TUBA CITY, Ariz. — Every morning at daybreak, as the farthest hills turn purple, then gold, then quietly blue, a young man with a diamond earring runs east toward the rising sun. Running is his prayer.
He calls out his name to the Holy People. "Here I am," he says. "I'm running. Look at me."
Ronald Horse Herder is 17. He eschews his family's four-bedroom, solar home at Hard Rocks to live in a hogan with his grandmother at Big Mountain, and he spends a lot of time with a \o7 hataalii\f7 , a medicine man, asking questions about the Navajo Way.
But then there is the earring.
Different Worlds
Ronald Horse Herder also is a junior at Tuba City High School. During the week, he boards at its dormitory, and that is just a quick walk to McDonald's, Rent-A-Flick Videos and Basha's supermarket, which sells heavy metal cassettes--all staples of the American way.
The earring is a diamond on a stud. It pierces his left earlobe. "This is \o7 today,\f7 " he says with the smart-eyed look of the worldly wise. "This is saying, 'I'm baaaaad.' "
The earring?
Or the \o7 hataalii\f7 ?
These are the questions of a teen-ager in conflict. They are the questions of a divided high school and a troubled tribe, the questions of concerned state and national educators. What is it to be Navajo, the \o7 Dine\f7 ? How is it changing? What should tribe members retain of their past? What should they pass on to the next generation?
Losing Way of Life
Indians fear they are losing their way of life. Tuba City High, in this northeastern Arizona reservation town, responded this past year by bringing in someone to help preserve Native American culture. The school hired Roger Dunsmore, 51, a poet and retired professor from the University of Montana. He was named the humanities scholar in residence. Roger Dunsmore is \o7 bilagaana\f7 --he is white\o7 .\f7
For a time, his presence threatened to split the school, its faculty and the Indian community. This is the story of Roger Dunsmore, the \o7 bilagaana \f7 visiting professor, and his effort to help save the culture of the largest Indian tribe in the United States. It is the story of the biggest Indian school in the country and how it got itself tangled up over the concerns of young people like Ronald Horse Herder.
