Goal
The goal of the Navajo Exemplary Humanities Project is to empower Navajo students through their explorations with the humanities—including Navajo history, heritage, and language—by examining issues of contemporary and traditional Navajo life.

Program Description and Humanities Content
The key elements in the project, are:
• Involvement of local community members in planning, developing, and evaluating instruction;
• Collaboration between Native educators, academic trainers, and facilitators consultants, and partner institutions;
• Use of existing exemplary curricula models, educational resources, and advanced instructional technology (including public domain technology);
• Involvement of teachers in all stages of the project, from planning to training, to insure motivation, commitment, and proficiency;
• Integration of cultural appreciation with humanities education;
• Provision of students with historical and contemporary role models;
• Reflection of a contemporary understanding of traditional knowledge and skills.

In 2001, when Seba Dalkai Boarding School, a tribal school in the middle of the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, added a middle school to their PK-6 environment they envisioned something different, something the reflected the rich cultural heritage of their student population. A National Endowment for the Humanities Grant provided financial support for planning and instituting an integrated humanities curriculum that would reflect that uniqueness.