Date of Award:

5-1960

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

School of Teacher Education and Leadership

Department name when degree awarded

Elementary Education

Committee Chair(s)

Caseel Burke

Committee

Caseel Burke

Committee

Eldon Drake

Committee

Gene Jacobson

Committee

Heber C. Sharp

Abstract

Straddling the Continental Divide, from the Chuska Mountains t o the San Juan and Little Colorado rivers, mostly in Arizona, but partly in New Mexico and Utah, lies 23,574 square miles of desert; home to the estimated 75 to 90 thousand Navajo Indians. Unable to more than eke out a bare existence in a barren land where almost 30 acres of range are needed to sustain one sheep, unprepared after generations of isolation and neglect to leave this reservation for areas where a decend standard of living can be had, the Navajos, since 1950, have been the object of a "crash" program of rehabilitation by the United States Government (40, p.131).

The Navaho-Hopi Long Range Rehabilitation Act, signed into law by the President on April 19, 1950, has as objectives these goals: (a) development of natural resources to make the Navajo1 individually and collectively, economically self sufficient, (b) to raise health standards so the physical well-being of these Indians will be more in line with that enjoyed by the general population, (c) to educate the young so they may grow into competent, constructive citizens, and (d) to raise the whole level of the tribe that, in time, they will be able to assume full responsibility for the management of their own affairs (10, p.1).

A subsidiary goal of the educational objective is to educate young people to the extent that they will have sufficient social and economic skill to make a successful adjustment to a community off-the-reservation, thus lessening the overpopulation on the reservation (15, p.1).

As early as 1945, when the nation was emerging from World War II and Navajos were returning to the reservation with increased desire for education as a result of their experiences in the Armed Forces and in war industries, the need for a special educational effort was recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Acting under the direction of the then Chief of the Branch of Education, Dr. Willard W. Beatty, Dr. George A. Boyce, Director of Navajo schools, and Mrs. Hildegard Thompson, Educational Specialist,2 gathered a staff of elementary teachers, vocational teachers, teacher interpreters, advisers, dormitory attendants, supervisors, principals, superintendents, Navajo leaders, linguists, placement officers, Bureau personnel, and other experts to begin working on a program specifically designed and tailored to meet the needs of Navajo education. The work of this group resulted in the Special Navajo Program and the publication of the Minimum Essential Goals for the Special Five-Year Adolescent Navajo Program (7).

The general objectives of the program are: (a) to enable adolescent Navajo, with little or no previous schooling, to become self-supporting adults, (b) to interest them in becoming permanent, constructive citizens in the regions where the schools are located, and ( c) to provide each pupil with a useful skill for earning a living (8, p.1).

Children and young adults above the age of 13 were enrolled in the program; some, in a few instances, were as old as 22 when first enrolled. The program was limited to five years of schooling because it was felt that this was the maximum amount of time these enrollees would be willing to spend in school. A shorter period would not suffice to meet their needs and a longer period would fail because of their natural desires for employment income and home and family life (1, p.4).

A pilot program was started at the Sherman Institute, Riverside, California, in 1946 (29, p.3). By the time the enabling legislation and appropriations for the Navaho-Hopi Long Range Rehabilitation Program were enacted by the Congress, the Bureau was ready to put the program into large scale operation wherever seats were available. A total of ten Indian schools, which, in the main, had outlived their usefulness, were refurbished and set into operation as Special Program Schools. At Brigham City, Utah, the abandoned installations of the Bushnell General Hospital were converted into a boarding school for 2,150 students. The school went into operation in December 1950 (30, p.28).

Within a few years the program began to catch up with the backlog of over-age youths who were willing to accept the opportunity for education. A need was demonstrated to expand the program to provide for children who were 12 or 13 years old and who had had little or no previous schooling. Working from the curriculum guide for the five-year program, a six-year program was evolved to meet the needs of these students (15, p.4). Still later it became necessary to further expand the program to eight years to meet the needs of even younger students.

All of these programs were designed to graduate the students with as much education as they could get before reaching an age where they would no longer be content to remain in school,(usually this is considered to be between their 18th and 20th birthdays.) It was reasoned that, since they would be eligible for permanent employment after their 18th birthdays and that they would have a natural desire to get a job and maintain a home and family, this age would be a practical limit for their education whether the program made provision for it or not (10, p.2). It was kept in mind that the Navajos were not completely "sold" on the idea of education and that most of those who did come to school had as their aim "to get a job someplace" (9, p.5).

The Minimum Essential Goals for the Special Five-Year Adolescent Navaho Program (7) and its companion volume, Minimum Essential Goals for Everyday Living in Indian Schools (16) describe the Special Five-Year Program. The other two programs are based on them, but since the other programs have six or eight years to accomplish the work, other goals have been added to enrich the offering. These programs are subject to periodic revisions (every two years to date) by those most closely associated with the programs and the students: teachers, attendants, instructional aids (assistants), home economics and shop teachers, placement officers, administrators, and educationists. The major part of the revision of the curriculum guides is done by classroom teachers. The other specialists are called in for short periods to share their experience and knowledge (7, p.6). Lessons from past successes and failures are incorporated into each revision of the goals. The Special Navajo Programs are dynamic; ever changing in themselves to meet the ever changing needs of students in acculturating to the ever changing demands of contemporary society.

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Publication made available electronically February 1, 2012.

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