Last week a Navajo student in my senior seminar on contemporary film presented
her work on "where the spirit lives." Her response was primarily
autobiographical, but she was tremendously moved by the film. She had
attended boarding school on the Rez in the 60s and 70s and part of the
reason for her intense emotional response was the realization that this
experience wasn't confined to Navajos or even to American Indians living
in the United States.She only screened a few clips from the film, but
according to her this was the closest approximation she had ever seen of
what the boarding school experience had been for her. She had attended as
a monolingual Navajo speaker and argued that the denial of linguistic and
religious heritage were the most damaging things about the experience.
I don't want to take up too much list time with this, but I'd be happy to
expand in a private posting.
Larry Hartsfield
Fort Lewis College