by Abigail Ramirez
Daily Lobo
Kevie Butler attended the Navajo Studies Conference at the SUB on Thursday to create a Navajo curriculum for students at his high school.
Butler, a KinLani Bordertown Dormitory school board member, said he wanted to listen to the speakers and integrate their ideas about Navajos into the curriculum.
"I always believe in knowledge is power," he said. "In this case, the knowledge you receive about your own culture, your own religion and your own tradition is from different aspects of the Navajo nation."
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The event will continue through Saturday.
Speakers addressed Navajo education and research on working with Navajo students.
The conference offers exhibits, storytelling, films and a trip to Santa Fe on Saturday.
Lester Tsosie, who attended the event, said it's important to hold a conference to look at Navajo history and philosophy by American Indian
scholars.
"I think that's what this conference is about - is inviting experts, participants, medicine people to integrate and really talk about Navajo in its pure sense," he said.
Mary Alice Tsosie, conference coordinator and Lester Tsosie's sister, said the conference is an opportunity for Navajos to learn from one another.
More than 350 Southwest vendors will sell photographs, paintings, books and jewelry.
"Participants here come for different reasons," Lester Tsosie said. "Some are really curious about Navajo studies, and others are already in school and want to see research being done in those areas."
The conference was created 16 years ago at UNM to focus on the Navajo community, Mary
Alice Tsosie said. The conference is hosted every year at academic institutions and reservations across the country, she said.
A list of events can be found at elibrary.unm.edu/inlp/navajo_studies-conf.php.
Registration is $30 a day for spectators and $10 a day for
students.
The registration fee allows spectators to attend the lectures. The banquet today is a separate $30 fee.
