The Navajo Mountain Boarding School Project Ryan Hueston ­ Magdalena J. Hartelova ­ Ella Schoefer­Wulf­ Graeme Aegerter­ Lillian Makeda

Table of Contents

1.The Team a.Team Background b.Team Member Bios

2.Social Need a.Addressing the Social Need b.Relevance to the Team c.Affected Community d.Existing Ecosystem

3.Innovative Approach a.Approach b.Addressing the Social Need in an Innovative Way c.Response to Specific Community d.Collaborate with the Community e.Intent to Make f.Evaluate Impact g.Future Impact h.Organization and Community Leaders

4.Implementation Timeline a.Timeline b.Budget

5.Faculty Letter of Support 6.Visual Materials

a.Supporting Materials

The Boarding School Project aims to empower a community’s creative potential through renovation and reinvention of a disused site of historical and symbolic importance to the Navajo Mountain community. In addition to the communal renovation efforts, this project will also include artist residencies, opportunities for public engagement, and documentation of the entire undertaking. By providing a platform, this project will serve as a catalyst for the continued creation of arts education and cultural programs in the hands of the community. However, it proposes more than a specific solution to a local problem. The aim is to devise a model for community oriented attempts, one that brings people from outside to work in a dialogue, responsive to the creative potential of the community, nourishing it rather than dictating resolutions. Like the architecture of the buildings themselves, it’s a dialogue of cultures. The Team Ryan Hueston (MFA,) Magdalena Jadwiga Hartelova(MFA Curatorial Practice)and Ella Schoefer­Wulf (MFA Writing) are all CCA students with previous experience of collaborative projects together. Sharing a vision for achieving positive social impact via art, they became interested in Ryan’s ongoing project at the Navajo Reservation. Lillian Makeda (PHD Architectural History UNM) came on board as a mentor and overseer of the proposed renovations after crossing paths with Ryan at the Boarding School site while she was conducting surveys. Graeme Aegerter, a Native Rights activist from Seattle whose dreams and drive have inspired Ryan

to further the project’s goals, has enhanced the team with his experience in documentation, nonprofit work, and philanthropy.

Together, they constitute a team of incredibly driven individuals with the hands­on experience and energy to collaborate; each is interested in historic preservation, poetic reinvention, arts education, youth engagement, cultural celebration, and community building: all these elements resonate in the Navajo Mountain Boarding School Project.

Team Member Bios

Ryan Hueston: Project Manager, MFA Ryan Hueston is Navajo and Hopi from the Navajo Mountain Reservation.

Prior to the facilities’ closing in the early 1990’s, Hueston’s entire family was educated at the Navajo Mountain Boarding Schools. He grew up on the Navajo Reservation, and enjoyed the closeness of a community that, despite extreme poverty, recognizes the importance of family, place, and culture. Hueston’s grandfather, Harold Drake Sr, served as Navajo Councilman from the 1970’s­80s. His grandmother, Stella Rose Begay­Drake, was a teacher at the boarding school before its closing. Hueston’s immediate and extended family are blessed by belonging to such a beautiful and sacred place. Despite the community’s challenges, they have shown him nothing but support, love, and how to be brave as he has navigated the world beyond the reservation. Hueston is an interdisciplinary artist in the MFA program at CCA. He has an arts education background, working as adjunct faculty at Dartmouth College for printmaking and painting from 2014­2015. He learned construction working with his uncle Jeff Begay at Kitchell Construction in Phoenix, AZ, and during his time at CCA has established the Grand Opera House. Recognizing a lack of a communal space for interdisciplinary, interdepartmental sharing of work and ideas, Hueston built a 30­seat theater in an MFA studio, modeled on a Victorian auditorium. Since its inception in the fall of 2015, the Grand Opera House has hosted regular performances that have allowed students from any department and discipline to contribute their work and collaborate on project ideas. Through the Grand Opera House project, Hueston also established a visiting­artist program, allowing the CCA community to choose artists from outside the school to perform and collaborate with the community at the Grand Opera House. His drive and dedication to address communal needs and share love and culture is a learned trait from his family and community on the Navajo Reservation.

