SHIPROCK — Melaina Woody was cutting a large picture of a gray cat from a piece of paper on Wednesday during the Navajo Language Camp hosted by the Central Consolidated School District.
When Woody was asked to pronounce “cat” in the Navajo language, she smiled and said, “Mósí.”
Woody, 8, was one of approximately 80 students to attend the camp, which started on Monday at Eva B. Stokely Elementary School in Shiprock. The camp was open to students ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade. The two-week class is providing Woody the opportunity to take the first steps toward learning the Navajo language.
When asked why she decided to enroll, Woody replied, “So I can learn what my old grandpa is saying.”
Lillie Begay, a second- and third-grade bilingual teacher at Newcomb Elementary School, is teaching 10 students who will enter kindergarten in the fall. Her students are learning the name of an animal each day of the program, and so far they have learned mósí (cat), lééchaa’í (dog) and líí’ (horse).
Students are also learning the traditional way of introducing themselves in Navajo and other skills like the alphabet, numbers and colors.
“We’re introducing them to the Navajo language that they need to know. A lot of our students do not know their own language,” Begay said.
Down the hall from Begay’s classroom, teacher Lorraine Lansing watched her fourth- and fifth-grade students complete their paintings of animals they learned this week.
Lansing, who is also a bilingual teacher at Newcomb Elementary, estimated that five out of the 20 students in her class understand Navajo.
It can be challenging to learn the language, but Lansing said she encourages each student to continue practicing pronunciation and not to be shy or discouraged when comments are made about their enunciation.
“I tell them that there are dialects on the reservation where people say things differently and to accept. I have them understand that,” she said, adding that when she tests them individually, they demonstrate an understanding of the language.
In addition to learning Navajo, the students are receiving lessons about the culture.
Shiprock resident Zachariah Ben spoke to Lansing’s class about sandpainting and its significance to the Navajo people.
Ben used a grinding stone to demonstrate how to crush gypsum into fine white sand. He explained to the class that he would take the sand home to cook it, then return it so it can be used by the students to produce their sandpaintings.
Following the program’s curriculum, Ben pronounced each tool’s name in Navajo.
“I want them to be culturally connected. That’s my main goal,” he said.
Madison Manuelito, 10, was among the students to crush the gypsum using the grinding stones.
She said she joined the program because the private school she attends in Farmington does not offer Navajo language classes.
“I learn English there, and that’s not my real language. … Another reason why I want to learn Navajo is because it is my culture,” Manuelito said.
The language camp is one of three programs the school district is offering this month.
The STEAM — or science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics — Summer Camp starts on June 15 at Kirtland Central High School and the College Success Summer Camp starts on June 16 at Career Prep High School in Shiprock.
Noel Lyn Smith covers the Navajo Nation for The Daily Times. She can be reached at 505-564-4636 and nsmith@daily-times.com. Follow her @nsmithdt on Twitter.
——
©2015 The Daily Times (Farmington, N.M.)
Visit The Daily Times (Farmington, N.M.) at www.daily-times.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
_____
Topics: t000002409,t000002419,t000002776,t000049132,t000002791
