Mission: Teach kids Navajo
Elementary school in Page wants full-immersion Diné culture class

By John Christian Hopkins
Diné Bureau

PAGE, Ariz. — If Lake View Elementary School Principal Cheryl Chuckluck gets her way, pupils will be learning to speak Navajo at her school next year.

The idea came up a few years ago, but faded at the time. Now, Chuckluck hopes the time is right.

Navajo language classes are taught at the middle school and the high school level in the Page Unified School District.

“I think it’s a great idea,” teacher Bernice Austin-Begay said. She teaches the Navajo language to high schoolers. “For years, I’ve felt like a one-woman army.”

Chuckluck has been looking at how other schools in Arizona have set up such classes. Currently, she and an elementary school kindergarten teacher are going to different schools to see how their Navajo language programs are structured.

“It’s about time,” Austin-Begay said. Languages are easier learned by younger children, she said.

Arizona schools use different methods, including all-day immersion in Navajo, or special classes, Chuckluck said.

If Page Elementary went to full-immersion, it would feature two adults modeling the language for the pupils. After several sessions of teaching the students, they would learn to use the language independently.

Teaching the language to younger pupils hasn’t been done before, in part, because the language is seen as being extremely difficult to learn, Austin-Begay said.

In World War II a secret code based on the Navajo language helped U.S. troops win the Pacific Theater of the war. The Navajo code remains the only military code that was never broken.

After Chuckluck gathers the facts, the next step will be to develop a task force to help Lake View plan the idea out. It will be comprised of staff members from the school and Page Unified School District. Chuckluck will also ask parents to participate.