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"We know things better through love than through knowledge". --Umberto Eco--
My experience as a library media specialist, special education, and Gifted and Talented Education Coordinator for six years (1989-1995) at Lake Valley Navajo School (LVNS) has been a valuable opportunity as an introduction into the library and information profession. Lake Valley, a small, rural community with a population of approximately 400 residents within the Navajo Nation, is located between Crownpoint and Farmington, New Mexico. All students attending LVNS are Navajo and the majority of families live traditionally in isolated areas in the community. Students and adults are considered bicultural and bilingual. There are unique needs within this educational and cultural setting. The student drop-out rate is continually increasing; students' self-identities conflict between traditional and non-traditional perspectives; and students are gradually becoming monolingual English language speakers.
At LVNS, where networking is critical and budgets dwindling, I was able to author several federal and private grants in behalf of the school, as well as, the library. I was active in community outreach programs within our community. I collaborated with neighboring school libraries and librarians in an effort to provide professional and educational support and neended resources for our students. Within the school, I collaborated with teachers and staff in curriculum projects and activities. We worked as a team in this process and it was a very exciting and rewarding aspect of my responsibilities to work with children in K-8 grades. LVNS' involvement in the BATTLE OF THE BOOKS, sponsored by the New Mexico State Library, over four years, helped improve student reading achievement and reinforce interest in reading quality literature. The students in the Drama Club performed children's literature programs at Lake Valley and at neighboring schools and communities.
While working at LVNS as a library/media specialist, I began a masters graduate program in the School of Library and Information Management (SLIM) at Emporia State University (ESU). I completed my MLS in August 1995. While in the program, I was the recipient of the H.W. Wilson Scholarship Award and the ESU-SLIM Alumni Award.
My experience working on the Navajo reservation has stimulated many questions in addition to fostering a strong connection and commitment to LVNS and community. There are fascinating telecommunications initiatives happening at Dine' College (formerly Navajo Community College) in Tsaile, Arizona, and its branch campuses. The New Mexico State Library supports legislation for tribal libraries and sponsors the Native American Libraries Project in addressing the information needs within tribal reservations. More Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) schools within the Eastern Navajo Agency are connecting to the resources of the Internet now. The impact of the emerging communication technologies within Navajo culture remains the focus of my research.
My professional life remains attuned within the Navajo Nation: its students, adults, and elders. I feel there is a research agenda in which to contribute in scholarly ways. This is a small way of giving back to the community that which I experienced as an educator and librarian at LVNS. I have had the opportunity to meet Navajo and American Indian elders; politicians; advocates; librarians; educators; storytellers, such as Larry King; writers; musicians, such as Razor Saltboy; artisans, such as Alice T. George; and computer engineers, such as ATIIN,who are making a difference in preserving the cultural legacy, balanced with adapting to the contemporary Western world. As a result, I feel a bond and connection which influences the focus of my research interests. At this time there are many exciting changes within the Navajo Nation. I wish to be part of this inertia--a part of this synergy--with the beginning of my dissertation reearch.
The transaction between Navajo oral cultural tradition and literate cultural tradition as interfaced with computer technology, has become the focus of my dissertation research. Such a study involves looking more closely at the American Indian experience through traditional culture and values to understand the impact of technology and social change. Baldwin (1993) states "Native American communities have long been isolated from each other as well as from the rest of America. Computer and satellite technology, however, is changing that" (Omni, August: 48).
Navajo culture has a long history of using technology from external cultures, such as the Pueblos, Spanish, Mexicans, Apaches, Comanches, Utes, Zunis, Euro and AngloAmericans. The ensuing morphogenetic adaptations have resulted in transforming these technologies to become distinctively Navajo. In The Main Stalk, Farella (1984) suggests that the altering of Navajo technologies are attempts to maintain a balance with traditional epistemology, that is, Navajo oral tradition and cosmology. How or will computer technology be interfaced within Navajo oral tradition? And if so, what can literate cultures learn from such a fusion?
I continue to study Navajo language (dine' bizaad bihoosh'aah) in gaining more proficiency in vocabulary and conversational skills. Acquiring more linguistic capabilities enables me to communicate and understand Navajo culture more sensitively and respectfully.
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