Lessons and Activities
The Unit will be taught three time a week for 6 weeks. Each week will focus on different parts of the unit. It begins with the discussion of the importance of having a good leader. Then it will talk about how Naat’áanii’s from the past used Deliberative Democracy to solve issues. Today we have a Navajo government in place to help rule over the Navajo Tribe. The students will explore the history of the Navajo Tribal Government. The following week the students will learn about how the Judicial System protects their rights as children. Finally, on the last week, students will discuss how orphan children of the Navajo people are effected by the Fundamental Laws.
Naat’áanii
The children will be able to find the characteristics and character traits of a Naat’áanii.
The teacher will give the students a short passage of a famous Naat’áanii: Borboncito or Manuelito. These spiritual leaders were effective in helping the Navajos return to Navajoland from Fort Sumner, where the Navajos were held in captivity. When the students are reading, they will be asked to identify some of the characteristics and character traits that made these people Naat’áanii. The students will discuss what kind of Naat’áanii were they? What made them successful Naat’áanii? How did they help the people?
These Naat’áanii did not have the same government system that we have today. How did they run their government? Would we be able to run a government in the same fashion? The students will use an activity with Capturing Kid’s Hearts (CKH). The goal of CKH is to reach the youth of America and help them take their place as leaders of our country.35 Before the students begin, they will define leadership. Using the previous lessons, what makes a person a leader? Can anyone be a leader? The students are all leaders, and will take on different leadership roles.
Deliberative Democracy
The children will Understand and define the meaning of Deliberative Democracy. They will implement Deliberative Democracy in their classroom procedure to solve issues.
The Students will read a short passage about how the Navajo people used to have a Deliberative Democracy, especially when they had to make an important decision. One of the main characteristics of a leader is to be a good speaker and a good listener. Explain to the students that being a good speaker is a good quality to have because it allows you to let people see your point of view clearly. One of their Domains for Structured English Immersion class is listening and speaking. Explain that in class, the students will have to learn to listen and speak to solve any issues that arise in class.
In the activity, the students create a Social Contract for the class. A Social Contract is an agreement of behavior that leads to self-managing group.36 The speaker who suggests a behavior expectation has to “sell” the suggestion with confidence and enthusiasm. The key is everyone has to agree on the behavior. To allow students think time, have them discuss it in small groups and work your way up to a larger group.
Create A Government
The students will analyze and explain the historical aspects of our current Navajo government. Students will also explore how distributive outcome upsets the majority in government and affect policies when coalitions get involved.
Before teaching the students a lesson, the teacher will open with an activity called Build Your Own Island. Each students will be given an island, and explain to them that there are many plants and animals on the island, but no people. They will have to hunt for their own food and build their own shelter. Remind them that there is no one on the island to tell them which food to eat or not eat, or where to build their shelter. Basically, they can do whatever they want on the island.
Eventually, half of the islands will be taken away from the students. The students who lose their islands will be assigned to join another island. They need food and shelter, so they will need to build a new life on the new island. The new resident ends up looking for food in the same place as the original dweller, but tell the original owner of the island to stay away. What happens now? What happens when the new people build their shelter near your water source? What happens when they tell you that you cannot get water from your spring anymore? How do you settle the dispute? Do you fight for the land or do you sit down and talk?
When you are by yourself, there aren’t any rules, especially when you live on the land alone. When newcomers come, you have to establish rules. The rules have to be fair. A Leader is usually chose to make sure the rules are enforced. This is one way governments are established.37
What happens when the island has to be divided between three or more residents? Additional Islands will be removed, and the students who lost their islands have to join another island. How do the residences of the island divide island? How do they divide the resources on the island? All of a sudden, the residents now have to divide the island and its resources into three or more parts. Ideally, the residents would divide the island and its resources equally among the residents. What if one part of the island had more resources than the other side? What if one resident had something on their piece of land that another resident desired? What happens when two residents team up?
The rules suddenly change when more people get involved. How do the residents distribute the island? Preferably, the island would be distributed equally, but sometimes that is not how things work in the real world, especially in government. Majority Rule affects the distributive outcome most of the time. To demonstrate this point, the children will play Divide-A-Dollar game with the island. The students will be given scenarios, i.e., team up with a person with a water well, or team up with a person who has good hunting area, etc… How does the new coalition influence the majority? How does this affect the rules and leadership of the island?
Not many students are aware of how their own government was established. They will read a passage about why the Navajo tribe needed a central government. Why do people need a government? Why did we need a central government? The students will learn about the three branches of the government. The Navajo leaders had to fight for their rights, especially for their sovereignty. Eventually, after many attempts, the tribe was able to establish a government. The first chairman of the Navajo Nation elected into office was Chee Dodge.
Dine Fundamental Law in the Judicial System
The students will demonstrate an understanding of how the Judicial System protects their rights as children, and as children of the Navajo people.
The Judicial Branch of the Navajo government was designed using the philosophy of Dine Fundamental Law, especially regulations related to families, and children. The Law uses Fundamental Laws to maintain Navajo culture and heritage. Fundamental Law use three core principles: Hózhó, K’é, and K’éí. Students will explore each principle and how it related to their family and family units. They will discuss the similarities and differences between each families. Are the family’s definition of the three principles similar? How can we use these principles in the classroom, as it related to us, and to our behavior?
K’éí is one of the principles often explored in our school. The principle of K’éí allow us to address each other as family through our clanship system. The activity will require students to share their clans with the class. By fourth grade, the students can introduce themselves using the clanship system. Using the clans, the students will establish who is related to them. Who are your brothers, who are your sisters, who are your aunts, uncles, grandmas, or grandfathers? The teacher will model K’éí by addressing each student by kinship. How does this affect the culture in the classroom? How does this effect our behavior? How does this relate to our social contract?
Fundamental Laws and Adoption
The students will explore and analyze how fundamental laws effect adoption of Navajo children.
Many students have been moved from parents to uncles or aunts, but they do not believe they are being fostered or adopted, since they are basically in the same family unit. The principle of K’é of the fundamental law works in these situations. What about the children who do not have relative who are related to them? What happens to them? Where do they go? Who fosters them and who adopts them?
The students will watch a videos and read about students who were adopted. The students will have discussions about each adoption case based on what they learned about the policies and fundamental laws. What is right and what is not right? Who says it’s not right. Students will use details from the previous lessons, as well as from the text and videos to support their opinion.
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