Jennifer Nez Denetdale
Katrin H. Lamon
Resident Scholar 2002-2003
A Study of the Navajo Past: Reclaiming Chief
Manuelito and Juanita, 1868 to the Present
"When we talk about history, we are also talking about the power
to produce and disseminate knowledge," says historian Jennifer Nez
Denetdale. "It still is the case that non-Navajo scholars publish
Navajo history and although they consult Navajos and consider Navajo
perspectives, only certain kinds of histories and stories are told and
retold and conveyed to our children and into popular culture."
Denetdale's comparative study of Navajo history focuses
on her great-great-great grandmother Juanita and her husband Manuelito, the 19th
century Navajo leader, and examines how they are represented in American historical
accounts and Navajo oral tradition. The only biographies of Manuelito, Denetdale
notes, are articles that rely on military and Indian agent reports. "Given
the sources, we can only understand Manuelito in relation to American expansion.
Further, these short biographies reflect assumptions about American Indian leaders
including ideas about 'noble and debauched savages,' the inevitable decline of
native societies, and agreement to assimilation," she says. Denetdale contends
that such accounts reveal more about the beliefs of the dominant society than
the reality of Manuelito's life or Navajo history.
In her examination of how Navajo women are represented,
Denetdale traces the story of Juanita through historical photographs and sparse
documents. Her use of oral tradition sheds light on Juanita's life. "Although
Juanita, like many Navajo women, held a significant amount of authority in her
society, almost nothing is known about her life experiences," Denetdale
explains. By placing the stories conveyed through oral tradition in a historical
framework, Denetdale's research offers "rich insight into Navajo perspectives
on the past and especially on the authoritative roles of women in Navajo society,
past and present."
Her examination of the interrelationships between oral
traditions and history "belies the distinctions conventionally drawn to
divide them," Denetdale says. "Story and history cannot be separated
because storytelling is a valid form of historical production."
Affiliation at time of fellowship: Assistant Professor, Department of
History, University of New Mexico
