Three major theories on juvenile delinquency were examined with respect to their applicability to Navajo juvenile crime. The theories selected were social disorganization-social control theory, status frustration-structural strain theory, and normative conflict-differential association theory. An overview of Navajo social organization was given with a focus on traditional methods of deviance control in Navajo society. Additionally, surveys were administered to 111 students at all levels of Chinle High School on the Navajo reservation. Cross-tabulations were used to determine gender differences with respect to the commission of delinquent acts, as well as possible correlations between alcohol abuse in the students' home and liquor offenses committed by students. Religious affiliation, religiosity, as well as selected aspects of acculturation were examined in their relation to Navajo juvenile delinquency.

A fertility and family planning survey was conducted among the recipients of pub lie welfare ass i stance in San Juan County, Utah. Two hundred twenty-five recipient families out of some 536 families on the list were interviewed during May and June of 1968 by nine graduate and undergraduate students in Sociology and Social Work with the help of Social Welfare workers and Navajo interpreters. The study was primarily concerned with the following objectives: (1) to study the level and age patterns of fertility of a group of selected Navajo Indians, (2) to investigate the factors which might affect the fertility, desired fami.ly size, and ideal family size, (3) to study the knowledge of and the extent of the use of birth control methods among the selected group, (4) to compare the findings of previous fertility studies dealing with other groups to those found among the selected group of Navajos. The data indicate that the fertility of Navajo women was very high, reaching the completed fertility rate of 9. 2 children for women aged 45-49 years as compared with that of 2.4 children and 2 .8 children for white and non-white women in the United States in 1960 respectively. The number of children ever born among the total ever married women was 6 .6 children . The number of children the Navajo women considered ideal for a couple in general and for the Navajo family in particular was 7 . 1 children and 7.7 children respectively. A strong inverse relationship was observed among Navajo women between fertility level and several social variables. The fertility of women who knew English was as much as 3.9 percent below that of women who did not . Fertility was also lower among those who had more frequent contact with white people. Although the proportion of women who knew any methods of birth control was very low (only 50 percent of the total women), the fertility of these women was considerably lower than that of those who did not know anything about birth control.

One of the primary objectives of education in the United States is to prepare young people for adult life. They are expected to become a part of the social and civic life of the community, and by working in a vocation to contribute to their own personal welfare and that of the society in which they live.

American Indians are severely disadvantaged and yet known relationships among risk and protective factors and cultural identification are limited. The current study assessed associations among measures of acculturation, ethnic identity, and psychosocial outcomes among Navajo adolescents. Adjustment of Navajo adolescents in the domains of school bonding, social functioning, self-esteem, depression, delinquent behaviors, and substance use was assessed. Navajo adolescents, between the ages of 14 and 18, also completed a self-report questionnaire containing the Revised Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure, the Orthogonal Cultural Identification Scale, and the Native American Acculturation Scale. Measures of ethnic identity were positively associated with aspects of psychosocial functioning for Navajo adolescents, with stronger predictions of school bonding, self-esteem, and social functioning outcomes emerging for males. The students' sense of affirmation and belonging to their ethnic heritage emerged as the strongest predictor of positive outcomes.

This thesis suggests a new method of developing reading materials for Navajo students. The core of this method is based on phoneme- grapheme relative frequency correspondence data. A short story was phonetically edited and rewritten using the phoneme-grapheme relative frequency method. This short story was one of the major products of the thesis. This short story and three other short stories previously phonically rewritten, were presented in both this form and in original text to 38 Navajo students for reading. Reading speed and reading comprehension were measured for each student on the short stories. The students performed with superior reading speed and with superior reading comprehension on two stories and equal comprehension on two stories. The difference on reading speed was significant at the .01 level. On the two stories with reading comprehension differences, the difference was significant at the .05 level.

