Diné UNM professors writing first-ever Navajo government textbook for high schools

Mar. 9—In her years of training Navajo Nation educators, Jennifer Denetdale noticed a persistent problem.

A professor and chair of the University of New Mexico's American Studies Department, Denetdale found there was "no such thing" as a textbook designed for Navajo government courses.

Although the course is widely taken by Diné students — it's required to qualify for the Chief Manuelito Scholarship program, which awards high-achieving high schoolers $7,000 per academic year to offset the cost of higher education — there was no definitive textbook for it, just an amalgamation of often outdated resources that weren't written by Navajo authors or with high school readers in mind.

So, alongside a team of Diné scholars and with funding from the Navajo Nation, Denetdale will piece together the first-ever tribal government textbook for young adults.

The hope is the textbook will empower Navajo youth to think critically and get involved in community leadership through discussions of history and sovereignty, said Kara Roanhorse, who is a Diné doctoral candidate in UNM's American Studies Department and one of the textbook's authors.

"It's not just learning about government in general; it's really about fostering this critical and deeply well-informed understanding that you can take charge," Roanhorse said. "They can take up this work that we're doing as academics and as people living in our communities."

Education must connect to the "real world" of family and community outside of school, said Navajo Nation Council Delegate Andy Nez.

"We have to capitalize on familiarity, experience, purpose — ensuring that what we're educating [students] on are things that are familiar to them, that they can use and benefit from," he said in an interview.

A former classroom teacher and coach, Nez ran for his seat — which represents a swath of land that straddles the Arizona-New Mexico border, including the communities of Sawmill and Fort Defiance in Arizona and Red Lake and Crystal in New Mexico — on the council in 2022 with the goal of advancing Navajo language and culture initiatives.

In spring 2023, he started that work with a series of educational proposals, including a plan to allocate $172,500 for the development of a Navajo Nation government textbook. The legislation was written by Division of Diné Education policy analyst Daryl Begay, who will co-edit the textbook with Denetdale, and sponsored by Nez.

The plan quickly garnered the support of the council, and the line item was included in the Navajo Nation's final budget for fiscal year 2024.

"It was just time for the council — the delegates — to agree that this is something that our young people need," Denetdale said. "I think it says a lot about the Navajo Nation's sense of responsibility to its young people."

Authored and edited by Diné scholars, the textbook will tackle subjects from resource extraction to what the Navajo creation story reveals about leadership and governance.

One of its major themes: Sovereignty.

"That's what we want to impress upon our young people: That you are a citizen of a sovereign nation — the Navajo Nation — but you're also a citizen of the United States ... and then we are also citizens of states," Denetdale said.

The textbook will endeavor to connect Navajo history with the present day, demonstrating how historical events contributed to modern power structures and ongoing challenges in the Navajo Nation today.

Without a full understanding of the past, Roanhorse said, Navajo youth won't be able to create a comprehensive plan for the future built on self-determination and sovereignty.

"I want [students] to come away with a sense of urgency for how they can be involved in not only the processes that go on with our nation but also to have a critical examination of historical narratives," she said.

"They have a place, and we do value their voice."

Over the next year, Denetdale said the editorial team will be "working feverishly" to draft and refine the textbook. They're working with a copy editor, a research director to fact-check and assemble illustrations and a retired high school teacher specializing in curriculum development to ensure the book contains grade level-appropriate language.

The plan is to have the first volume of the textbook published and available to students within two years, Denetdale added.

Once the first volume is complete, the whole thing will be translated into the Navajo language to serve as a second volume. While tribal government textbooks authored by members of the tribe are rare, she said those culturally informed textbooks written in Indigenous languages are even more rare.

"This is no small feat," Denetdale said.

Nez said he's excited to see the textbook in students' hands.

"It's really historical that we have something now that's going to come to talk about tribal government and history and culture — by Diné scholars, written for Diné students," he said.