Navajo Technical University (NTU) has added a doctorate program focusing on the study of tribal culture, which school officials said could help keep younger generations from leaving the tribal communities.
According to a KRQE report, the university has received accreditation from the higher learning commission for a doctorate program to be added to the curriculum at Navajo Tech, a public tribal land-grant university located in Crownpoint, with satellite locations in Chinle, Arizona, and Teec Nos Pos, Arizona. The report noted that the program would focus on the study of tribal culture and offer a doctor of philosophy in Diné culture and language sustainability.
“The younger generations are migrating away from traditional Navajo communities due to lack of opportunities for language immersion and instruction,” Navajo Tech University Administrator Wafa Hozien said, according to KRQE.
According to the report, 20 students have applied for courses that kick off in the fall. It will mark the first program of its kind that focuses on the country’s largest reservation, according to KRQE. As the tribe loses people who can speak the language with each generation, it is hoped that the program will be able to keep the traditional language alive, according to the report, and among the 32 accredited tribal colleges and universities nationwide, the report noted Navajo Tech is the firs to have a doctorate program.
“That’s why this Ph.D. program is so important,” Hozien told KRQE. “It sustains the Navajo language.”
According to its website, NTU was established in 1979 as the Navajo Skill Center to provide skills training for unemployed members of the Navajo Nation. The center’s name was changed to Crownpoint Institute of Technology by the board of directors in 1985, and in 2006 the Navajo Nation Council approved Navajo Technical College as its new name, and it became NTU in 2013 as the first university on the Navajo Nation.
For more information about Navajo Tech, visit navajotech.edu.