On Wednesday, Dec. 6, the Montezuma-Cortez RE-1 School District Native Parent Advisory Committee is hosting a Navajo Highways puppet show led by Time Magazine’s Guardian of the Year Pete Sands at 6 p.m. in the high school auditorium.
The event is free, and donations are also welcome. All proceeds go to the Native Parent Advisory Committee Scholarship, which helps send local Indigenous students to college.
“This scholarship is set aside for high school seniors and students who are in college or in a trade school,” said Olivia Lansing, district director of Native American Services.
The scholarship amount varies from year to year depending on how much they are able to raise, according to Lansing. Students are chosen based on their application, GPA and activities they participated in while in school.
The puppet show, which will help raise funds for the scholarship, was created by Sands, who is a singer and actor. He was named Time Magazine’s Guardian of the Year award in 2021 for his work in helping the Navajo Nation during COVID-19. He wrote an article featured in Time Magazine titled, “How the Coronavirus Crisis is Affecting Utah’s Navajo Nation.”
He also had a cameo on the popular television show “Yellowstone,” which starred Kevin Costner.
Lansing shared that Sands created the Navajo Highways puppet show to help promote the Navajo language.
“He is trying to revitalize the Navajo language, and he does that through puppet shows,” Lansing said.
Sands said the puppet show idea came to him after hearing a first-grade teacher talk about her experience teaching students. One particular day, her students weren’t focusing or paying attention so she pulled out a hand puppet and began having the puppet “teach.”
Soon, all the students were listening intently to what the puppet was teaching.
“It was a eureka moment,” Sands said.
In 2019, Sands had the opportunity to visit the Sesame Street Headquarters in Manhattan, where he was able to learn puppeteering from Sesame Street puppeteers.
Sands shared that his favorite part of the show is seeing the children’s eyes light up as they watch the puppets and listen to the story they are being told, often not realizing they are learning, thus the power of entertainment in learning, as Sands noted.
“It’s revitalizing culture and language,” Sands said. “Sometimes it takes getting outside the box. Educating people doesn’t have to be boring.”
The show will be presented in both English and Navajo, so all who attend are able to follow the story.
“Anybody will be able to come in and kind of learn the Navajo language but still be able to follow along because English is being used as well,” Lansing added.
The puppet show follows a young boy who is learning the Navajo language by learning from his mother, father, uncle and grandmother.
“He’s able to use and hear these words at home and then they try to help him have conversations,” Lansing said.
Lansing emphasized the free event is for all who wish to attend.
“Anybody is welcome to come and enjoy it,” she said. “We’re trying to get a lot of parent engagement so that we can support our Indigenous children. I’m happy to be able to be part of that.”
