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Navajo
Women at the Crossroads
A Telling New Mexico Lecture by Jennifer Nez
Denetdale
Two unidentified women at a Navajo
encampment, Laguna
Pueblo, NM, circa 1928-41. Photo by T. Harmon Parkhurst,
courtesy of the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives,
#00325.
Diné author Jennifer Nez Denetdale
Santa Fe - Diné author
Jennifer Nez Denetdale speaks at 2 pm, Sunday, Aug. 22,
on “Diné/Navajo Women: At the Intersection of Nation,
Gender and Tradition,” in the New Mexico History Museum
Auditorium. Denetdale’s lecture falls on the final
afternoon of the Santa Fe Indian Market of the
Southwestern Association of Indian Arts, a fitting time
to slow down and consider that always-changing place
where the ancient past meets the modern present.
The lecture completes the inaugural year of the Telling
New Mexico Lecture Series. Tickets cost $10 at the
Museum Shops or online at
http://www.museumfoundation.org/tellingnm.
Traditional Diné gender roles, Denetdale says, are
rooted in creation stories, which portray women as
respected community members with considerable
responsibilities. Women have always served as
significant agents in the persistence of Diné life -
social activities, ceremonies, economic endeavors and
politics.
But these traditional roles were, in many ways,
transformed by generations of encounters with, first,
other tribal peoples, then the Spanish, Mexican and,
finally, American people. Denetdale will focus on Diné
gender roles after 1863, when the Diné were militarily
defeated by the U.S. Army and relocated to a reservation
far from their traditional territory. Under American
assimilation policies, every aspect of Navajo life came
under American surveillance, including government,
community, family, gender and sexuality.
How have those roles shifted, and where have they
persisted? (It’s worth noting, Denetdale says, that
already this year, two women have joined the upcoming
race for Navajo Nation president.)
An associate professor of American Studies at the
University of New Mexico, Denetdale is the author of
Reclaiming Diné History: The Legacies of Chief Manuelito
and Juanita (University of Arizona Press, 2007), and a
book for young adults, The Long Walk: The Forced Navajo
Exile (Chelsea House, 2007). She is working on a history
of Diné women and was a contributor to the award-winning
book, Telling New Mexico: A New History (Museum of New
Mexico Press, 2009), writing on “The Navajo-Diné Century
of Progress, 1868-1968, and the Bosque Redondo
Memorial.”
Photo above: Two unidentified women at a Navajo
encampment, Laguna Pueblo, NM, circa 1928-41. Photo by
T. Harmon Parkhurst, courtesy of the Palace of the
Governors Photo Archives, #00325. A high-resolution
version of this photograph and a photo of Denetdale are
available upon request.
he New Mexico History Museum is the newest addition to a
campus that includes the Palace of the Governors, the
oldest continuously occupied public building in the
United States; Fray Angélico Chávez History Library;
Palace of the Governors Photo Archives; the Press at the
Palace of the Governors; and the Native American
Artisans Program. A division of the Department of
Cultural Affairs. Visit
www.nmhistorymuseum.org.
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Coyote Cafe
See Virgil Ortiz' T's on the staff at
Coyote
Cafe during Indian Market - Santa Fe
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