A forgotten battleground
LEUPP - The Pledge of Allegiance, written in Navajo, hangs prominently on a first-grade classroom wall. An elderly Navajo Code Talker, whose language played a large role in winning the Pacific campaign during World War II, talks passionately to pupils down the hall about the importance of the language. This is Leupp Public School, an unintended battleground of Proposition 203, the Nov. 7 ballot initiative that would do away with bilingual education in Arizona. Supporters of the proposition say they were targeting mainly Spanish speakers, not Native Americans, when they crafted the initiative. Still, they say, English is good for everyone. But Native Americans worry the measure would stop efforts to teach kids fading native languages. While a bevy of big-city lawyers sort through the legal issues of whether Arizona's Native American tribes are sovereign enough to ignore Proposition 203 if it passes, Leupp teachers want to pass on one thought. The proposition better allow their teaching efforts because the future of the Navajo language clearly rests on their shoulders. That's because none of the preschoolers here in the southwestern corner of the nation's largest reservation speak the language entering the school. And Navajo also isn't heard amid the rambunctious cafeteria banter of junior-high students.Principal Louise Scott says the Navajo language among the young is like a fire faintly flickering. "We're putting a little wood on it," Scott said. "But the tribal government isn't giving kids enough reason to learn Navajo because almost all meetings now are in English. Even our ceremonies are being translated into English for people attending them." For years, teachers at Leupp had tried to do something about the decline of the language among the school's more than 200 pupils. Finally, three years ago, a five- year federal grant for $1.3 million came down the pike for extensive bilingual education, said Sara Klause, a Leupp teacher who spearheaded the grant effort. Now, 80 percent of the instruction to preschoolers is in Navajo. For first- and second-graders, it's half English and half Navajo. By the time third grade comes around, students are taught only in English. Eventually, teachers hope to instruct half in English and half in Navajo up through the eighth grade as the program expands. "Without this kind of reinforcement at school, this language will die out during the next generation," said Amy Begay, a Leupp teacher who went to school in a bilingual program. By all appearances, the Navajo instruction effort has been highly successful. On cue, second-grade pupils belt out Mary Had A Little Lamb, Three Blind Mice and the Navajos' Long Walk Song in their native language. Next door, Irene Tsosie's first-graders are learning about money. She points out how the Navajo word for money, "beso," came from the Spanish word "peso" because of the influence of early Spanish settlers who came into northwestern New Mexico. The class then learns to add in Navajo using pictures of pennies. "They really like that part," Tsosie said, beaming. "That really gets the message across." The teaching of Navajo culture at the Leupp school isn't limited to vocabulary. Behind the school amid clumps of sagebrush are two sweat lodges, one for boys, the other for girls. Ground is being cleared for a hogan. If the federal grant money is extended beyond five years, a sheep camp also might be added. Navajo elders recently put on a demonstration at the school about how to butcher sheep. But for now, most of the attention at the school is focused on a bulletin board near Scott's office, where the thoughts of pupils and staff are posted daily about Proposition 203. A third-grader, who identified herself only as Keevana, was direct in her scrawled letters. She wrote, "I don't want Proposition 203 to take away my language program." Reach the reporter at mark.shaffer@arizonarepublic.com or (602)444-8057. |