Diné College

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Johann, Nov 17, 2018.

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  1. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Interesting school - RA, 2 and 4 year degrees, serving predominantly Navajo population.

    "Diné College is the first tribally controlled and accredited collegiate institution in the United States."
    https://www.dinecollege.edu/about_dc/about-dc/

    Tution: $55 a credit - $660 per semester. That's about as low as I've seen -ever - at any RA school of any type. I like this school, but unfortunately, no distance study. Hey, can I get a ride to Window Rock?
     
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  2. sideman

    sideman Well Known Member

    Good for them! The Indians certainly got the short end of the stick in the push of the Anglo colonists westward. Sounds like an affordable way to get educated and inspire others.
     
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  3. heirophant

    heirophant Well-Known Member

    They've been around for a long time. But they've been a community college as far as I know. (Interesting community in their case.) The bachelors programs (I like the BFA) seem to be relatively new.

    Here's why they call it Window Rock. The locals apparently call it Tseghahoodzani, which means... hole in the rock. (It sounds cooler in Navajo.)

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Nov 17, 2018
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  4. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    In the 70s and 80s, Flaming Rainbow University (one of my favorite school names, ever) had a vibrant "University Without Walls" degree program, incredibly low cost, and regional accreditation, first through the Union for Experimenting Colleges and Universities, and then on their own (North Central). They lost their accreditation in 1992, and faded away. Dominantly Cherokee, I believe, but all were welcome. The famous Wilma Mankiller was involved for a while.
     
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  5. Phdtobe

    Phdtobe Well-Known Member

    Education is the key .
     
  6. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    ...to get you off the streets and off poverty?
     
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  7. sideman

    sideman Well Known Member

    [QUOTE The famous Wilma Mankiller was involved for a while.QUOTE]
    Not to be confused with (she's a) Maneater by Hall and Oates. :)
     
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  8. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Everything sounds cooler in Navajo! I recently got interested in Navajo beliefs and language - they're an exceptional people. Lots to be learned from them. Great shot of Window Rock - thanks!

    Nizhónígo Nee Ado’ááł - Have a nice day!
     
  9. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Navajo people were still getting the short end of the stick in the 1950s. There was an extensive Government "relocation" program then, that dumped many, many Navajo people involuntarily into California cities and other places far away from their traditional lands. We're just as guilty here in Canada. The ''60s scoop," hushed-up for many years, sent a new stream of thousands of Native children away from their families into the nightmarish abuse of the Residential Schools. As a young person, I never even knew about that "scoop," when it was happening. I only heard about it in the last few years.
     
  10. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Yes. Wilma Mankiller was Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation for 10 years and a life-long advocate and activist for Native American causes. She died in 2010. As a child, she also endured a Government "Relocation" program: This is from the Wiki:

    "Born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, she lived on her family's allotment in Adair County, Oklahoma, until the age of 11, when her family relocated to San Francisco as part of a federal government program to urbanize Native Americans."
     
  11. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    When I worked on the newspaper in Bishop, CA, one of the power-possessing beings in town was a Native American named Junior Sixkiller. He was under five feet tall, and drove a Cadillac convertible of immense size. A colleague of his was Sarah's Grandmother's Knife Don't Cut.
     
  12. Phdtobe

    Phdtobe Well-Known Member

    I strongly believe in education as a way out. To pursue education has to intrinsic - it needs a personal commitment - even if it is being paid for by someone else. Yes, I still think it is one of the best solutions "to get you off the streets and off poverty".
     
  13. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Sorry, what you said was a line from a Trini calypso, so I thought you were referring to it. :)
     
  14. Phdtobe

    Phdtobe Well-Known Member

    Well, it has to be a Caribbean thing...tacit learning I presumed.
     
  15. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    Navajo is extraordinarily difficult for a non-native speaker to learn. Not impossible; many people have managed to acquire some facility with the language over the last 250 years, but it's hard. Interesting anecdote: I was working for the NM Child Protective Services agency years ago when two young Navajo children came into our temporary custody. These kids spoke only Navajo. No English or Spanish. The Mescalero Apache tribe kindly sent us a fluent Apache speaker to interpret. It worked. The languages are apparently related (though you couldn't prove it by ME.)

    Off the subject: The Navajo Nation has its own rather sophisticated court system with two types of trial Court (standard and traditional), a Supreme Court (with its own law reports) and its own (difficult) Bar exam. There are about 250,000 residents in the Navajo Nation as well as extensive business activities so a modern Court system is indispensable. I've never had a reason to take that bar exam but I do think it would be interesting to try. It's in English which is a good thing because a significant fraction of resident Navajo tribal members don't speak the Navajo language fluently. This was a matter that generated a good deal of heat a few years ago, whether a candidate for office in the Tribal Government should have to demonstrate fluency in the Navajo language. I heard both sides, believe me!

    Beautiful, beautiful country, too.
     
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  16. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Yes, I'm finding it tough going. That, I think is because I have no other language in the same (or close) family to relate it to. I'm concurrently working on Anglo-Saxon, and I find that comes along much easier for anyone who can relate the vocabulary to modern German. And yes, the Apache languages are from the same family as Navajo - Athabaskan. I've been downloading a lot of Navajo instruction videos from Youtube recently and one of my favourite guys, whose handle is Daybreak Warrior has a demo - himself speaking Navajo and comparison with a native speaker of Jicarilla Apache. Yes - I can hear a "family resemblance," but they're far from identical. So many Apache tribes - Jicarilla, Mescalero, Salinero, Chiricahua -- and 3 more that don't sound Spanish, IIRC.
     
    Last edited: Nov 22, 2018
  17. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

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  18. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  19. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

  20. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)
     
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