Written Proposal

Katisha Yazzie

Mrs. Walker

English 12

2 February 2017

Cultural Assimilation- The process by which a person or group’s language and/or cultural comes to resemble those of another group. The United States is a country founded on immigrants who wanted to start a new life; they wanted a place and a life that would be better for them and their children. People came and went making it better as each generation went on but sometimes improvement is at the cost of others well being. Native Americans were pushed away from their land, raped, killed, and forced on to prisoner of war camps that separated them from the rest of the growing society. As well as being forced to assimilate to the new American culture. This is a topic that has affected my culture, my family and my identity has a Diné women over the past three hundred years and is a part of our hidden history. Questions I have for this project; 1) How did the children who had to go to boarding school felt?

                                     2) How has this affected future generations?

                                     3) How do Navajos feel about their new American Identity?

What I need to research is the background of the subject and the history of the topic. The background i need to know is how cultural assimilation happens and what needs there to be for it to be considered cultural assimilation and the past years of Navajo history with the American Government. What I already know about this subject is when, where, and how this happened but more about the personal sides of how Navajos felt about being assimilated. What I will need to know about this subject is the personal experience of my family and others to further research this project.

The information for my project will be found from credible sources online and physical copies of books that I will get from my local library. Different texts I will use will be from a website called www.kporeterfield.com, and www.questia.com, Books I will use are The Navajos’ long walk for education by Thomas Hildegard. Experts I will consult with on this project is my own immediate family that’ll be comprised of my mother, aunts, father, cousins, and grandparents who have all lived through boarding school and from their own personal experiences of growing up on the Navajo Reservation. Another form of Experts I’ll consult with are my art teachers Mrs. McPeak, and Ms. Rumler here at Palo Verde Magnet High School and possibly a Art Gallery owner.

What will be the outcome of my research is a show at an Art Gallery for my senior project. What’ll show for the end of my project is hard work and have informed the audience what has happened to the Navajos and my own personal history. At the end my project will be a Visual presentation of the before and after of Navajos after they go to boarding school and going back home.   

In conclusion this project is that this is a viable topic for me because many others, though not the same have experienced cultural assimilation in a with or without knowing it.