Dine' College

Dine' College is a two year Navajo College(est. 1968) located about 30 miles from Chinle in the tiny town of Tsaile. It is the first Native American owned and operated institution of higher learning. It is open to everyone although most students are Navajo. They have great cross country, basketball, and wrestling teams. The college tries to prepare Navajo for a four year college as well train people as x-ray, dental, and nursing technicians.

It is the only college where one can come an study the Navajo Language as both a beginner and as a fluent speaker. It is a bilingual and offers some courses only in Navajo. They also have a great archiology department that specializes in the Pre-Columbian ruins and culture in the area. The people here take great pride in the institution and the buildings are wonderfully designed.

The non Navajo who study there are often linguists who want to learn one of the few living Athabascan languages or missionarys who are sent by their churches to preach to the Navajo. The Navajo have their own native religious organization with its own set of leaders and practitioners. In the hospital where I work we have a number of native preachers who minister to the sick as well as Christian ministers.

Conventional education has only recently been recognized as have great importance to the tribe. Until the late 60's most Navajo did not graduate from high school and employment was mostly in ranching and farming. They have great facilities now in the public school system and the teachers, most of whom live on the school campuses, are highly motivated. Native and non native teacher work side by side and the teaching career is held in high regard.