A Navajo hogan has been built next to Monument Valley High School for use as a classroom and to help preserve cultural traditions.
"The hogan was principally intended for the bilingual program we are starting here," said Don Mose, the school's tribal liaison counselor. "There has been a rude awakening that we are losing our language and our culture. Everybody has been trying to find ways to retain the traditional things, and the hogan has been one of the ideas people here came up with."The dimly lighted confines of the hogan - there are no windows, only a doorway and a smoke hole in the ceiling - have been used as a practice room for student musicians, as a quiet place to conduct aptitude tests, as a study hall and as a classroom to learn Navajo words and customs.
"People have asked to have Navajo weddings in there, and that's fine," Mose says. "We had some university students visiting who didn't have a place to stay overnight, and we let them sleep in the hogan. They loved it."
The hogan has become the centerpiece of a cultural courtyard behind the high school, where a pathway winds around a horse-drawn wagon restored by students, a traditional sweat lodge and a sheep corral.
Monument Valley students and parents spent last spring cutting and hauling logs from Cedar Mesa, the traditional gathering spot for sacred timbers used in hogans. The hogan consists of more than 300 logs, erected in an octagonal shape and covered with red clay.
Heeding tradition, the hogan was constructed without nails, although the school decided to forgo the blanket over the entryway and install a wooden door.
The hogan is one of the largest in Monument Valley, able to seat 35 people. Much of the cost of construction and tools was donated by Gouldings Lodge in Monument Valley, the largest employer in the area.
"We see it as a way of keeping the culture and the history of the area alive," says Ronnie Biard, operations manager for the lodge, which also donates scholarships to the high school. "Many of the tourists that visit Monument Valley come because of the history and the Navajo themselves, and this is a way to help continue those traditions."