Navajo Youth and Anglo Racism: Cultural Integrity and Resistance

Abstract

In this article, Donna Deyhle presents the results of a decade-long ethnographic study of the lives, both in and out of school, of Navajo youth in a border reservation community. She describes the racial and cultural struggle between Navajos and Anglos and the manifestation of that struggle in schools and the workplace. While utilizing these theories' central insights, but then moves beyond them. While differences in culture play a role in the divisions between Anglos and Navajos, Deyhle asserts that these differences intertwine with power relations in the larger community, and that Navajo school success and failure are best understood as part of this process of racial conflict. Navajos, subjected to discrimination in the workplace and a vocationally centered assimilationist curriculum in schools, are more academically successful when they are more secure in their traditional culture. This study demonstrates that those students who embrace this life-affirming vision both gain a solid place in their society and are more successful in the Anglo world of the school.

Home-Going as a Strategy for Success Among Haudenosaunee College and University Students

“…Because Native American college students have unique knowledge of being Native and students, they are the experts about their college experiences (Collins, 2000;Waterman, 2007). As agents of their college experiences, Native students maintain their cultural integrity and resist assimilation by not integrating into the college social scene (Jorgensen, 1993), by practicing their spirituality (Garrett, 1995), and through connection and participation with family and community (Belgarde & LoRé, 2003Deyhle, 1995, HeavyRunner & DeCelles, 2002…”

“…find sources of strength in their families, communities, and culture (Deyhle, 1995;J. Guillory, 2008;HeavyRunner & Marshall, 2003).…”

The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same: The Challenge of Identity for Native Students in Canada

“…Denis, 2007, Razack, 1998. In an ethnographic study involving Navajo youth, Deyhle (1995) found that students who "attempt to make racial discrimination visible within the school have been silenced by the Anglo students and school administrators" (p. 10). Canada can be seen to differ little in this regard; in an ethnographic study focused on the community of Williams Lake in British Columbia, the historian Furniss (1999) found that students and their families regularly reported racial discrimination yet few teachers or administrators saw this as an issue for Aboriginal students.…”

Social Identity and Navajo High School Students: Is a Strong Social Identity Important in the School Context?

“…Among Navajo high school students, there is persistent underachievement. Deyhle (1995) posits stigmatization as a factor in explaining Navajo and Ute American Indians negative attitudes toward school. One such negative attitude may be that students hold negative beliefs about their school abilities.…”