Growing up Navajo

So there is a really fascinating book that follows the lives of 4 different Navajo kids as they grew up, some are as young as kindergarten.  The interesting part is the story of how they actually grow up in foster homes off the reservation and in boarding schools.

 Now, there are lots of stories about the mandatory boarding schools where children were sent  (sometimes were kidnapped), and forced to cut their hair and weren't allowed to speak Navajo.  But these are not those schools.  These are programs that the parent's entered into voluntarily.  Sometimes because they were living in impoverished conditions, and they struggled to make sure their kids had food to eat each day.  Sometimes parents saw the opportunity for their kids to have a chance to do better in school.  (there were schools on the rez back then, but familes that lived in outlying areas -the kids would have to walk down long dirt roads to make it to the bus stop, usually early in the morning, and sometimes the bus wouldn't drop them off until dinner time.  At that point they were usually too tired to get any homework done, and even if they weren't, it would be difficult because living in a hogan at night without electricity meant doing homework by candlelight--which usually didn't happen.  And if there was bad weather--snow, rain, mud, or even dust-- then they might not make it to the bus, or the bus might not come, and then they end up missing so many days of school it becomes too hard to catch up that they get held back. 

So basically many of these kids (and for reference this is kids born between approx. 1970-1980)  ended up getting sent to live somewhere else during the school year. 

Some kids were sent on placement.  This was a program run by the Mormon church.  Children had to be baptised into the church to be eligible (so they were at least 8 years old) and these kids were sent to live with Mormon familes in Mesa, Phoenix, Provo and other towns (all at least a 6 hour drive away.)  They called the familes they lived with their foster families and some grew pretty close to these familes, and other kids were bounced around to different families each year.  Most stayed the entire school year, they could come home on Christmas break but they would be so sad when it would be time to go back to school that most of their parents opted to avoid the heartbreak and just wait till summer to bring them home.  Buses would arrive at the beginning of the school year to pick up the kids from the rez and to bring them home for the summer.  One of the older boys remembers one trip where they were on the bus up to Provo when some of the first-timers decided they were too home sick and didn't want to go anymore.  When the bus made it's first stop the young kids snuck off the bus and found a spot to try and hitch hike a ride back to Chinle.  The other kids on the bus covered for them until they were sure they had gotten in a care and were far enough away that the adults would just let them go. 

One little girl grew attended boarding schools (on and off the rez) for K-12.   She was in kindergarten when she goes to her first boarding school.  She is happy--though she remembers wishing her mom had let her go on placement like her older cousins.  Despite this, she liked the boarding school, everyone was nice, she shared a room with two bunk beds with 3 others girls, she got a lot of food to eat each day.   There was one dorm mate (kind of like an RA in a dorm) that slept on their floor and was the grown up in charge.  The teachers were all Navajo and there were even older ladies that reminded them of their grandmothers.  She was closer to home, so she was sometimes able to come home on weekends. 


So about the title of this book.   I will let you know what it is called...if I ever get around to writing it.  

These are the stories of some of the friends I have made while living here.  The little girl who went to boarding school is my lab partner--just two years older than me.  When she told me she went to boarding school at age 5 I was speechless at first, and then I couldn't stop asking questions--I wanted to know what it was like.  I just kept picturing my little girl on her first day of kindergarten, braided pig tails in her hair and a pink princess backpack, hoping she wouldn't miss me too much now that she was in school full-day.  I can't imagine sending my little baby away at such a young age.  Maybe for high school, junior high would be pushing it--but no way--not for my little 5 year old! :-)  

The part that fascinates me is the way that they made it work.  The way that the kids enjoyed the experience (most of the time).  Because of how things were at home, how the new living conditions were an improvement.  The Mormon church is so big on families--at first I didn't understand how they could run a program that separated young kids from their parents--but I can see how in many cases the church did in fact have the families' best interests at heart.  They made it easier for the kids to get an education, and to have access to three meals a day.  In some cases, it made it easier for the parents to find work and earn a living  (one child's parents traveled around as migrant farm workers while he was on placement.) 

Anyway--thanks for reading this very long post --and seeing a glimpse of the thoughts floating around in my head.  Sometimes I wonder if it is only interesting to me, because I am here.  So I would love to hear what you think.  Writing a book like this would be a lot of work, but it could be the type that could record a part of the navajo history, educational for those of us who lived elsewhere off in our own little world,  and interesting story when written through the eyes of these little kids.