Objective
I am a Diné teacher and I am strengthening my Diné language by sharing it with my students. I would like for our students to become proud of who they are and for learning how to introduce themselves properly with an understanding of each part of the introduction. Today, when Diné children come to school and you ask them to introduce themselves, they only see themselves as Westernized and not as an “Indigenous person”, “Native American Indian”, “Indian”, “Navajo”, or “Diné”. They will only respond, “I am Jack,” “I don’t know how,” “My parents didn’t teach me,” “Not again,”, or they will look at you like a deer staring at the headlights of a car and don’t say anything. There are Diné children who are born out of wedlock and do not know their father’s clans, this child becomes half Diné, because the mother may not know the father’s clans or is embarrassed due to being the same clan as the father, so she will not reveal the clans. At times like this, mothers do not teach the child all his clans properly to introduce himself or the essence of kinship was never taught in the home by the parent.
Diné children today are growing up with video games, cellphones, iPods, computers, and/or TV which all act as babysitters, their temporary parent, their culture teacher, and their language teacher. It is very rare to have a child to introduce himself in the Diné language. There are families that do speak the Diné language, which influences the culture and the disciplines, but they tend to be living in remote areas away from smaller towns, no electricity, no cell phone towers, and minimal electronic usage to the outside world. Another positive factor is when a Diné child is placed with their grandparents, elderly uncle or aunt, who are still fluent Diné speakers, culturally based, and the discipline is there for this child to grow up knowing how to introduce himself. You have parents today that work off the reservation, divorces, child custody cases where the child is removed, death, and many other situations that can qualify to place the child in another family’s home. A Diné child is “lucky” to be located with an immediate family on his mother’s side that will engage them into the Diné language, culture, and discipline. This is where the child will have a positive influence to know their identity. Whereas, for all other situations, school would be the only place to learn their identity.
My objective for my Diné students is to learn how to properly introduce themselves using the Diné language to help them understand how important clans are for connecting themselves to their culture and the discipline to help connect to their family. This unit will open students’ eyes to how unique and special they are as a Diné. Students will engage in daily practice of their introduction and learn how they are related to one another and to others. They will see how they will have a bigger family and show their pride in speaking the Diné language and making a connection back with their language and culture. When they get a Diné partner, that is where clans are very important, because the clans enforce who you can marry and who you can’t, all due to the relationships of clans. Once you find out your “friend’s” clans and you’re related, you can only be friends, but not become partners. Diné clans connect you to other clans, where you have another mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, grandparent, nephew, or niece. Knowing your clans is also a big help, because the Diné Reservation is a big area that covers three states, and IF you get stranded somewhere, you can ask for help. Introducing yourself properly you get home safely through the extended family members of your clans.
Today, many young Diné don’t believe in their culture, perhaps because they don’t know their clans and/or the stories behind them. Diné stories come from the immediate or extended families of their family history in backtracking their lineage as far as they can through oral stories that were passed down. Oral stories were very important, because each story held the history of where clans came from, not just by identifying the family members involved, but also the location of where the families were from. Many Diné children are great artists and one way they will show their clans through the stories they heard is by drawing them out to give that ownership of who they are. Another way children can portray their clans is by making a family tree and adding clans to each family member and connecting to who and how they are related. In class, the curriculum unit will be used so that each child will create their “Shi” book to keep records of their family’s clans for himself and have that ownership and understanding of how he is connected to the Diné Creation stories, the Holy Beings, and to their families. The students’ big project will be making the “Shi” book, which they will add to throughout the year, whereas the Diné introduction unit will be taught and placed at the beginning of the book. I hope to have them appreciate their identity as a Diné child and take pride in learning the Diné language as much as they can. I can and will go out of my way to make this fun, exciting, and to reach out to their parents too, for their help and even to help the parents learn their identity, too. I have the spirit to share my Diné language, my knowledge of clanship, of connecting to their family, of bringing the discipline, and to have them absorb their culture. My mind is set to teach and fulfill these young Diné minds.
Comments: