The Social Struggles of Contemporary Black Art

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 22.03.01

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Rationale
  2. Content
  3. Strategies
  4. Activities
  5. Resources
  6. Appendix on Implementing District Standards
  7. Bibliography
  8. Notes

Reclaiming the Lost Art of Storytelling Using Textile

Irene Jones

Published September 2022

Tools for this Unit:

At the junction of Highway 160 and Highway 163 on the Navajo Reservation is a small town of Tódínéeshzhee’ (Kayenta.) What does Tódínéeshzhee’mean? Tódínéeshzhee’has different interpretation depending on who you ask.  First, because the Diné language is very tonal and very descriptive, and second, the Navajo has regional differences.  One interpretation of Tódínéeshzhee’ means water flowing in different directions. The description comes from a summer monsoon storm when the streams, creeks, and washes overflow causing the water to flood. Others will argue that Tódínéeshzhee’ refers to a stream of water seeping from an underground aquifer from the side of a sandstone[1] alcove.

The town of Tódínéeshzhee’ was established around 1910’s when Clyde Corville and the Wetherills, John and Louisa and their children Ben and Ida, moved to a new place called Tódínéeshzhee’ to set up a Trading Post.  In the early 1900’s, transportation was scarce, meaning that if you wanted to go places, you either had to walk, ride a horse, or drive a team of horses pulling a wagon.  The most you could travel in a day was about 30 miles. When the Wetherills moved to Tódínéeshzhee’ from Oljeto, Utah, their former trading post, it put them one day closer to Gallup, New Mexico which was 180 miles away.  This was important because it meant that they could get their supplies for the trading post more quickly.  Furthermore, Clyde Corville and the Wetherills oversaw the improvement of the wagon trail over Tsegi (Marsh Pass) which opened an alternative route for getting supplies.  Due to the proximity to Flagstaff, Arizona (150 miles), accessibility to supplies became more convenient.

The Wetherills were also able to establish one of the first post offices in the area, and they were entrusted to give it a location name. Unfortunately, many other places on the Navajo Reservation were also named Tódínéeshzhee’, so the Wetherills decided to name the town post office Teeh-in-Deeh, which was the name of a sinkhole located three miles away. Teeh-in-Deeh eventually became known as Kay-en-ta2, an unintended mispronounciation. Another establishment in the area was the opening of the first hotel, Wetherill Inn.

Another reason that the Wetherills moved to Tódínéeshzhee’ was because John Wetherill was appointed as a custodian of Navajo National Monument. Navajo National Monument was established to preserve three cliff dwellings in Tseyi Canyon, west of the current town of Kayenta, Arizona. His job, as a custodian, included guiding tourists and archaeological expeditions. Tourists sometimes included famous writers, artists, movie stars, and the president of the United States. Furthermore, Mr. Wetherill led Teddy Roosevelt on a trip to Rainbow Bridge.

Unfortunately, the Trading Post that helped the town of Kayenta get established is no longer in business. But then, Kayenta is one of the few towns thriving on the Navajo Reservation. Currently, Kayenta has several gas stations and restaurants. The community also has one of few shopping centers in operations. Former Navajo Nation Chairman Peter McDonald was credited with establishing Navajo Nation Shopping Center Enterprise, which was able to bring businesses to the reservation, including Bashas Grocery store.  Bashas is a family owned and operated grocery store that was established by brothers, Ike and Eddie Basha, Sr. The community also has two types of government: the Chapter House and the Township. Kayenta Chapter House is the local form of the greater Navajo Nation government.  The Navajo Nation government is divided in 5 agencies, and each agency is divided into local chapter houses.  Each community has a chapter house. The Navajo reservation has 110 chapters, but only represented by 24 delegates.  The delegates, are synonymous to U. S. Senators, make up the Legislative Branch of the Navajo Nation government. The Kayenta Township on the other hand is a municipal-style government. Kayenta is also served by two schools: Kayenta Boarding School and Kayenta Unified School District.3 Kayenta Boarding school is a K-8 school run by the Bureau of Indian Education, a division of the United States Department of the Interior, under the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs.

