The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Flag of My Country = Shikéyah Bidah Na'at'a'í

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Title: The Flag of My Country = Shikéyah Bidah Na'at'a'í

Author: Cecil S. King

Release date: November 9, 2007 [eBook #23424]

Language: English, Navajo

Credits: Produced by David Starner, Jana Srna and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLAG OF MY COUNTRY = SHIKÉYAH BIDAH NA'AT'A'Í ***

NAVAJO NEW WORLD READERS · 2

The Flag of My Country
SHIKÉYAH BIDAH NA'AT'A'Í

KING — NEZ — BAHE

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS … DIVISION OF EDUCATION


all of the Carson Indian School


Single Copy Price 30 cents

Second edition 5,000 copies—February 1956

INTERIOR. HASKELL PRESS. 5-58-100-3M

NAVAJO NEW WORLD READERS · 2

The Flag of My Country
SHIKÉYAH BIDAH NA'AT'A'Í

KING — NEZ — BAHE

NAVAJO NEW WORLD READERS

At this writing (1951) there are approximately 26,000 children of school age on the Navajo reservation. About 40 percent of these are between the ages of 12 and 18. The great majority have never been inside a school, and do not speak English. Recently the government has provided space for more than 4,000 of these non-English-speaking adolescents in ten of its off-reservation boarding schools. A five-year intensive educational program is provided designed to teach these children to speak, read, write, and think in English; to do simple arithmetic, to know the facts of American history, world geography, civics and health; and to provide the basic skills which will enable them to obtain and hold a permanent job away from the reservation. The reservation resources will support only about half the present population.

We have learned how to teach these non-English-speaking Navajos to speak and read English very rapidly. However, there isn't much material for them to read. They are maturing adolescents with adolescent interests. Primers and first readers prepared for use by six-year-old school children don't have much interest for them. Because most non-Indians learn to read when they are young, very few books are published in which the ideas are mature, but the vocabularies simple enough for beginning readers. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, therefore, has undertaken the preparation and printing of booklets written by the leaders who are working directly with these children. Because the children are entering a new culture, and their success will depend upon the degree to which they make the basic ideas of this culture their own, these new books will rely on the material of this new culture for their content. They will present to these young people a new and different world from that through which they have grown during their early years on the reservation.

Willard W. Beatty
Chief, Branch of Education

[1]

I am a Navajo boy.

[2]

This is my home.

[3]

My home is in Arizona.

[4]

Arizona is in the United States.

[5]

The United States is my country.

[6]

This is the flag of the United States.

This is the flag of my country.

This is my flag.

[7]

I look at my flag.

[8]

I think of my home.

I think of my mother.

I think of my baby brother.

[9]

I think of my father.

I help my father.

[10]

I think of the sheep.

I take care of the sheep.

I can herd the sheep.

[11]

I think of the lambs.

I take care of the lambs.

The lambs can run.

I run and play with the lambs.

[12]

I think of the corn.

I can plant corn.

I like to plant corn.

[13]

I think of the sun.

I can play in the sun.

The sun is warm.

I am happy in the sun.

[14]

I think of my horse.

I like to ride my horse in the wind.

[15]

I think of the deer.

I think of the birds.

[16]

I look at my flag.

I think of my school.

[17]

I think of my big sister.

My big sister and I go to school.

[18]

I can go to school.

I go to school every day.

I like my school.

[19]

My school is far from my home.

My school is off the reservation.

I will go to school five years.

I will learn.

I will learn many things.

[20]

I may learn to be a carpenter.

A carpenter uses a saw.

A carpenter builds houses.

[21]

A painter uses a brush.

A painter paints houses.

I may learn to be a painter.

[22]

A farmer lives on a farm.

A farmer lives in the country.

I may learn to be a farmer.

[23]

I may learn to take care of cars.

[24]

I may learn to cook.

[25]

I may learn to mend shoes.

[26]

My sister may learn to be a housekeeper.

[27]

My sister may learn to sew.

[28]

My sister may learn to be a waitress.

[29]

My sister may learn to help sick people.

My sister will learn to do the work she likes.

[30]

I look at my flag.

[31]

My flag means my home.

My flag means my father and mother.

My flag means my sisters and brothers.

[32]

My flag means the sheep and the lambs.

My flag means the sun and the corn.

[33]

My flag means my school.

My flag means I can go to school.

[34]

My flag means I can learn many things.

My flag means I can learn to do the work I like.

[35]

I think of my country.

[36]

I think of the things I have in my country.

I think of the things I can do in my country.

My country is good.

INDIAN LIFE READERS
Navajo Series

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HASKELL INSTITUTE
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