美国国家公共电台 NPR Navajo President: Go To College, Then Bring That Knowledge Home

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

When a Navajo baby is born it's custom to bury the umbilical cord in the ground. The Navajo believe the ritual ties the child to the land forever. But a new generation are defying this belief as more young people leave the Navajo Nation to attend college or find work. Elders encourage their return, but often, that transition back home is rough. Laurel Morales of member station KJZZ reports from Flagstaff.

LAUREL MORALES, BYLINE¹: Tommy Rock has had three graduations - high school, college and graduate school. And no one from his family was there - no one to cheer for him, no one to take his picture. And when he came home to Monument Valley...

TOMMY ROCK: I don't get no congratulations or nothing. It was like, oh, you think you're better than us? I was like, wow. OK.

MORALES: Almost half the Navajo Nation is unemployed². After high school, there are few opportunities. After Rock graduated from high school, he did what everyone else did in Monument Valley. He worked in the tourism industry. But he had his sights set on college.

ROCK: One day, I just grabbed my bag, started walking, hitchhike out to the junction³ and stuck out my thumb. And there's a person that was going back to Prescott.

MORALES: That's where he enrolled⁴ as a freshman⁵ at Yavapai College. The first semester was hard. The cost of books, housing and food quickly ate up the money he had saved. And no one back home was willing to help him out. So he lived on ramen noodles and spam.

ROCK: I used to way, like, 180, 185 or so. And by the end of semester, my first semester, I dropped down to, like, 140, 135.

MORALES: People like Tommy Rock are part of the Navajo brain drain, says Navajo President Russell Begaye. He himself is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles. Begaye made a plea in his inaugural⁶ address to the thousands of Navajo who have seen their children and grandchildren leave the reservation for school and then head to Phoenix⁷, Los Angeles or Albuquerque to work.

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RUSSELL BEGAYE: And their brains and their skills and expertise⁸ are being utilized⁹ to help grow those towns and cities. It is time we bring them back.

MORALES: Back to the Navajo Nation to make a difference here. Begaye believes making that difference starts at home. Half of Native Americans say college was never part of the conversation growing up. That's a finding of a poll by NPR, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Not talking about college leads to few college graduates. One in 10 Native Americans have their bachelor's degree, according to the U.S. Census¹⁰ Bureau - far fewer than the general population. Tommy Rock's Uncle Gary Holiday teases him about becoming a doctor.

GARY HOLIDAY: Oh, yeah. You have to remind me. Oh, yeah. I keep forgetting.

NATHAN HOLIDAY: It'll always be Tommy...

MORALES: Holiday is the one relative who supports Rock, and he wishes he could've been at his college graduation.

G. HOLIDAY: I value education.

MORALES: Holiday went to Salt Lake City to get his bachelor's and master's degrees in social work.

G. HOLIDAY: I was the first one in my family to finish high school. And my mother never spent a day in school.

MORALES: Like so many Native Americans, Rock and his uncle had to navigate¹¹ the world of higher education without much help from family. And Rock says there's an idea in Navajo that speaks to his situation.

ROCK: (Speaking Navajo). It means, like, no one's going to do it for you. You have to do it for yourself.

MORALES: And that he did. In December, Rock earned his Ph.D. in environmental science from Northern Arizona University. And now he's devoting himself to the Navajo Nation, where he's working to clean up uranium contamination. For NPR News, I'm Laurel Morales in Flagstaff.

(SOUNDBITE OF ENGELWOOD'S "LAID BACK")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

3 junction   

n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站

参考例句：

• There's a bridge at the junction of the two rivers.两河的汇合处有座桥。
• You must give way when you come to this junction.你到了这个路口必须让路。

4 enrolled   

adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起

参考例句：

• They have been studying hard from the moment they enrolled. 从入学时起，他们就一直努力学习。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He enrolled with an employment agency for a teaching position. 他在职业介绍所登了记以谋求一个教师的职位。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 freshman   

n.大学一年级学生(可兼指男女)

参考例句：

• Jack decided to live in during his freshman year at college.杰克决定大一时住校。
• He is a freshman in the show business.他在演艺界是一名新手。

6 inaugural   

adj.就职的；n.就职典礼

参考例句：

• We listened to the President's inaugural speech on the radio yesterday.昨天我们通过无线电听了总统的就职演说。
• Professor Pearson gave the inaugural lecture in the new lecture theatre.皮尔逊教授在新的阶梯讲堂发表了启用演说。

7 phoenix   

n.凤凰，长生(不死)鸟；引申为重生

参考例句：

• The airline rose like a phoenix from the ashes.这家航空公司又起死回生了。
• The phoenix worship of China is fetish worship not totem adoration.中国凤崇拜是灵物崇拜而非图腾崇拜。

8 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

9 utilized   

v.利用，使用( utilize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• In the19th century waterpower was widely utilized to generate electricity. 在19世纪人们大规模使用水力来发电。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The empty building can be utilized for city storage. 可以利用那栋空建筑物作城市的仓库。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

11 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。