The Navajo’s Resistance to the Suppression and the Assimilation of Their Language Navajo/Dine Bizaad in United States of America

Abstract

Some special aspect makes a language the Identity marker of a nation. Navajos used it for the coded talk to help America win WW2. Furthermore, Navajo nation showed the highest proportion of 86% of solely native of the 332,000 population of the Native Americans according to the U.S. Census, 2010. This makes them the biggest group of native American people and their language as the most spoken amongst all the native languages which is a fine reason to make efforts for the survival of this language. According to Benally and Viraj (2005) Navajo Language had been the most resilient native American language, however, there is a dramatic shift among the speakers of his language towards English due to mass media usage and the public education. There are other factors such as anti-bilingual and English Only movement hindering the progress and survival of the language which make the struggle of the speakers of Navajo harder than ever before. The suppression that started with the establishment of the missionary schools for the native American, has grown deeper effecting the decline of the language. Navajo people have a lot of modern challenges to fight for the survival of their language Navajo/Dine Bizzad.