New Deal Navajo linguistics: Language ideology and political transformation

This project is a socio-historical study exploring how linguist Robert Young’s documentation of Navajo supported the federal government’s political and economic agenda for the Navajo reservation during the New Deal. I examine Robert Young’s papers and publications to show how his work in support of John Collier’s philosophy of cultural pluralism and goal of preserving Native cultures also helped support the federal government’s efforts to create a Navajo polity patterned after the US government. Young’s documentation of Navajo helped to create a standardized register for use in political and educational institutions, helped to teach and model the federal government’s concept of the ideal modern Navajo citizen, and attempted to create a Navajo public sphere modeled on the American public sphere.

► I examine Robert Young’s linguistic documentation of the Navajo language.
► Young attempts to create a standard register of Navajo and institute a Navajo public sphere.
► Young’s work supports the federal government’s efforts to create a Navajo polity patterned after the US Government.