Navajo elders use storytelling events to save language

GALLUP, N.M. (AP) — A group of Navajo Nation elders is using traditional storytelling to try to pass down their native language to the next generation.

The Dine Council of Elders for Peace recently launched a campaign around storytelling events in Gallup, New Mexico, as a way to keep youth in New Mexico and Arizona engaged in the Navajo language, the Gallup Independent reports.
Organizers plan events around storytelling, games and star-gazing.

Dine Council of Elders for Peace member Mary Jane Harrison said the younger generation has lost much of the Navajo language. But, she says, telling stories is important because the stories also contain real-life lessons
Noreen Kelly, the group's program coordinator, said members hope to expand the events and make them more convenient for younger tribal members to attend.

During a winter storytelling session earlier this month, Harrison shared stories that have transcended generations of her family. A winter storm caused low attendance but Kelly said organizers were still experimenting with times and locations to draw in more youth.

Kelly said Dine elders often gathered during the winter to tell stories to youth. Dine is the Navajo name meaning “the people.'' Winter, according to Navajo culture, is when families pay respect to the snow around them by remaining reverent and still.

“We are entrusted as Natives to have oral history, and we're given the challenge of remembering all these stories verbatim,'' Kelly said. “That's what was given to us.''

One of the stories that Harrison told was a story about the tribe's sacred mountains.

“The way the mountains were set — in the underworld — as we (Navajos) were emerging, water was coming up, so people kept moving up and moving up, and when they came to a certain area, everybody sat in a circle,'' Harrison said.

“That individual had a medicine bundle and brought the mountains back up,'' she said. ”This story teaches us that everywhere you go there's a dilemma that sometimes we cannot overcome.''

Announcer apologizes for remark about Native lacrosse player; team, league vow discipline

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An announcer has apologized for a remark about a Native American player during a lacrosse game that he and the team called “insensitive,'' with both team and league vowing disciplinary action.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Georgia Swarm forward Lyle Thompson said on social media that Philadelphia Wings announcer Shawny Hill said “Let's snip the pony tail'' during Saturday night's game at the Wells Fargo Center.

Thompson, of the Onondaga Reservation in central New York, said fans then threatened to “scalp'' him.

Hill apologized on social media for “insensitive'' words he called “poorly chosen'' and “not intended as racially motivated'' but reflecting “a lack of knowledge on heritage and history.''

The National Lacrosse League said “necessary disciplinary action will be taken swiftly.'' The Philadelphia Wings vowed “swift disciplinary and educational measures'' to prevent similar episodes.