Magdalena Jadwiga Hartelova: MFA Curatorial Practice

Magdalena Jadwiga Hartelova is an independent curator and artist from Prague, Czech Republic, currently studying in the Curatorial Practice program at CCA. In her projects, she focuses on interdisciplinary exchange and community­oriented practices. As a curator, she has experience in developing and managing large­scale international projects­­for instance the EU­funded ContainEra project, engaging galleries and artists from eight European

countries in a long­term artistic exchange, a project in which she was the founder, main curator, and symposium organizer. Hartelova has worked on the student art scene in Europe for three years, creating art projects directly reacting to the social and political scene. Currently, she is the curator of the PlaySpace gallery, working on broadening interdisciplinarity at CCA by organizing exhibitions of student work across the graduate departments, collaborating with the Grand Opera House, 3:1, and other student organizations. In her performance practice, Hartelova has a direct experience in self­realization and self­exploration through art. This year, she is working as a teaching assistant in the Creative Arts Charter School in San Francisco, following her interest in art education that began while working for years as summer church­ camp instructor. Additionally, her bachelor’s degree in Art History and three semesters of Architecture and Urban Planning studies have given her a thoroughly grounded knowledge of architectural preservation, documentation, and reconstruction.

Ella Schoefer­Wulf: MFA Writing Ella Schoefer­Wulf is a German­US American writer and visual artist. She writes experimental and cross­genre work that focuses on the relationship between language, the body, trauma and landscapes. Her undergraduate studies at Naropa University in Boulder Colorado focused on critical, feminist and post­colonial theory on writing and literature. Ella investigates the potential language has to subjugate and oppress, or empower, educate and liberate. She attempts to create an art that empowers and heals. Much of her writing is intended to be read by a chorus of humans as community healing practice. In addition to a merit and chair scholarship for her department, Ella received the California College of the Art’s Leslie Scalapino Award for poetics in the fall of 2015 Ella is a teaching assistant at California College of the Arts for an English as a Second Language seminar. She herself is bilingual and bicultural and uses her own background to empathically approach the challenges ESL students face. She is also a teaching assistant at San Francisco State University where she leads a small­group poetry workshop in a class entitled Writing the Body. She interns at Featherboard Writing Series that brings together Bay Area poets for readings and residencies in response to contemporary visual arts at Aggregate Space Gallery. Ella is interested in conversations about how to use art to empower individuals and communities, and how to foster dialogue between art practices and explore options for hybridity and experimentation.

Graeme Aegerter

Graeme Aegerter was born and raised in Seattle, WA. As the son of a Zimbabwean and Alaskan, his worldview has been shaped from a young age by cross­cultural immersion, identity politics, and community building. He graduated with a BA in Sociology and minors in Women’s Studies, Music, and Anthropology from Chapman

University, where his studies focused on race and ethnicity, social inequality, and cultural production. His interest in indigenous rights guided him to co­direct the Project W grant­funded documentary “Daughters of Emmonak,” a short film exploring Yup’ik Eskimo women’s activism around sexual assault and domestic violence. As co­producer, co­director, lead field interviewer, and budget manager of a $14,000 grant, Aegerter cultivated his understanding of the complexities and opportunities afforded by working collaboratively with indigenous communities on creative, interdisciplinary projects. He and his teammate from “Daughters of Emmonak” recently licensed footage from the film with the U.S. Department of Justice for staff trainings addressing violence against Native women in rural, Alaska Native communities. Aegerter understands the distinct power of the arts to fuel institutional and social change, and the need for community­based solutions to pressing social problems. He is thrilled to bring his experience with ethnographic fieldwork and research, documentary filmmaking, youth program evaluation, project management, and fund development to the Navajo Mountain Boarding School Project. Aegerter currently serves as the Statewide Training Coordinator for School’s Out Washington, where he supports the delivery of culturally relevant professional development opportunities for youth development employees throughout Washington State.

