Based on Thesis--Columbia University, 1950. / Bibliography: p. 93-97.

Thesis (Ph. D.) Columbia University, 1941. / On cover: Supplement to American antiquity, vol. 7, no. 2, part 2, 1941. Published also without thesis note. Bibliography: p. 86-90.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisors: Joel F. Sherzer and Pauline Turner Strong. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

This study examines the history of Navajo literacy and its meaning in the lives and teaching practices of three Native American Indian bilingual teachers. The autobiographies of the teachers were recorded in the form of life history interviews and analyzed in relation to an historical account of Navajo education which integrates public documents, archival materials, research in literacy in multi-ethnic communities, and Navajo children's literature. This study includes a bibliography of Navajo language literature from 1940-1990 which has been categorized by title, date, publisher, and curriculum topic.

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree and type of participation of selected Navajo educators. A questionnaire was developed for this study to allow categorization of the participant's responses of frequencies of participation at specific administrative levels and institutional functions. Selected elementary and secondary schools were visited by appointment and thirty-two participants volunteered for this study. A diversity of Navajo educators was represented, according to background information obtained. Participants included both males and females, ages twenty-one to sixty, one to sixteen years of teaching experience, on-campus and on-site degree program graduates, public and B.I.A. school systems, six individual schools, and administrators and teachers. Overall, the greatest frequency of participation was as follows: For the Policy and Planning and Coordinating and Developing levels, student services (assessment and counselling) and curricular activities were highest, respectively. Daily teaching and administering duties were highest, as would be expected, at the Supervising and Implementing level with curriculum development and student counselling and assessment next highest, respectively. Considering background characteristics, a public school district, an individual public school, males, the thirty to thirty-nine age group, on-campus program graduates, those with six years of teaching experience total or within a school district each reported the highest frequency of participation when compared within categories, respectively. Based on the overall mean of frequencies reported, high or low values were assigned. When the chi square statistic was employed, three significant relationships were found within background groups: those with Master's degrees; those with six to sixteen years of teaching; those with five to twelve years in a school; and those from one university had significantly higher frequencies. This study was exploratory in nature; and it is not known to what degree the conclusions could be extended to the general population of Navajo educators. The Navajo educators studied did participate to some degree at all levels in all school functions. Certain groups reported more participation, and those with Bachelor's degrees, fewer than six years of teaching experience, and fewer than five years in a school reported significantly lower frequencies of participation.

This study documents the recent commercialization and secularization of a form of religious art by the Navajo Indians of northern Arizona and New Mexico. The form, commercial sandpainting, is made of pulverized dry materials glued onto a permanent backing. Sacred sandpaintings are impermanent pictures that attract powerful supernaturals who are invoked to cure and to bless. The paintings are intentionally destroyed at the end of the ceremony and their use is surrounded by supernaturally sanctioned prescriptions. Unlike the sacred form from which the decorative art stemmed, commercial sandpaintings are designed and made as part of the national Indian arts and crafts market. The development of commercial sandpaintings, therefore, involved a shift from a sacred to a secular domain and a shift from native use to non-native consumption. The purpose of this work is to understand how and why a group of people decided to commercialize a sacred art form and the social and artistic repercussions of intentional sale to outsiders and the breaking of widely held religious rules. It focuses on the mechanisms of this complex process of innovation and diffusion. Basically it identifies the innovators and founders (both Navajo and Anglo-American), when and where these events occurred, how the idea to make commercial sandpaintings spread, and why Navajos who subsequently became sandpainters decided to pursue the craft. It will be shown that while reasons were numerous, economics was always of central importance. It is concluded that the commercialization of ethnic art occurs because of poverty situations when makers have few economic alternatives and there is a demand for luxury items by another group.

No description available.

In Traditional Navajo Sandpainting and John Dewey's Concept of An Experience I argue that the traditional Navajo sandpainting ceremony and John Dewey's concept of an experience mutually inform each other. By looking at traditional Navajo sandpaintings one can understand the type of experience Dewey is talking about when he talks about an experience. By looking at Dewey's concept of an experience one can understand the kind of experience the Navajo have when they participate in the sandpainting ceremonies. These experiences are deeply embedded in the foundation and meaning of life. Dewey argues that art and life are not separate. The traditional Navajo sandpaintings illustrate this. Life and the aesthetic are interwoven and connected. Beauty is part of our everyday lives and fills it with meaning.

5 pp. / This fact sheet describes describes the socioeconomic and cultural aspects of the Navajo reservation, as well as the history of extension and effective extension programs and collaborations conducted on this reservation.