Chinle Public School Educational Posters

The Chinle Unified School District #24 and its Federal Programs/Curriculum Center have been developing Navajo culturally related materials for classroom use since early 1980’s. They have created a set of posters depicting the Origin Of The Clans Story through colorful illustrations beginning with The Birth Of White Shell Woman and the role she played in the creation of Navajo clans and to the time where Navajos returned to live in Dinétah, a place where the ancient ones lived. To produce these posters they gathered information from numerous Navajo medicine men and Navajo culture instructors for reference. The cultural stories they used were recorded and written with permission of the storytellers and some versions have been passed on for many generations through oral teachings of the elders. The art work which was created based on the stories was then digitized and the lines were refined and colors added using computer graphics. It is the district's hope that these materials be utilized and appreciated by whoever uses them because they believe that the clans and the stories are essential in teaching about family values, self identity and the importance of kinship.

Source: Chinle Unified School District #24 Curriculum Center web page