Lillian Makeda

Lillian Makeda studied the Navajo Mountain Boarding School buildings extensively, conducting surveys of the buildings in preparation for a proposal to have the sites included in the Utah State Register of Historic Places ­ a proposal that has been successful. In the past, Makeda co­wrote the successful nomination of the Borrego Pass Trading Post for inclusion in the New Mexico State Register of Historic Places. Makeda recognizes the cultural and historical significance of the boarding school buildings, and has enthusiastically committed to overseeing the restoration of the buildings and serving as an advisor for the Navajo Mountain Boarding School Project. She is driven to work with the community, designing strategies through which the buildings can be recognized as historically important, while helping the buildings to serve a new purpose in the contemporary world. Currently, Makeda is completing her doctorate in Art and Art History, with emphasis on architectural history, at the University of New Mexico.

Photograph by John Collier, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1948

Addressing the Social Need: The Affected Community

The American Indian Boarding Schools were established in the late 19th and early 20th century to educate Native American children and youths to Anglo­European standards of living. The government paid religious societies to establish schools, with the mission of eradicating traditional lifeways and “civilizing” indigenous people. Very young children were forcibly taken from their families and forbidden to speak their native language, given haircuts, and renamed with European names. They were forced to abandon their Native American identities and culture.

The Navajo Mountain Boarding School was built in the late 1920’s during the New Deal’s attempt to discourage the acculturation programs of earlier Boarding School systems. The buildings represent a complicated collaboration between and interweaving of cultures. They utilize design elements of the Hogan, the traditional Navajo dwelling. Their timbers are hand­cut of local juniper, and their masonry is red sandstone, locally sourced and hand­shaped by Navajo workers. The Navajo Mountain complex is the only boarding school of this era to have

flagstone floors and covered walkways. These buildings are rare monuments and cultural jewels, important to the history of the Navajo Nation Community. Over 70,000 Navajo Mountain children passed through its doors.

Ryan Hueston’s grandfather was one of the last children to be taken from their families and taught to ignore their cultural heritage in order to assimilate to a standardized Anglo­European way of life. He was converted to Christianity, given the name Harold Drake, and taught to speak English. He was unable to learn the traditional songs of the medicine man. Entirely unique to a family’s lineage and passed down orally generation to generation, they are taught to children at a very young age. He is only one example out of hundreds of thousands of children whose lives were catastrophically disrupted in this way.

The Navajo people have never recovered from this cultural genocide. Though the reservation itself is a place of physical beauty and spiritual significance, the reservation systems that were put in place a century ago were created under a system of racist oppression. Over the century, the Navajo government has made significant changes to policy putting more power into the hands of the Navajo people, but it is still difficult, if not impossible, for many indigenous peoples to explore the world outside of the reservation. Cyclical poverty, tight educational budgets and extremely limited economic opportunities have led to high rates of drug usage, alcoholism, mental illness, and indigenous­teen suicide. An unfortunate fracturing and failure of community­driven spaces fails to facilitate an incredibly rich artistic heritage including jewelry making, rug weaving, basketry, music, stories and dance that are passed down through first­hand experience. There are no regularly available arts education or recreational programs at Navajo Mountain. A lack of access to artists, artisans, and elders has contributed generation by generation to a loss of knowledge regarding indigenous craft and tradition.

As the attached photographs from 2014 show, neglect

threatens to compromise the boarding school buildings. Despite community efforts, an interest in their revitalization has been thwarted many times since their closing in the early 1990s, due to a continued lack of funds. The loss of these buildings would not just be a loss of history, but a loss of identity. Continued deterioration would eradicate the possibility of reinventing

these buildings as a much­needed space for cultural and communal exchange.

The reclaiming of the Navajo Mountain Boarding School buildings will create a generative moment; these renovations will be an act of repossession that can lead to other creative organization. This project is not about fixing a roof; it’s about bringing people together in the space for creative revitalization rooted in tradition and history. Moreover, it is about bringing artists from around the world into contact with students and elders there; to teach both traditional and innovative art forms, and so to generate opportunity and knowledge that enriches both parts. It is the beginning of future collaborations, a new chapter for the buildings, and the Navajo Nation’s history.

Existing Communities: The Navajo Mountain Boarding School Project draws inspiration from several existing projects devoted to cultural exchange, indigenous studies, and arts education.

