Continued Decline of Indian Languages

Abstract

Other schools on the Navajo Reservation imitated the educational model that Rock Point had developed, but in a sense the efforts to promote the Navajo language in schools were a race against time, as public demand grew for improved education in English. At the end of the twentieth century, “only a handful of schools” serving Navajo pupils had adopted instruction through Navajo, though others provided various supplemental instruction in Navajo language and culture; altogether, though, “only 10% of all K-12 Navajo students receive instruction in or about Navajo language and culture.” Even in those schools where the language is taught, a study found, “the teachers of Navajo language courses are … isolated and unsure how to teach a group of students that have a wide range in Navajo speaking and comprehension abilities. Most often, the teacher utilizes the more fluent students as tutors for more limited students, thereby limiting the more fluent students’ progress and development in Navajo.”¹