NAVAJO NEW WORLD READERS · 2
The Flag of My Country
SHIKÉYAH BIDAH NA'AT'A'Í
KING — NEZ — BAHE
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS … DIVISION OF EDUCATION
all of the Carson Indian School
Single Copy Price 30 cents
Second edition 5,000 copies—February 1956
INTERIOR. HASKELL PRESS. 5-58-100-3M
NAVAJO NEW WORLD READERS · 2
The Flag of My Country
SHIKÉYAH BIDAH NA'AT'A'Í
KING — NEZ — BAHE
NAVAJO NEW WORLD READERS
At this writing (1951) there are approximately 26,000children of school age on the Navajo reservation. About 40 percentof these are between the ages of 12 and 18. The greatmajority have never been inside a school, and do not speakEnglish. Recently the government has provided space for morethan 4,000 of these non-English-speaking adolescents in ten of itsoff-reservation boarding schools. A five-year intensive educationalprogram is provided designed to teach these children to speak,read, write, and think in English; to do simple arithmetic, to knowthe facts of American history, world geography, civics and health;and to provide the basic skills which will enable them to obtainand hold a permanent job away from the reservation. Thereservation resources will support only about half the presentpopulation.
We have learned how to teach these non-English-speakingNavajos to speak and read English very rapidly. However, thereisn't much material for them to read. They are maturing adolescentswith adolescent interests. Primers and first readers preparedfor use by six-year-old school children don't have muchinterest for them. Because most non-Indians learn to read whenthey are young, very few books are published in which the ideasare mature, but the vocabularies simple enough for beginningreaders. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, therefore, has undertakenthe preparation and printing of booklets written by the leaderswho are working directly with these children. Because the childrenare entering a new culture, and their success will depend upon thedegree to which they make the basic ideas of this culture their own,these new books will rely on the material of this new culture fortheir content. They will