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ix Foreword Epistemology, or how we come to know what we know, provides the philosophical foundations through which we gain perspectives of the world. In turn, our overall philosophy guides our individual and collective behavior in the world. How we apply philosophy forms and informs our culture and society. For Indigenous people, this process of “coming to know” is embedded in key metaphors that are shared. They are meant to be internalized in the mind, heart, and behavior of a people. Indeed, it may be said that a tribe’s shared metaphor is what defines them as a distinct people. For Diné peoples, Sa’a ˛h Naagháí Bik’eh Hózhó ˛ó ˛n (SNBH)—one’s journey of striving to live a long and harmonious life—is such a shared metaphor. Native thought operates according to cognitive and linguistic maps that chart and simultaneously guide collective and individual wisdom. How things are related combined with the nature of causality in a given natural context becomes the focus of deep reflection. For example, the ways in which aspects of nature are transformed through time and space along with the nature of perceived proper orientation to sacred space demand the observation of subtle details. It is these observations and perceptions of orientation that form the foundation of Indigenous knowledge. Just as ritual and ceremony can be personal or communal tools for accessing knowledge, metaphors and symbols can also be used in similar ways to learn and remember key understandings of the natural world and of life in general. Therefore, Indigenous thought as expressed in metaphors set in motion an organic process as well as a specific process for coming to knowledge and understanding in all aspects of Native American life and tradition. In Native American thought, this process of “coming to know” revolves around the creative process of human learning as naturally expressed in the contexts of human life and relationship. Intervention in natural and social human processes of learning is taken on only with great care and x • Foreword much consideration. Continual emphasis is placed on the processes of “being and becoming,” first within the contexts of a person’s own inner learning, then in the contexts of family, clan, community, tribe, place, and finally the whole cosmos. Working with the natural flow of this process is the intent of individual knowers. Listening and observing closely are consistently practiced. In all this, teachers act as mentors and guides for learning. They never presume the role of absolute authority. In Indigenous teaching and learning, knowledge is presented in highcontext situations in which many levels of information are shared simultaneously on many levels of communication. True understanding is based on experiencing nature and life directly. In this process, thinking and planning , doing and playing, are integral parts of Native American learning. Elders provide guidance and facilitate learning, often through stories and metaphors along with artifacts and manifestations of traditions. But it is the individual’s responsibility to learn, because it is the individual’s own thinking , reflection, and action that bring about learning and understanding.1 These are historic precepts of traditional Indigenous ways of coming to know. The aim was to understand in relation to and interdependence with life. Yet, there is a contemporary dilemma at play here. These precepts and understandings evolved from a historic tradition, which has undergone significant change in the face of modernity and its various forms of colonization, education, and technological transformation. The dynamics of these forms of modernity have affected the ways in which traditional metaphors such as SNBH may—or in many cases may not—play out in the contemporary lives of Diné peoples. While epistemological metaphors such as SNBH provide philosophical guidance to leading a long and harmonious life, each individual must make meaning and apply the precepts of SNBH to her or his personal life. This requires both creative application and creative expression of SNBH in a contemporary world. All of the Diné writers in this volume reflect understandings of SNBH from the unique perspective of their experiences and from the vantage point of their observations and research of contemporary Diné life. Their stories present invaluable insights into how traditional metaphors such as SNBH can be interpreted and used to shed light on the issues of contemporary Diné life. Their stories also exemplify how Indigenous peoples are creatively applying tools of decolonization and critical research to re-create Indigenous thought and culture in a contemporary present. Part of the process of decolonization leading to...

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