The Diné, or Navajo, have their own ways of knowing and being in
the world, a cultural identity linked to their homelands through
ancestral memory. The Earth Memory Compass traces this tradition as
it is imparted from generation to generation, and as it has been
transformed, and often obscured, by modern modes of education. An
autoethnography of sorts, the book follows Farina King’s search
for her own Diné identity as she investigates the interconnections
among Navajo students, their people, and Diné Bikéyah—or Navajo
lands—across the twentieth century. In her exploration of how
historical changes in education have reshaped Diné identity and
community, King draws on the insights of ethnohistory, cultural
history, and Navajo language. At the center of her study is the
Diné idea of the Four Directions, in which each of the cardinal
directions takes its meaning from a sacred mountain and its
accompanying element: East, for instance, is Sis Naajiní (Blanca
Peak) and white shell; West, Dook’o’oosłííd (San Francisco
Peaks) and abalone; North, Dibé Nitsaa (Hesperus Peak) and black
jet; South, Tsoodził (Mount Taylor) and turquoise. King elaborates
on the meanings and teachings of the mountains and directions
throughout her book to illuminate how Navajos have embedded
memories in landmarks to serve as a compass for their people—a
compass threatened by the dislocation and disconnection of Diné
students from their land, communities, and Navajo ways of learning.
Critical to this story is how inextricably Indigenous education and
experience is intertwined with American dynamics of power and
history. As environmental catastrophes and struggles over resources
sever the connections among peoplehood, land, and water, King's
book holds out hope that the teachings, guidance, and knowledge of
an earth memory compass still have the power to bring the people
and the earth together.
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