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Della Toadlena
I write my memior for my children and grandchildren, so they will know where we came from as Naashgali Dine'e. We are not Navajo in the true sense of the word. Like other Navajo people whose clans ...view moreI write my memior for my children and grandchildren, so they will know where we came from as Naashgali Dine'e. We are not Navajo in the true sense of the word. Like other Navajo people whose clans originated from Changing Woman who created the orginal clans. Instead, we came from an Apache captive woman. The Navajo people created a clan for our Apache grandmother and her future offspring to identify themselves. I grew up around elders of my mother's paternal people who instilled in me the importance of remembering this story and carrying it on to my descendants.
I was born in Canyon Del Muerto and grew up around Black Rock area in northeastern Arizona on a very remote part of the Navajo Reservation. I was raised under the tutelage of elderly ancestors. I talk about my humble beginning in a one room home with dirt floor and roof and herding my mother's sheep until I went to boarding school at age five. joined the faculty at Dine College and taught writing: some developmental writing, Freshman English I, and Introduction to Native American Literature until I retired in May 2007.view less