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Growing up on the Navajo Nation reservation in Kayenta, Ariz., Charity Yellowhair-Gilbert was embarrassed and frustrated: She understood the Navajo language as she listened to her mother and grandmother talk, but couldn't speak it herself.
Twelve years and countless hours of study later, the 17-year-old Highland High School student has made her grandmother proud - she can converse in her native tongue. Mastering Navajo wasn't easy, Yellowhair-Gilbert said. It is loaded with verbs, heavy on tones that move up and down, and spoken from deep inside the chest. A combination of classes at Salt Lake Community College and lessons downloaded from a Navajo language Web site developed by Utah Electronic High Schools, a state-funded program, made the effort worthwhile.
"It's important to me, because I want people to know who I am," Yellowhair-Gilbert said. "I want people to know who the Navajos are, and not see us pushed to the side."
With more than 150,000 speakers in the Four Corners region of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, and renowned as the language used in military code during World War II, few believe Navajo will die out anytime soon.
The Navajo Nation isn't about to leave that to chance, however. Signs of decline are worrisome, said San Juan School District bilingual education director Clayton Long, who trains teachers in Navajo instruction from Blanding. Almost all Navajo students entering kindergarten in the Four Corners area cannot speak the language, even if they understand portions of it, he said. Many older Navajos proficient in speaking lack reading and writing literacy.
One effort to preserve what Navajos call the language of ''The Holy People'' - Mother Earth, Father Sky and other deities of nature - rests in the nation's various scholarship programs requiring language classes for applicants. But with 2000 U.S. Census data showing that 30 to 40 percent of the Navajo population now live off the reservation, online instruction is critical.
Utah Electronic High Schools developed the first known online Navajo classes at state expense in 2003, available only to Utah students. But after being licensed recently by Salt Lake City's American Academy, UEHS's online Navajo language courses are now available to students outside Utah. The full cost for two courses is $600, but Navajo students can apply to local community chapters of the nation for financial assistance, said Rebekah Richards, senior vice president of academic affairs and school principal for American Academy, a private school.
Better access to online instruction has resulted in more applications to the nation's scholarship programs, in particular the Chief Manuelito Scholarship for high school graduates, which provides $7,000 per academic year, said Rose Graham, director of scholarship and financial assistance programs for the Navajo Nation.
The online program has been a boon to Navajo students in Arizona, where English-only statutes make it difficult for Navajos to learn their language in public schools.
"It certainly helps us," Graham said. "Even students who have schools teaching Navajo can use it to catch up on course work, or go through an independent study group."
As a Utah student, Yellowhair-Gilbert was able to download course work as needed for free from UEHS's original online Navajo course to download course work as needed free of cost. As a Navajo, she's grateful the same course work is now available to those outside Utah. Once her final high school transcripts are in hand, she plans to apply for the Chief Manuelito Scholarship, and hopes other Navajos will do the same in the future.
"It would be impossible for me not to study my language," she said. "But it's good some people care enough to accommodate those of us who live in the city."