Preserving the Navajo language

by CADE SORENSEN Hear from the teacher of a Navajo-language class and her students (audio slideshow best viewed in full-screen mode) According to the 2004 United States Census, 381,000 people age 5 or older speak a North American native language. Navajo is the most common with 178,014 speakers. The Census also reported that 28 percent [...]

Adopting Native American children

by ALLISON JOHNSON Alpine residents Katherine Thompson, 43, and her husband Joseph, 48, were devastated when they found out they could not have children. After exploring several options, they decided to adopt. However, it took the couple more than five years to finally receive a child because of one major stipulation. The child had to [...]

Native American mixed-race relationships in Utah

by ALLISON JOHNSON  Jonathan and Mandie Hansen are a typical married couple. They live in the suburbs, enjoy their weekly date nights and love going on vacations with their young son. However, one major difference separates them from other couples: race. Mandie is white and Jonathan is Native American.   According to Jonathan, mixed-race relationships [...]

Miss Utah Navajo

by CADE SORENSEN See a slideshow of Hokti Miles (best viewed in full-screen mode) Hokti Miles of Salt Lake City was born into a family where her mother is Navajo and her father is white. Her mother speaks both Navajo and English, but her father speaks only English. Because of this, Navajo was not spoken [...]

West Valley Navajo seeks Indian tradition

Story and photos by KATHRYN JONES Andrea Hales sits in her cozy living room next to her husband, Mark. They are surrounded by Navajo and Samoan art and bookshelves filled with pictures and other memorabilia. The artwork and collections give visitors a sense of another time, unspoiled, open and free. Hales, a Navajo who lives [...]

Navajo rug sale supports American Indian elders

by JAMIE A. WELCH See some of the colorful rugs and the weavers who made them. (Slideshow best viewed in full-screen mode.) Life on the Navajo reservation and in traditional hogans made people strong. Years of following sheep around the desert, watching children move away from their homes and weaving together strand after strand of [...]

Navajo artist creates success in art, business

by JAMIE A. WELCH Cal Nez, a Salt Lake City graphic designer, began his own business in 1986, nine years after graduating from high school. At the time, he was newly married and awaiting the birth of his first child. Though this may seem like a large risk to take, Nez simply shrugs and says, [...]

Cal Nez: artist, graphic designer, leader

by BRANDON FAUSETT The children stood silently in a line, their eyes focused forward, arms firmly placed to their sides, their backs straight. The hour has passed and the children are let go so they can make their way to school. “I feel like I was at prison when I went to boarding school,” Cal [...]

Navajo Hogan serves traditional foods

by JESSICA DUNN Squanto, of the Wampanoag tribe, helped the starving pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony 387 years ago. He lived with them and taught them how to fish and plant corn and other local vegetables. The American Indians originally cultivated about 60 percent of the foods we eat today, said Forrest S. Cuch, executive [...]

Cal Nez finds success

by JESSICA DUNN He dropped her off, watching as she bravely walked away. He couldn’t bear to leave, so he waited outside all day, his anxiety building. Would she be coming back to him? Finally, after Courtney’s first day of kindergarten, Cal Nez held his oldest daughter in his arms once again. She was completely [...]