Description: Applies the Diné intellectual process of the Four Sacred Directions, Navajo language, ethnohistory, and cultural history to understand the changes in Navajo educational experiences of the last century.
Brief description: Farina King is assistant professor of history and affiliate of the Cherokee and Indigenous Studies Department at Northeastern State University, Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
Review Quotes:
"Farina King's study offers a passionate and thoughtful account of how the Diné, by holding on to their sacred ways of knowing and living, have withstood the long ordeal of educational colonialism. Beautifully written, bold in conception, and packed with intimate stories, this is a must-read for those interested in how indigenous peoples might maintain or rediscover ancestral identities."--David W. Adams, author of Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, 1875-1928 and Three Roads to Magdalena: Coming of Age in a Southwest Borderland, 1890-1990
"In engaging and readable prose, Farina King has produced a compelling autoethnography wherein she introduces readers to the concept of the Earth Memory Compass in order to get academics and laypeople alike to rethink the history of twentieth-century Diné educational experiences. In the process, she helps readers think about land, knowledge, and collective identity creation in ways that will help subsequent generations of scholars forge new work."--Erika Bsumek, author of Indian-Made: Navajo Culture in the Marketplace, 1868-1940