Students ready to learn Navajo with new book

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The book is called “Diné Bizaard Bínáhoó aah” and it just may help save the Navajo language.

For those who don’t know Navajo, the book’s title is “Rediscovering the Navajo Language” and just a couple of weeks ago, it became a part of the curriculum at Gallup high schools and other high schools in McKinley and San Juan counties.

It’s the first Navajo language book that has been certified by the state and state officials say they expect that it will play a prominent role in help Navajos and non-Natives learn the basics of what many say is one of the hardest languages to learn in the world.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was so impressed with the book that he and a number of Navajo dignitaries, such as Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., showed up for a ceremony to officially welcome the book to the county public school system.

“This is historic,” Richardson said, pointing that that the book was co-authored by a renown linguist, Dr. Evangeline Parson Yazzie, who grew up in the Crownpoint area and now teaches at Northern Arizona University.

County Superintendent Ray Arsenault said the book’s value can’t be overstated. In the past, teachers of the Navajo language in schools across the county had to scramble for materials to use in their teaching. Now they have a textbook that is not only colorful but is also easy to use.

Even the students seem to like it.

Wayne Hildreth, whose class at Gallup High School started using the book last week, said he thought it was “pretty good.”

Hildreth said he already knew a little Navajo — enough to be able to understand his grandparents — but he’s hoping that the books will help him become more fluent in the language.

What did he like most about the book?

“It has a lot of photos of food which makes you hungry,” he said.

He has also found a couple of small mistakes in the book but with so many variations of the language between Navajos living in the eastern and western portions of the reservation, these kinds of differences are not unusual.

Eric Lockard, president of Salina Bookshelf, the Flagstaff company that put out the book, said his company was proud of the book.

The book’s cost is $89.95, which he said was justified in that it has such a low run, 5,000 copies. It’s available through Amazon.com, however, for $65.66 and used copies of the book can be purchased at Amazon for as low as $41.05.

Books are also available through the company at salimebookshelf.com

Lockard said that while Navajo is a difficult language to learn, individuals could learn it by studying the book and getting the audio CDs which are expected to be made available in the next few months. Since the CDS are not ready yet, Lockard said he wasn’t sue how much they will cost.

His company, which does a number of Navajo language books meant for elementary-age children, is also working with a Hopi linguist to put out a book — probably sometime in 2010 — on the Hopi language.

Arsenault said that while the introduction of the book is a great help, the district still faces a major problem in getting Navajo language teachers in all of the schools.

Just knowing the Navajo language is not enough under state law to be able to teach it and prospective Navajo language teachers must also be foreign language qualified, said Arsenault, who added that the district is doing all it can to get enough teachers to teach not only Navajo but Zuni as well.

“We are now in the process of developing a Zuni language course, as we speak,” he said.