Produced by David Starner, Jana Srna and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net NAVAJO NEW WORLD READERS · 2 [Illustration] The Flag of My Country SHIKÉYAH BIDAH NA'AT'A'Í 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 SHIKÉYAH BIDAH NA'AT'A'Í 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.