Navajo school students, it is believed, underachieve at school in terms of school attendance, dropout rates, and standardized performance tests. Among the many reasons proposed to explain the persistent school underachievement is that school culture is largely based on individualism, interpersonal competition, and other Western norms and values. These, it is argued, are an anathema to Native Americans. Hence, school culture may predispose many Navajo High School students to failure. To test this belief I constructed a model of school achievement motivation drawn from Western conceptualizations of achievement motivation described Navajo High School students achievement motivation. Using confirmatory factor analyses tests of equivalency were conducted that contrasted non-traditional Navajo students and females with near traditional Navajo students and males. Using structural equation modeling, I examined the relations of the language, location, and gender variables on the achievement goal factors, mediated by school measures of achievement, ability beliefs, social goals and achievement goals. I concluded that non-traditional and near traditional Navajo students are more similar than dissimilar. Clearly this raises concerns regarding the making of policy based on assumptions regarding presumed differences between non-traditional and near traditional Navajo High School students. I also concluded that, school achievement measures, the ability beliefs, and the social approval and social concern goals are important factors that influence the school achievement goals Navajo students emphasize. This has implications for the manner in which schools and teachers emphasize these factors in classrooms. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

In contrast to early work establishing the importance of earthquake-induced liquefaction in producing soft-sediment deformation (SSD) of the Navajo Sandstone, this report advances the use of SSD analysis to: characterize wet climatic conditions and flood events during the depositional history of ancient eolianites; discriminate the signatures of multiple deformation events from those of complex deformation features formed in a single event; and to document the occurrence of liquefaction features unrepresented in modern Earth analogues. The diversity of deformation styles, presented here, is very unusual in a report from a single formation; yet the high resolution of interpreted time relationships between various processes of deposition, erosion, water table fluctuation, and deformation is even more notable. These exceptional features derive from the extraordinary outcrops of the Colorado Plateau, which expose many large-scale (tens of meters) features throughout their entire extent and reveal an extended history of episodic deformation through thick (hundreds of meters) sections of cross-bedded units, which frequently continue along several kilometers of cliff face. Prior studies of fluid escape from unconsolidated sand that support the present work are outlined in Chapter II. These include laboratory simulations of liquefaction and fluidization as well as analyses of analogous deposits, both ancient and modern. Chapter III provides an overview of outcrop evidence, gathered during the course of this study, for dramatic alterations in the topography and sedimentation patterns of the Navajo erg. Interpreted perturbations include: the foundering of active dunes; sediment eruptions; and the subsidence of interdune surfaces. Chapter IV constitutes an example of the detailed analyses that support the overview of Chapter III. Outcrop features from a site in West Canyon, Arizona provide the basis for interpreting the subsidence of a dry interdune surface to a position several meters below the contemporary water table, followed by the filling of this depression with a succession of mass flow, lacustrine, and eolian deposits. Chapter V outlines the implications of various outcrop features for the prevailing model of soft-sediment deformation in the Navajo Sandstone. Proposed modifications of this model accommodate a broader range of deformation dynamics and specifically incorporate the impact of wet climates.

In contrast to early work establishing the importance of earthquake-induced liquefaction in producing soft-sediment deformation (SSD) of the Navajo Sandstone, this report advances the use of SSD analysis to: characterize wet climatic conditions and flood events during the depositional history of ancient eolianites; discriminate the signatures of multiple deformation events from those of complex deformation features formed in a single event; and to document the occurrence of liquefaction features unrepresented in modern Earth analogues. The diversity of deformation styles, presented here, is very unusual in a report from a single formation; yet the high resolution of interpreted time relationships between various processes of deposition, erosion, water table fluctuation, and deformation is even more notable. These exceptional features derive from the extraordinary outcrops of the Colorado Plateau, which expose many large-scale (tens of meters) features throughout their entire extent and reveal an extended history of episodic deformation through thick (hundreds of meters) sections of cross-bedded units, which frequently continue along several kilometers of cliff face. Prior studies of fluid escape from unconsolidated sand that support the present work are outlined in Chapter II. These include laboratory simulations of liquefaction and fluidization as well as analyses of analogous deposits, both ancient and modern. Chapter III provides an overview of outcrop evidence, gathered during the course of this study, for dramatic alterations in the topography and sedimentation patterns of the Navajo erg. Interpreted perturbations include: the foundering of active dunes; sediment eruptions; and the subsidence of interdune surfaces. Chapter IV constitutes an example of the detailed analyses that support the overview of Chapter III. Outcrop features from a site in West Canyon, Arizona provide the basis for interpreting the subsidence of a dry interdune surface to a position several meters below the contemporary water table, followed by the filling of this depression with a succession of mass flow, lacustrine, and eolian deposits. Chapter V outlines the implications of various outcrop features for the prevailing model of soft-sediment deformation in the Navajo Sandstone. Proposed modifications of this model accommodate a broader range of deformation dynamics and specifically incorporate the impact of wet climates.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

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