Kayenta Unified School District is a Title 1 public school that serves Kayenta and the surrounding communities including Shonto, Black Mesa, Chilchinbeto, Dennehotso, and others. Each school year, the KUSD educates over 2,000 students. It has four schools under it: Kayenta Early Childhood Education (ABC Preschool-K), Kayenta Elementary School (1st Grade – 4th Grade), Kayenta Middle School (5th Grade – 8th Grade), and Monument Valley High School.  Kayenta Elementary School serves students from First Grade through Fourth Grade.  The past school year, each grade level had between 5-7 classes.  Currently, the school has 6 second grade classes with about 16-20 students in each class.  This year, I will be looping with my previous first grade class to second grade.

Rationale

Sharing stories is an important part of the Navajo culture. Navajos relied on oral narratives to pass down traditions, philosophy, and religion because they did not have a written language.  The Navajo creation stories were told during the winter for entertainment, teaching lessons and morals, but especially for cultural preservation.  Storytelling, especially Native American traditional stories including myths, legends, and folktales rooted in oral storytelling are important. Indigenous Nations pass their religious beliefs, customs, history, lifestyle, language, values, and the place they hold sacred from one generation to the next. Navajos pass time during the long winters to play string games and tell creation stories.  Creation stories taught lessons about respect including people, animals, and environments. Storytellers often included theatrics and or embellishments to get the point across, especially stories that taught lessons. There were also stories about kinship or K’é to teach us how to treat each other, including families, with love, kindness, and generosity.

Despite our strong cultural history of storytelling, who maintained years of oral history, we struggle to recall or retell a story that were told to us.  We as a whole tribe lost the ability to tell stories, and ability to teach storytelling effectively.  For this unit, I want to use art as a form storytelling.  Students will be taught to include questions that answer such as who, what where, when, why, and how when retelling a story.  When students are asked to tell a story or retell a story, they just mention one part of the story like, “Oh he got a bike!”  As a teacher, I wait, but no other details come. I often ask for details: for example, I would often ask students, what did you do over the weekend? The common response is nothing. Then I must ask follow-up questions: Nothing? Did you watch TV? Did you play outside? Student: Yeah! Teacher: what did you watch? What did you play? Storytelling, whether it’s retelling a story, or creating a storing is a challenge, even for students in fourth grade.  To prevent students from struggling in higher grades, I want to teach my second graders about the art of storytelling.  Their story will focus on describing in detail a personal historical event that happened using a picture. The plan is to create a curriculum using ELA standards to retell stories, including fables and folktales from Navajo and Black cultures, and determine central message, lesson, or moral.  We will also read stories from both cultures to determine the similarities, especially the part where both quilting and rug weaving are both legacies that grandparents pass on to their children and grandchildren.  One way is to share stories from picture books that are grade appropriate and read poems and listen to songs.  These are different types of ways stories can be told.

To introduce the art of storytelling is to invite an elder or a local historian to class.  I want the elder to tell stories about their experiences as a child, or even some historical context of what life was like when they were growing up.  The other idea is to share historical photos of Kayenta so they can use their imagination to write or create a story.

This will be a three-week unit that will cover both Navajo weavers and African American quilt makers. I chose to pair Navajo weavers and African American quilt makers because both cultures have similar history, in terms of storytelling and textile traditions.  The tradition of weaving and quilt-making are passed down from one generation to another, some going back as far as 7 generations.  Each generation transform their crafts, but one constant is the storytelling.  Storytelling is an important aspect for quiltmakers and weavers because stories relate to the history of the families or historical event that impacted the people.  One textile can remind the weavers and quilters the good times or bad times. The cultural experience for my students is limited to life on the Navajo reservation.  They do not know a lot about other cultures other than what they see in movies or on TV.  The limitation of information about other cultures prevents the students from realizing that other cultures do exist and have similar historical experiences as their ancestors. This unit will help students see the similarities of the two cultures especially through the art of weaving and quilt making.

We will start the unit talking about Navajo art, specifically Navajo rug weaving.  First, we will get to know some expert weavers by reading about them.  We will discuss some of the struggles that weavers faced from different generations.  For example, what are some struggles that weavers confronted before the Long Walk, after the Long Walk, and in modern times.  Then we will talk about the struggles and perseverance of quiltmakers of Gees Bend, and finally about Faith Ringgold.  In the third week, we will compare the and contrast the Navajo textile with African American Quilts and Ringgold’s art pieces.

Comments:

Add a Comment

Characters Left: 500

Unit Survey

Feedback