13. Beth Allison on Learning Navajo With Her Son

Beth Allison is a mom, educator, and entrepreneur who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Beth is Navajo and grew up on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, but she is not fluent in the Navajo language. When her son, who is now 2 and a half, was born, Beth decided to learn Navajo along with him. She quickly found that there weren’t as many teaching resources for an indigenous language like Navajo as there are for world languages like Spanish and Mandarin. So she began creating and sharing resources and videos for other parents teaching their children Navajo as well, which she now shares on her website The Allison Exchange.

In our conversation, Beth talks about what it was like to grow up hearing Navajo spoken around her but not speaking it herself, and why she made the decision to raise her son speaking Navajo. She shares a history of the Navajo language and why it means so much to her as a Navajo woman and mother to keep the Navajo language and culture alive and pass it down to the next generation.

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