Toward True Educational Sovereignty for the Navajo Nation: Structure, Politics, Curriculum, and Quality

In this dissertation I offer my perspective as a Navajo educator and Tribal Education Official as it relates to the historical and current debates surrounding Navajo goals for controlling the education of our people on the Navajo reservation. I offer a variety of ideas for achieving this long-standing dream that are grounded in my personal auto-ethnographic experience. These pieces include my thoughts on policy as they have emerged in my role as a Navajo leader; recommendations for a more culturally relevant curriculum as well as recommendations for legislative actions related to federal, state, and local control of schooling. Specifically, I offer a curriculum for traditional ways that males can be educated in a new system of culturally relevant education, and I analyze a variety of federal titles and Navajo education system policies and procedures as well. The goal throughout is to offer an "insider's" view of what might be done to bring a more successful education to Navajo children.