The wild, blue yonder
Wingate kids learn ins, outs of making blue corn mush
Monisha Smith, left, and Heather Joe watch as Ariel Yazzie tries the blue corn mush that they all helped to make during the Iyanbito Spring Break Jamboree Friday at the Iyanbito chapter house. The jamboree also featured motivational exercises and some 4-H activities. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Cable Hoover

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

IYANBITO — Shirlene Jim had more than a dozen helping hands to make blue corn mush on Friday.

Jim, a New Mexico State University home economist and 4-H agent, was at the Iyanbito Chapter House on Wednesday and Friday for what was billed as a Youth Spring Break Jamboree. However, because of conflicting school schedules, only local children who attend a Bureau of Indian Affairs school were on vacation last week.

Seven students from the BIA school in Fort Wingate, along with two interested preschoolers, showed up on Friday to participate in the activities. Ariel Page Yazzie, a first-grader, Taylynn Sherman, a second-grader, and Coby Martinez, a third-grader, were joined by three fifth-graders, Heather Joe, and Tanisha and Monisha Ada Smith, 10-year-old twins.

Seventh-grader Justin Martinez was the oldest of the group, and 2-year-old Shaylynn Sherman and 4-year-old Kirmiyah Sherman attended with their mother.

Jim, who works for NMSU’s Cooperative Extension Service, let the students mix in the juniper ash and blue cornmeal and stir the boiling mush. While getting the chapter house’s kitchen ready before the cooking lesson, Jim recalled the reaction a previous student had to the recipe’s juniper ash. “I had one preschooler ask if I was feeding him dirt,” she said.

Jim works out of the Crownpoint Tribal Extension office and was joined in Iyanbito by Jessie Jim, a 4-H agent from Crownpoint, and Leah Shendo, a home economist and 4-H agent from Shiprock. Another extension agent from Shiprock is Wayne Franklin, who is a trained farrier.

According to Shirlene Jim, NMSU’s Tribal Extension program is about 1 year old. Extension agents deliver 4-H programs and provide residents on the eastern Navajo Nation with practical information about animal care, home economics, community development, and plant sciences.

“Really, this is our way of promoting our culture,” Jim said.

While Shendo was preparing to give a presentation to the children about self-esteem, Jessie Jim and Shirlene Jim talked about subjects they frequently teach. Jessie Jim, who majored in agriculture business at NMSU, said she had planned to teach the Iyanbito students the basics of sheep shearing on Wednesday, but the day’s high winds canceled those plans. Instead, she explained, the group worked on Project WET activities and had a lesson about how uranium contamination can spread through the environment.

Jessie Jim said she often teaches students livestock care, such as how to shear or vaccinate a sheep so the children will be familiar with those skills. “We’re trying to have the kids help the elders,” she explained.

In addition, she and Shirlene Jim built a “hoop house” last year and are available to give demonstrations about the structure, which is an inexpensive version of a greenhouse.

Made of PVC pipe and covered with plastic, hoop houses can be used to grow a variety of vegetables.

Shirlene Jim said she generally teaches skills like rug weaving, wool felting, weaving cinches for horses, and cooking. In addition to teaching students how to make traditional Navajo foods like the Kinaalda puberty ceremony cake and a variety of blue cornmeal foods, Jim said she also teaches children how to prepare meals for themselves with food safety rules and simple recipes.

According to Jim, the extension agents will be assisting a program next month at Crownpoint’s Navajo Technical College that is being offered to eighth-graders. The Health Extension Rural Office Program, or HERO Program, is co-sponsored by NMSU and the University of New Mexico. The universities will be presenting a career awareness program to the students, she said, that will focus on careers in the health care field.

Information: Shirlene Jim at (505) 409-1015 or Jessie Jim at jesjim@nmsu.edu