No description available.

The purpose of this study was to compare employment rates of vocational agriculture program completers from Chinle High School in Arizona with employment rates of non-Hispanic Native Americans residing in the same area and of comparable age. In addition, program completers' perceptions of the competencies taught and the value of the vocational agriculture program at Chinle High School were ascertained. Results indicated vocational agriculture program completers from Chinle High School had higher employment rates than the comparison group. Program completers were employed in a variety of occupations, the highest frequency working in production agriculture enterprises. Program completers were using many Core Curriculum Competencies taught in the vocational agriculture program. The competencies were used in primary vocations, avocations, or both. Program completers placed a high value on their experiences while enrolled in the vocational agriculture program at Chinle High School. The program was given high ratings by participants.

This ethnographic study investigates the frequency of use of the Navajo Blessingway ceremony during pregnancy by Navajo women in the Fort Defiance Service Unit of Indian Health Service. Through interviews with postpartum women and community members it was found that approximately 14% of the Navajo women at this hospital had a Blessingway ceremony during their current pregnancy. The data indicate that contemporary usage of the Blessingway ceremony is much less frequent than with previous generations. Factors contributing to this decline include a: decrease in the use of Navajo language, decreased number of practicing medicine men, increased reliance on Christian religions practices, influence of Western education and health care practices and changing socioeconomic conditions. The most significant factor in encouraging pregnant women to use this beneficial ceremony was the influence of the extended family.

No description available.

The development of and changes in human social organization have been a concern of anthropological research since the inception of the discipline. A perspective that focuses on the interaction between exogenous (ecological and historical) variables and social organization is argued for herein. This study tests the idea that inheritance patterns reflect both land use and sociohistorical factors. Further, it is suggested that after their move into the American Southwest, the inheritance of agricultural land was influential in the development, although not necessarily the origins, of matrilineality among the Navajo. Data were obtained on land tenure practices in Canyon de Chelly and its major tributary, Canyon del Muerto, historically important centers of Navajo agriculture. Detailed interviews with 93% of the Navajo families owning land in the canyons provided information on land use and inheritance patterns since the 1880s. Data from over 400 cases of land transfers were analyzed. Historical documents and archaeological studies also provided information on Navajo settlement patterns, changes in farming practices and environmental fluctuations since the mid-1700s. Within the past fifty years, and probably longer, topographic and physiographic differences between Canyon de Chelly and Canyon del Muerto have contributed to variations in land use within the canyon system. Ditch irrigated feed crops are now only grown in Canyon del Muerto, and they are commonly used by families involved in market oriented cattle ranching. Further, as a result of erosion problems, the production potential of some canyon areas, as well as the quantity of arable land, is declining. Not all families are able to meet the increasing need for labor and capital intensive practices that could maximize agricultural production on their canyon land, but it remains a highly valued resource. This research indicates that since the 1880s agricultural land in Canyon de Chelly has been transferred more frequently along matrilineal lines, and the explanations for the differences in land tenure patterns between the canyons over time relate both to ecological and socio-historical variables. In conclusion, it is argued that the complexity found within this canyon system reflects a heterogeneity common to any culture, but which anthropologists tend to overlook.

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.

Not available / text

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.

Written texts of Navajo and Western Apache speakers in English revealed rhetorical patterns which seem to be tied to the native languages. The theoretical framework of interlanguage is used to analyze language transfer of two rhetorical features at the discourse level: (1) rhetorical redundancy and (2) narrative technique. Both features can be viewed as fossilizations of discourse which are forced upon the surface of written Navajo and Western Apache English interlanguage by the process of language transfer. Rhetorical redundancy exists in Navajo and Western Apache for emphasis and is transferred to English discourse as emphasis by the repetition of lexical items, syntactic strings and sentential paraphrases. The purposes for rhetorical redundancy in Navajo and Western Apache English interlanguage include the emphasis of emotional concerns, clarifications, and conventions of courtesy. A discourse rule is suggested which summarizes rhetorical redundancy transfer. Narrative technique in Navajo and Western Apache English interlanguage involves idiosyncratic tense shifting patterns at the discourse level. Navajo and Western Apache speakers seem to transfer the semantics of Navajo and Western Apache modes and aspects to English tenses. It is suggested that Navajo and Western Apache speakers find standard English tense usage inadequate for their underlying narrative discourse motivations. The Navajo and Western Apache usitative mode, imperfective mode, and continuative aspect are expressed through the English present tense. The Navajo and Western Apache perfective mode is realized in English through the past tense. The Navajo and Western Apache progressive mode, optative mode, iterative mode, and repetitive aspect surface in English as two possible nonstandard forms of the progressive aspect. A set of three mode and aspect transfer rules at the narrative discourse level is suggested.

No description available.