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(article and photos' by Jami Akers)
I’ve been coming out to the Intermountain Indian School for 10 years now, ever since I moved to Utah. I come to look, to photograph, to wonder and to think. How many languages filled these empty halls when the school was open? Was one allowed to speak his/her native language or did one have to speak English?
Well in my research I found that in the beginning the common language was Navajo for this was a school built for the Navajo children with the hopes of helping them to integrate into the world of Anglos. They were taught skills, reading, writing, math, art and English. Unfortunately, they were also separated from family and friends and as a result there was much loneliness and feeling of alienation. Later on the school opened up to all tribes, with once again the hope of Anglicizing the American Indian. Those children that went here are my age now, all grown up and teaching their children who now go to the schools that are either on the reservations or close by.
Some of the teachers were Native American but the majority were Anglo with no knowledge of the type of home life these students had come from. The teachers were armed with the only thing they knew and that was to teach these children their ways, their beliefs. The major injustice here was the lack of knowledge of the children’s beliefs and ways. The ways of their people. Pride is a small thing one would think but the pride of a child can make or break the man.
These were well-meaning adults who lacked specific cultural information is ill-advised to fall back on his or her own experience, or—worse—his or her own ideas of Navajo experiences, in dealing with these students. The differences between Navajo culture and home environment and that of even a depressed rural section of the United States must be seen and experienced to be believed. For what may seem to be run down or depressed to us was a natural way of order to the Navajo. The didn't need grass to play on, they didn't need individual rooms to sleep in, they didn't need shoes in the summer, they saw no need for several coats when one would do. The saw no need for the excesses that plague the Anglos world, a Navajo's main duty was to walk in beauty and societies trappings weren’t needed to do that. But it is not the Navajo's way to point this out and so the teachers were in some cases as alienate as the children in their attempts to communicate. Below is a information sheet that was used for the children. It was usually administrated to children in the 4th grade and above, for clarity a translator was used for children 4th grade and below.
Now as you read this, stop and think. Would you answer these questions to enroll in school today? Would you submit your child to this questionnaire? No where does it take into consideration that these are First Nation People, they are not foreigners on foreign soil and yet they are treated as such. The school is run down now, a futile attempt at revamping some of the buildings have taken place. But it still looks like the projects. The scenery is still pretty what with the mountains and a local golf course as a backdrop. But the buildings are mainly husk - empty cold and forlorn. Why do I continue to come out here? -to listen to the echos -...... !!
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