The Makah Cultural and Research Center

In the 1970’s, a landslide unearthed an ancient village site on the Makah

reservation in Neah Bay, Washington. Recognizing the importance of preserving and displaying these artifacts, the Makah people successfully campaigned for the establishment of a museum and culture center through federal grants, private foundations, and the Makah Tribal Council. Today, the Center provides policy direction in the area of archaeological, linguistic, and cultural management to the Makah Tribal Council; educates Tribal members and the public about the culture, heritage, and language of the Makah Indian Nation; and stimulates, supports, and carries out research that benefits the Makah Nation and the academic community, providing a comprehensive center for Makah oriented research.

This center is an inspirational example for this project. The Makah Nation has successfully created a space for their culture that has continually given back to the Native community. During his time working and living on the Makah Reservation, Ryan Hueston developed a close working relationship with museum director Jeanean Bowechop, and the Navajo Mountain Boarding School Project will call on her as a resource to realize the potential for what these buildings can become within the community.

Idyllwild Summer Arts Camp: Native Arts Program The Idyllwild Summer Family Arts Camp’s Native Arts program is held each year from June to July in Idyllwild, CA, offering hands­on learning opportunities for campers to work closely with master artists and cultural specialists. The program was developed to give the rare opportunity to learn traditional and contemporary Native American art forms, and gain insight into the rich cultural foundation that inspires and motivates each artist. The program culminates in an annual festival that takes place July 3­8: Distinguished artists, scholars and cultural specialists present exhibits, performances, demonstrations, films, and the Michael Kabotie Lecture Series. Community meals with indigenous food are offered. The festival is free and open to the public, and scholarships for adult and youth students are made available. Similarly, the IMPACT Grant would allow renovation and the corollary community­building to be accessible at low or no cost to the Navajo Mountain community for similar indigenous arts workshops and gatherings. The Navajo Nation Council The Navajo Nation Council is the legislative branch of the Navajo Nation Government. The Council meets at the Navajo Nation Council Chamber in Window Rock, Arizona. The Council is composed of 24 district councilors who represent 110 municipal chapters within the three states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, which together make up the Navajo Nation Tribal Government. Johnathon Nez is the current Vice President of the Navajo Nation Council, having been elected after being the Navajo Mountain Community councilman for many years. Historically, the Navajo Nation Council has advocated for Indigenous People’s rights, embarked on difficult journeys to reverse damaging acts passed at the hand of the United States Government, and provided invaluable support to community­building organizations and people. The Navajo Mountain Boarding School plans to collaborate with the Navajo Nation Council in order to realize the potential for these structures in their relationship to the contemporary Navajo Community.

Innovative Approach Our approach is innovative in that it integrates the community in every stage of the process. Through physical preservation and documentation of these acts of reclamation on the Project website, we will highlight the sustainability and potential of these historically and culturally significant buildings.

Through the collaborative efforts of a team of Navajo Mountain community members, local artists and artisans, elders, and families who have been educated in these schools since their inception, the restoration phase of the process will galvanize community efforts towards a more permanent cultural and community center­­phase two of the Navajo Mountain Boarding School Project. By occupying an abandoned space and repurposing it, a framework will be established for future cultural and indigenous arts­educational programs and activities. Conceptually, the process stands as an exercise in physically altering the way we understand history. In this way, the Navajo Mountain Boarding School Project is generating new histories.

The Project: Over the course of three weeks, the program will bring together the Navajo Mountain Community in a ceremony that is part renovation, part communal dialogue, part art and cultural celebration. The project in its entirety will be documented on a website. This archive will enable the easy passing on of knowledge gained, professional documentation of the unique architectural reconstruction, and further self­expression for and promotion of the community. Furthermore, by making the organization and structure of the project visible, the website will facilitate use of the project as a model for community­oriented work world­wide.

The restoration process will include daily communal meals, storytelling, cultural workshops, and indigenous­arts workshops. Our state­of­the­art restoration will proceed in a careful and respectful manner, building on existing relationships and exchange between the community and the team. We will constantly be asking;

What do we envision these buildings becoming? What are the histories presented here? How do we reinvent these spaces to be practical in the community? How can the buildings become a part of everyday community life?

