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Our Team

Our team is composed of skilled professional and passionate volunteers who bring a wealth of knowledge and a shared commitment to bringing insight to the Navajo People. Members of our team are dedicated to leading the way for all individuals and families across Navajo land and beyond.

Starting Leading The Way: The
Wisdom of the Navajo People

by Kathleen Manolescu, Ph.D.

In 1995 I started working as the evaluator for the K’4 Project, a project for children with severe emotional disturbances. I knew very little about Navajo culture, but I knew that we needed to have our own instruments to measure whether we were making a difference for our youth and families. My boss, Jenny Rodgers, gave me permission to go to the field with an assistant. John E. Salabye, Jr. and I interviewed elders and medicine people all over the Rez for nearly five months. We asked, “What is k’4? If you had our job, how would you show success?” Needless to say, this was a powerful introduction to Navajo culture. With a formal questionnaire developed from these interviews, my assistant, Deana Dugi, and I checked in with all of our youth and a family caregiver every six months. This was when I learned where people stood vis-à-vis Navajo culture. I discovered that if you didn’t speak Navajo, weren’t from a medicine family, and didn’t go to ceremonies, good luck learning what it means to be Navajo. I also learned how much the Navajo people value their culture. When an elder couldn’t answer basic questions, he or she felt sadness because it was something that he felt he should’ve known. People expressed an interest to learn.

After completing substance abuse prevention and treatment materials for Na’nizhoozhi Center in 2003, I put together some ideas for doing the Navajo language and culture page for the Navajo Times. I admired this page, but thought the culture section was weak. When I approached their publisher and editor with my ideas, they looked at me as if to say, “Right. What planet are you from?” Not to be discouraged, I approached the Gallup Independent. It’s publisher told me flat out that they have readers who are not Navajo, so they weren’t interested.

I was disappointed. That weekend Carol Perry stopped by to visit. She listened to my story and said, “Well, why don’t you just do your own publication?” I knew it was a good idea, but I really had no clue what I was getting into! I was comfortable working on the content part of doing a publication, but I had little experience with the business end. I went to visit Small Business Development in Gallup for guidance. Finding answers to their questions would’ve taken weeks, if not months. I just decided to run with what I had. I wrote grants at NCI and knew I didn’t want to go that route. Granting agencies don’t have “boots on the ground,” so they really don’t know what needs to be done. I thought, “If this is a good thing to do, it will succeed on its own.” I sold ads to pay for the first printing, connected with a printer, and followed her directions for putting the first issue together.

Leading The Way was set-up to be a community service project. I wanted the magazine to be suitable for use in homes and in schools. Ideally it would be used in schools, then sent home for family enrichment. This would promote learning, so Navajo language and culture would be a vibrant part of life. I had also hoped that the magazine would empower parents. People have asked where the name came from. I loved the drawing Gibson Gonnie had done for the traditional counseling module for Ts’aa’ Bee Na’nitin at NCI. You immediately see how Diné culture/the basket and Diné elders show the way. This easily flowed into The Wisdom of the Navajo People Leading The Way. The image and title perfectly fit the job at hand.

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