WEBVTT

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I grew up on the
Navajo reservation.

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I went to a day school
at Crystal, New Mexico.

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And I learned how to read
from Dick and Jane books.

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Some of you probably
know these books.

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In fact, you can, I think,
buy them at Target now.

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And you can even get a
calendar of Dick and Jane.

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So I'm going to read
you a story from there.

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This is what I read.

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Imagine in the late '50s, people
were still fluently speaking

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the languages.

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Language was still very much in
common use among the families.

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And going to school
and being told

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you couldn't speak
your language,

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and if you spoke your
language, then you

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would be punished for it.

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So we read from these books.

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And this is called Look Up
from the Dick and Jane series.

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"Dick said, look, look.

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Look up.

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Look up, up, up.

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Jane said, run,
run, run, Dick, run.

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Run and see.

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Look, look, said Dick.

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See Sally.

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See funny Sally and father.

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See, see, said Sally.

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Sally is up, up, up.

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This is fun for Sally."

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This is the kind of
books we had to read.

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And it goes on and on.

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And there are pictures with it.

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I don't know-- you
probably can't see these,

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but they were the
characters, Dick and Jane.

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Sally was the little girl,
mother, father, and Dick,

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and Jane.

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Let's see, they had a battle
of pets, Spot, and Huff,

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and the teddy bear.

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I forgot what the
teddy bear's name was.

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Does somebody know?

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No?

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OK.

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Anyway, these were our readers.

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So I wrote this book
called No Parole Today.

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And I call this my
Where's Waldo picture.

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And if you haven't been to
any of my poetry readings

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and you've never--

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you don't know where I
am in this photograph,

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and you can guess on your
first time, I'll give you $5.

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And so far, only one
person has guessed.

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In fact, somebody kept writing
to me from Montana asking me,

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is this you?

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Is this you?

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[INAUDIBLE] Sending
me these interviews.

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And I thought, maybe I should
just put that on my website

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and have a contest.

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This is called "Our Tongues
Slapped into Silence."

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Like I said, I was at
the boarding school.

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Actually, I was at
day school at Crystal,

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New Mexico in the late '50s
on the Navajo reservation.

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And, at the time, it was
the policy of the government

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to assimilate Native people.

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"Our tongue slapped
into silence.

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In first grade, I was five years
old, the youngest and smallest

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in my class.

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Always the one in front
at group picture time.

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The principal put
me in first grade,

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because I spoke both
Diné Bizaad and English.

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Because of that, I
skipped beginner class.

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All my classmates were Diné,
and most of them spoke only

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the language of our ancestors.

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During this time, the
government's policy

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were to assimilate us into
the white way of life.

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We had no choice in the matter.

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We had to comply.

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The taking of our
language was a priority.

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Dick and Jane
subdue the Navajos.

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See father.

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See mother.

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See Dick, run.

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See Jane and Sally left.

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Oh, oh, oh, oh, see Spot, Joan.

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Oh, oh, oh, see Eugene
speak Diné Bizaad.

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See Juanita answer him.

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Oh, oh, oh, see teacher frown.

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Uh oh, uh oh.

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In first grade, our
introduction to Indian school

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was Miss Rollins, a
Black woman from Texas,

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who treated us the
way her people have

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been treated by white people.

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Later, I learned how difficult
it was for Black teachers

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to find jobs in
their communities.

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So they took jobs
with the Bureau

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of Indian Affairs in
New Mexico and Arizona

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in the 1950s and '60s.

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Miss Rollins found it
difficult to adjust

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to living in a mostly
Navajo community, connected

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to the outside world by only
dirt road that was sometimes

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impassable in the winter.

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See Eugene with red
hands shape of ruler.

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Oh, oh, oh, see Eugene cry.

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Oh, oh, oh, see Juanita
stand in the corner.

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See tears fall down face.

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Oh, oh, oh, oh.

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In first grade, we received
the first of our Dick and Jane

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books that introduced us
to the white man's world

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through father, mother,
Dick, Jane, Huff, and Spot.

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These and other characters
said and did what

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we thought all white people do.

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Drive cars to the farm,
drain maple juice from trees,

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and say oh, oh, oh a lot.

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Oh, see us draw pictures of
brown horses under blue clouds.

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We color eyes black, hair black.

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We draw ears and
leave out mouth.

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Oh, see, see, see, see.

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Miss Rollins, an
alien in our world,

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stood us in the corner of
the classroom or outside

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in the hallway to feel
shame for the crime

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of speaking our language.

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Other times, our hands were
imprinted with red slaps

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from the ruler.

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In later classes,
we headed straight

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for the rear of classrooms,
never asked questions,

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and never raised our hand.

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Utter one word of Diné Bizaad
and the government made sure

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our tongues were drowned in the
murky waters of assimilation."

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Consequently, I think
many Native people

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from the generation
after me who don't

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speak the language--
their native language,

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but it was forbidden to do that.

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And ironically, the code talkers
in World War II used the Navajo

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language to successfully
pass code back and forth.

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My father never told us
that he was a code talker.

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And we didn't know that
until after he passed on.

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