In a Western world that suppresses Indigenous culture, members of the Navajo Nation actively engage in artistic cultural revival as a means to keep their history alive and to create vibrant futures. During a fellowship, Shawna Yazzie, a P.h.D. student in Native American studies at the 51Թϱ, Davis, has been looking at and learning the ongoing rug weaving practices at a Body of Water in a Sunken Area, also known as ʾñDz, Arizona, her family’s homeland.
She writes of her family, below, in Dé and English:
Ya’atééh shik’é dóó shi’Dé’é. Totsohníí nishtłı̨́. Tłaaschíí’í bashishchíín. Kinyáá’aanii ei dashicheíí. Tanéézahnı̨́ı̨́ei dashínalí. Ákót’éego Dé asdzáá nishłı̨́. Beʼekʼid Baa Ahoodzánídéé naashá. Shí ei Shawna Yazzie yíníshye. á é Bernita Edgewater ɴDZé ááóó é’é éi Michael B. Yazzie Sr. ɴDZé. á é áíódí naaghá ááóó é’é ei Beʼekʼid Baa Ahoodzánídi naaghá. á sání é Lena James wDZé ntéé ááóó shicheii é Howard James ɴDZé ntéé. áíódiéé naa’ash ntéé. Shinálí asdzą́ą́ é Helen Mae Yazzie wDZé ááóó shinálí hastiin é Kee Bahe Yazzie Sr. ɴDZé ntéé. Beʼekʼid Baa Ahoodzánídéé Բ’a.&Բ;
Hello to my family, friends, and people. I am of the Big Water. I am born for the Red Bottom People. My maternal grandfathers are the Towering House. My paternal grandfathers are the Tangle Peoples.
I am a Dé