The community will contribute to the restoration of the mud roof, cleaning, and painting, as well as the communal creation of meals, music, art and stories. Already, the project has over a hundred volunteers from the community who are

ready to put in the time and effort to give these buildings a new life. An online forum established by the Navajo Mountain community is already generating a list of artists and artisans who are interested in collaborating during the project.

Current Navajo artists confirmed for project participation:

Mary Ann Owl and Shi Bizhi Mary Greymountain: basketry Pamela J Peters: photography Byron Coolie: mural, drawing and design Alex Jensen and Ella Greyeyes: silversmithing Bizhii Mary: traditional dressmaking and clothing Natalie Neztsosie: beadwork Leah Drake: traditional cooking Jeff Begay: dance, song and story

The Future Moving forward, the Navajo Mountain Boarding School team has 3 goals:

1)To use the IMPACT Grant experience and restoration of the buildings by the community to acquire future funding for the continued restoration and expanded use of the Boarding School complex.

2)To allow the broader use of the project as a model for other communities via the website documenting the process in detail.

3) To work with the Navajo Mountain community to realize their goals for the space.

Current community proposals include

A language and culture center A historical museum and archive An indigenous arts camp An educational visitors center and hostel

With renovations and reopening, the boarding school buildings will become a functional part of the Navajo Mountain Chapter House complex, to which they are adjacent, contributing classrooms, Auditorium and a Cafeteria.

BUDGET:

$4,000 ­ renovations stipend (to cover basic repairs and initiate larger

efforts including: re­mudding the roof, replacing broken windows, upgrading the

electrical system, and making cosmetic improvements)

$2,000 ­ communal space furnishing (chairs, tables, appliances, cookware)

$1500 ­ travel stipend for artisans, mentors, volunteers

$1250 ­ community meals

$500 ­ mentor stipend, Lillian Makeda

$250 ­ website, documentation, fundraising

$500 ­ incidental costs (renovation tools and materials, food, first aid,

indigenous crafts materials)

TIMELINE:

Summer 2016 May 16th­ June 10th:

Alert interested parties to project status Organize volunteers for renovation labor Coordinate travel and board for visiting mentors,

volunteers, and artisans Launch Project Website

June 10th­ July 1st: Community Renovation/Re­invention (3 Weeks)

Residence of the team, artist, artisans, mentors, etc. Replacement of mud roof Cleaning and painting classrooms, auditorium, and cafeteria Cleaning grounds, furnishing buildings for communal use Murals Shared Meals, Stories Building Brainstorming Updating website on the architecture of the buildings,

community workshops, and the preservation process. July 1st ­ Beyond

Inauguration of planned community usage of the buildings Apply for continued funding with material and concepts from the

IMPACT grant for the continued renovations and expansion of the community center.

Supplemental Materials:

Included in the grant proposal are pictures from a similar restoration project spearheaded by Ryan Hueston and his family in the summer of 2015 Within a matter of days, a 100­year­old Hogan was restored with the help of dozens of family, friends, and strangers. It left its former life as a sheep corral to return to its intended life as a place for the most sacred of Navajo ceremonies; Hueston’s cousin, Daniel Todicheeny, married his wife Amber Renolt in a ceremony conducted in Navajo by Hueston and Todicheeny’s great­uncle Buck Begay, a community elder. This more than demonstrates the power and willingness of the Navajo Mountain community to come together to honor our culture and show respect for our history.

Above: Navajo Mountain Boarding School, 1948. Photo by John Collier, Bureau of Indian Affairs.

100­year old Hogan renovation by community at Navajo Mountain, 2014. Below: Ryan, the Hogan,

Current Hogan use: Above, a Kinaalda coming­of­age ceremony (2014) Below: A wedding (2015)

Above: 2014 state of the Boarding School Complex: the “T” formation is the original structure from the 1920’s that we seek to restore in this project. Following the path down south, you see the dangerously weathered states of the roofs on structures added to the

school in the 1950’s. The road on the left leads to the Chapter House, which is across the way.

Below: Navajo Mountain, the Chapter House (where the Boarding School complex is) and the Navajo Mountain High School