Navajo Historian, Wally Brown, remembers his great grandmother and her advice. She was 6 years old when she returned from the prison camp… fort sumner. In the 40’s or 50’s she called about 15 of her grandchildren and great children together. In the Hogan (Traditional Navajo Home) she counseled her grandchildren to “Learn the Language of the White Man”. Wally also counsels today's youth to learn to read, write and comprehend. Not only English, but The Navajo language (Diné Bizaad) as well. | Nava

It’s easy to forget how close the Navajo language came to disappearing. For decades, boarding schools punished Native children for speaking it, and by the mid-1900s, fluency had begun to decline sharply. Elders still held the language, but younger generations were losing touch with it. Then the Navajo Nation fought back. Families, elders, educators, and communities built language programs from the ground up. Bilingual classrooms, cultural immersion, and community-led lessons began rekindling wha