Adams] SHONTO : ROLE OF NAVAHO TRADER 75 



Some Shonto Navalios have, at the same time, a genuine sense of 

 the real psychotherapeutic value of native Navaho medicine (see 

 Leighton and Leighton, 1944, pp. 24-39; Kluckhohn and Leighton, 

 1946, pp. 164-167), and the singer's practice persists accordingly. 

 "The hospital can cure your body and the singer can cure your mind" 

 is a response heard from several younger Shonto residents, and is an 

 attitude which Public Health Service doctors themselves are now 

 begimiing to foster. 



EDUCATION 



No aspect of encroaching Anglo-American culture has had a more 

 profound effect on Shonto's life in recent years than the advent of all- 

 but-universal schooling for Navaho children. As of 1955 less than 

 one-third of Shonto adults had ever been to school, and average length 

 of attendance for those who had been to school was about 2 years. 

 School experience had little or no overt effect upon the subsequent 

 lives of these individuals ; they had almost without exception reverted 

 to the ways of their uneducated neighbors. 



Only within the past 2 years have school facilities been made avail- 

 able to all Navaho children (cf. Officer, 1956, pp. 58-73). In 1955 

 all Shonto children between the ages of 6 and 10, and most others up 

 to age 16, were in school. All pupils attended Shonto Community 

 School for the first 2 years, after which they were promoted to one 

 of several off-reservation schools in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, 

 Utah, Nevada, California, and Oregon. 



Educational developments have come so recently and so rapidly that 

 their ultimate effect upon the life of the community is not yet deter- 

 minable. It is impossible to say how long children now in school are 

 likely to remain, or what they will do when their schooling is com- 

 pleted. At the present time some 50 Shonto children are enrolled in 

 Shonto school ; some 90 are in the higher grades in various off-reserva- 

 tion schools; and about 10 are in high school. Among a handful of 

 students who have already completed off-reservation schooling, none 

 has yet returned to the community. 



Shonto parents have voiced little or no objection to the new school 

 program, and several have encouraged their educated children to 

 accept permanent employment off the reservation. Several families, 

 however, have attempted to retain one school-age child at home to 

 help look after the household. 



RECREATION AND PLAY 



Aside from simple visiting and gossiping, which take place at all 

 hours and in all places, ceremonial occasions continue to present the 

 principal recreational opportunities for Shonto Navahos (cf. Kluck- 



