A Place to Be Navajo: Rough Rock and the Struggle for Self-Determination in Indigenous Schooling

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More About This Textbook

Overview

A Place To Be Navajo is the only book-length ethnographic account of a revolutionary Indigenous self-determination movement that began in 1966 with the Rough Rock Demonstration School. Called Diné Bi'ólta', The People's School, in recognition of its status as the first American Indian community-controlled school, Rough Rock was the first to teach in the Native language and to produce a body of quality children's literature by and about Navajo people. These innovations have positioned the school as a leader in American Indian and bilingual/bicultural education and have enabled school participants to wield considerable influence on national policy. This book is a critical life history of this singular school and community.

McCarty's account grows out of 20 years of ethnographic work by the author with the Diné (Navajo) community of Rough Rock. The story is told primarily through written text, but also through the striking black-and-white images of photographer Fred Bia, a member of the Rough Rock community. Unlike most accounts of Indigenous schooling, this study involves the active participation of Navajo community members. Their oral testimony and that of other leaders in Indigenous/Navajo education frame and texture the account.

Informed by critical theories of education, this book is not just the story of a single school and community. It is also an inquiry into the larger struggle for self-determination by Indigenous and other minoritized communities, raising issues of identity, voice, and community empowerment. A Place To Be Navajo asks whether school can be a place where children learn, question, and grow in an environment that values and builds upon who they are. The author argues that the questions Rough Rock raises, and the responses they summon, implicate us all.

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Product Details

Table of Contents

Series Editor Foreword
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
1 Framing the Story 1
2 People, Place, and Ethnographic Texts 7
3 "How It Was" 21
4 "We Were Going to School Being Taught Only by Anglos" 39
5 A Portrait of Change 55
6 Origin Stories 71
7 Community and Classroom 83
8 The Problems and Politics of Program Evaluation 101
9 The Two Faces of Self-Determination 113
10 Transitions and Turmoil 131
11 "If We Want To Be Powerful, We Have to Exercise Our Power": Indigenous Teachers as Change Agents 147
12 Protest 167
13 "What if the Children Forget the Navajo Language?" 179
Epilogue: "The Hopes and Dreams of Rough Rock" 193
References 201
Author Index 215
Subject Index 221
About the Author 229
About the Photographer 229
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