes be built with solar system uh with wind 00:18:48.339 --> 00:18:55.647 powered electric producing machinery to heat their homes. And so we may 00:18:55.680 --> 00:19:02.826 see that and may not necessarily need all that much energy that gets 00:19:02.859 --> 00:19:08.546 produced by using the coal. And because that's controversial in itself 00:19:08.579 --> 00:19:13.306 with all these power plants that we have on the Neverland nation anyway so 00:19:13.339 --> 00:19:18.847 the invention and the creation of what curiosity did also to me is 00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:23.286 unlimited. We haven't really seen 00:19:23.319 --> 00:19:30.806 the full recognition in the full potential that this kid has in terms of 00:19:30.839 --> 00:19:36.207 what he has in mind in terms of helping than ever people and the way the 00:19:36.240 --> 00:19:42.756 way that we live. And so that only indicates to me that the neville people 00:19:42.789 --> 00:19:49.637 really have what it takes to survive what it takes to do good and do well 00:19:49.670 --> 00:19:54.887 and taking care of the other members of their family. And so I just wanted 00:19:54.920 --> 00:20:02.177 to add these yeah, pieces of information that I observe on the Navajo and 00:20:02.210 --> 00:20:09.036 it really goes alone the line of self determination and to to have a 00:20:09.069 --> 00:20:16.627 nation that we can be proud of. We need more of the kind of activities 00:20:16.660 --> 00:20:23.306 that is fully supported by the natural parents and never students. 00:20:23.339 --> 00:20:26.407 Yeah. 00:20:26.440 --> 00:20:29.006 Okay, very good. 00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:33.440 Okay, 12:00 turn off again. Let's talk.