Shiprock hails opening of heritage center

While some people took the opportunity to protest the closure of Nataani Nez Elementary School, the Central Consolidated School District last week celebrated the opening of a building the district hopes will serve as center for learning Navajo culture.

On June 10, the district opened the Heritage Education Center, which is intended to help preserve Navajo and other cultures within the school district. The center is located next to the Shiprock Administrative Complex.

"The heritage center really in a way symbolizes our belief that we are here for the kids and we are going to create new opportunities in new ways for our students to learn and become successful," said Superintendent Gregg Epperson.

Officials said the center is part of a 20-year Navajo language revitalization plan but will also be open to other languages important to the region, such as Spanish, and will serve as the language and cultural epicenter for 17 district schools.

Part of that plan is to initiate a Navajo language immersion class, set to start this fall with a kindergarten class at Eva B. Stokely Elementary School, Epperson said.

"We believe that through language and through culture our students are going to have more opportunity to connect to their learning with their teachers, so we're really committed to that," Epperson said.

The opening was attended by nearly 90 community members, district officials and Navajo Nation officials.

The event included speakers, singers and a traditional ceremony to bless the building, followed by a ribbon cutting.

Using words from former Navajo Nation President Peterson Zah, Navajo Nation Assistant Superintendent for Education Tim Benally asked the people in attendance how the future of the Navajo Nation would look in regard to culture.

"Fifty years from now, how do we see our children? How do you see it? How do you see us as Diné people?" Benally asked.

He added that the heritage center plays a role in helping to preserve Navajo language and culture for future generations.

Dorothy Redhouse, a member of the CCSD board, said the 3,300-square-foot building will serve the entire school district and answers a stated need.

"There's been a demand and requests by our community members to keep the Navajo language and culture within our school district," Redhouse said.

Renovation of the former CCSD conference center cost about $250,000 and took six weeks to complete, said Byron Manning, district finance director.

However, community members who long have pushed the district to teach Navajo language and culture, say it's been a long time coming.

Larry Emerson, 62, of Shiprock, said the center is evidence that the district finally is recognizing the importance culture plays in a student's education.

"Hózhóójí is an appropriate vision of culture and needs to get back into the curriculum," he said. "We have to train young kids not only to speak Navajo, but to understand the cultural values."

School board member Hoskie Benally agrees with the role of culture in a student's education and said the struggle to get CCSD to treat it seriously propelled him and others to action.

"Four years ago some of us ran for the school board because we wanted to have (Navajo language and culture) as part of the curriculum. We wanted to give it full focus and attention," Benally said.

" Our language and our culture provides self-identity. When somebody has self-identity, then it reaps self-esteem," he said. "And then out of that self-esteem you have academic achievement. And research has proven that."

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