The Flag of My Country. Shikéyah Bidah Naataí

The Flag of My Country. Shik��yah Bidah?by Cecil S. King

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Na'at'a'��, by Cecil S. King This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Flag of My Country. Shik��yah Bidah Na'at'a'�� Navajo New World Readers 2
Author: Cecil S. King
Illustrator: Henry Bahe
Translator: Marian Nez
Release Date: November 9, 2007 [EBook #23424]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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[Transcriber's Note:
This book contains a few characters not included in the Latin-1 character set. Those have been marked up in the following way:
[l-] is an l with stroke. [a,] is an a with ogonek. [i,] is an i with ogonek. [��,] is an a with acute accent and ogonek. [��,] is an i with acute accent and ogonek. [��,] is an o with acute accent and ogonek.]

NAVAJO NEW WORLD READERS �� 2
[Illustration]
The Flag of My Country
SHIK��YAH BIDAH NA'AT'A'��
KING -- NEZ -- BAHE
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS ... DIVISION OF EDUCATION

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Stewart L. Udall, Secretary
BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner
DIVISION OF EDUCATION Charles N. Zellers, Assistant Commissioner
* * * * *
This story was written by CECIL S. KING Leader, Special Navajo Program
The Navajo was written by MARIAN NEZ Teacher-Interpreter
The illustrations were made by HENRY BAHE Fourth year Student
all of the Carson Indian School
* * * * *
Single Copy Price 30 cents
Second edition 5,000 copies--February 1956

INTERIOR. HASKELL PRESS. 5-58-100-3M

NAVAJO NEW WORLD READERS �� 2
[Illustration]
The Flag of My Country
SHIK��YAH BIDAH NA'AT'A'��
KING -- NEZ -- BAHE

NAVAJO NEW WORLD READERS
At this writing (1951) there are approximately 26,000 children of school age on the Navajo reservation. About 40 percent of these are between the ages of 12 and 18. The great majority have never been inside a school, and do not speak English. Recently the government has provided space for more than 4,000 of these non-English-speaking adolescents in ten of its off-reservation boarding schools. A five-year intensive educational program is provided designed to teach these children to speak, read, write, and think in English; to do simple arithmetic, to know the facts of American history, world geography, civics and health; and to provide the basic skills which will enable them to obtain and hold a permanent job away from the reservation. The reservation resources will support only about half the present population.
We have learned how to teach these non-English-speaking Navajos to speak and read English very rapidly. However, there isn't much material for them to read. They are maturing adolescents with adolescent interests. Primers and first readers prepared for use by six-year-old school children don't have much interest for them. Because most non-Indians learn to read when they are young, very few books are published in which the ideas are mature, but the vocabularies simple enough for beginning readers. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, therefore, has undertaken the preparation and printing of booklets written by the leaders who are working directly with these children. Because the children are entering a new culture, and their success will depend upon the degree to which they make the basic ideas of this culture their own, these new books will rely on the material of this new culture for their content. They will present to these young people a new and different world from that through which they have grown during their early years on the reservation.
Willard W. Beatty Chief, Branch of Education

[Illustration]
I am a Navajo boy.
Naabeeh�� 'ashkii nish[l-][��,].

[Illustration]
This is my home.
D���� shighan '��t'��.

[Illustration]
My home is in Arizona.
Arizona bii' shighan.

[Illustration]
Arizona is in the United States.
Arizona '���� k��yah d��zdiin d���� ba'aan tseeb���� sinil��g���� bii'.

[Illustration]
The United States is my country.
K��yah d��zdiin d���� ba'aan tseeb���� sinil��g���� shik��yah '��t'��.

This is the flag of the United States.
This is the flag of my country.
This is my flag.
Dii dah na'at'a'�� K��yah d��zdiin d���� ba'aan tseeb���� sinil��g���� b�� '��t'��.
Dii dah na'at'a'�� shik��yah b�� '��t'��.
Dii shi dah na'at'a'��.

[Illustration]
I look at my flag.
Shi dah na'at'a'�� n��sh'[��,].

[Illustration]
I think of my home.
I think of my mother.
I think of my baby brother.
Shighan baa nits��skees.
Shim�� baa nits��skees.
'Aw����' sitsil�� baa nits��skees.

[Illustration]
I think of my father.
I help my father.
Shizh��'�� baa nits��skees.
Shizh��'�� b��k�� 'an��shwo'.

[Illustration]
I think of the sheep.
I take care of the sheep.
I can herd the sheep.
Dib�� baa nits��skees.
Dib�� baa '��h��shy[��,].
Sh�� na'nishkaad yiishch[��,][��,]h.

[Illustration]
I think of the lambs.
I take care of the lambs.
The lambs can run.
I run and play with the lambs.
Shidib�� y��zh�� baa nits��skees.
Shidib�� y��zh�� baa '��h��shy[��,].
Dib�� y��zh�� naan����jah dayiich[i,][i,]h.
Dib�� y��zh�� bi[l-] naan����shjahgo bi[l-] nidaashn��e [l-]eh.

[Illustration]
I think of the corn.
I can plant corn.
I like to plant corn.
Shinaad[��,][��,]' baa nits��skees [l-]eh.
Shinaad[��,][��,]' k'����d��shdl����h.
Naad[��,][��,]' k'����d��shdl��ehgo shi[l-] y��'��t'����h.

[Illustration]
I