Rationale
Mother and father become One, and then they give us life and our identity. This unit is targeted for the Diné student, but any teacher, whether native or non-native, can adopt this lesson based on their own heritage, language, identity or culture.
The Diné Nation extends into the states of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, covering over 27,000 square miles of unparalleled beauty. Diné Bikéyah, or Navajoland, as the U.S. Government refers to it, is larger than 10 of the 50 states in the United States. According to the 2000 Census and other language surveys, the largest Native American language-speaking community by far is the Diné. Diné is an Athabascan language of the Na-Dené family, with 178,000 speakers, primarily in the states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Altogether, Diné speakers make up more than 50% of all Native American language speakers in the United States.1
This unit is created for students in the third through fifth grade. There are about 98% Diné children living on the Navajo Reservation. Of them, 95% of students do not speak the Diné language and 93% do not understand the Diné language. Classroom sizes range from 18 to 25 students per class, with 68% reading below grade level even though their first language is English.
This unit is taught in an environment among Diné children who are brought up to learn their clans from their immediate family and at schools, which is pursued under the Navajo Nation Department of Diné Education bylaws. Due to our Diné children coming to school with English as their first language, their primary opportunity to learn their identity and lessons of clanship, kinship, or K’é is in the elective Diné Studies class for 45 minutes a week, a possible total of 40 days. This curriculum unit can be used within the general social studies short daily lessons and under the Navajo Nation Standards.
Today, students are growing up not knowing their clans and how to introduce themselves in the Diné language. Within the Diné Culture, one important step in life that needs to be presented to a child is to know his or her clans and to learn how to correctly introduce himself. The PreK-5th Diné Character Building standards under the Department Office of Diné Education urge teachers of the Diné Nation to give students the opportunity to be actively involved in developing and applying critical thinking to establish relationships with the environment as well as to practice and maintain the sacredness of self-identity. My hope is to show that these types of activities can incorporate the importance of recognition of learning their self-identity at an early age with help from their parents, grandparents, family members, within their community and at school. The unit also aims to give students the understanding of where they are coming from by using the tools of oral stories of their family, clans, location of where they come from and whom they are related to.
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