We Will Secure Our Future: Empowering the Navajo Nation by Peterson Zah and Peter Iverson (review)

This book is neither an autobiography nor a collection of tedious memoirs composed between two old friends who just happened to be an emeritus professor at Arizona State University and a former Navajo president. Dr. Peter Iverson and Peterson Zah have collaborated to publish a narrative about a Navajo man born on and raised on and of the Navajo Reservation and his arduous but steady climb from an Indian boarding school to the presidency of the Navajo Nation in 1991. This book intertwines Zah’s personal, educational, and political life, which mirrors the struggles of the Navajo Nation as both bodies have risen from the many constraints of twentieth- century colonization.

Iverson’s work is well known in the southwestern United States and because of his extensive relationship with Navajo people; he has collaborated with them in the past to publish works about their history and culture. Each chapter is introduced by Iverson with a brief but detailed description of a period of Navajo history and questions, followed by Zah’s personal narrative to fill in the gaps about that aspect of his life. Many of these brief historical summaries can be found in their full context in Iverson’s Diné: A History of the Navajos (2002).

Peterson Zah was born in 1937 and grew up almost right in the middle of the Navajo Reservation. Like many Navajo before and after him, he grew up without many modern conveniences, but Zah never saw this as a hardship but only as hard work: “But it was also good for our bodies and good for our minds and our souls because we were actually doing things” (18). That work ethic, installed into him by his family, would serve Zah throughout his life, from his early childhood at the Tuba City Boarding School to Arizona State University, where he graduated in 1963 with a degree in secondary education. The book could be examined in two parts, the first understanding the importance of education, which shaped Zah’s life from the boarding school to Arizona State, and the second concentrating on Zah’s professional career, which peaked when he was elected the first Navajo Nation president in 1991. One of Zah’s main points in this book is the importance of education. It gave him direction and praised two Navajo leaders who emphasized the importance of education, Chief Manuletio and former Navajo councilwoman Annie Wauneka, both of whom knew that education was needed for the future of the Navajo people.

Peterson Zah’s life coincidentally parallels the struggle and growth of the Navajo Nation, and many of the US government’s statutes that influ-enced how the Navajo Nation was created would also shape Zah’s life. Iverson guides each chapter with a significant time in Navajo history during the twentieth century, and Zah recounts how during these important times he and his family were affected. Zah’s family moved frequently during his early life due to the Navajo/Hopi land dispute, and Zah and other family members were sent away to boarding schools as a result of the Navajo Treaty of 1868. Other federal acts like the Na-vajo Stock Reduction Act of the 1930s may have affected the Zah family and could have resulted in some tough times for his family while he was growing up. The Navajo Nation escaped some of the dreadful results from the General Allotment Act (the Dawes Act) of 1887 and actually regained lands during the latter part of the 1800s and well into the 1900s, but other legal issues arose for the Navajo Nation early in the twentieth century.

After graduating from Arizona State University, Zah began to switch from educator to leader, even though he maintained some sort of teaching role. The book follows his narrative of leadership roles, from Volunteers in Service to America (vista) to heading the Navajo dna...