Rebecca M. Benally

Infobox US Cabinet official
name =flagicon|USARebecca M. Benally

|Rebecca Benally with Utah Governor|Rebecca Benally with Gov. Huntsman
order =
title =Navajo Nation Board of Education Presidential Appointee
term_start =January 20, 2006
term_end =
president =Joe Shirley Jr.
predecessor =
successor =
birth_date =birth date and age |1962|05|15
birth_place =Shiprock
party =Democrat
nationality = American Indian
spouse = Ray Benally Jr.
profession =Elementary PrincipalNavajo Nation Education Department

Rebecca M. Benally (born May 16, 1962) is an American school principal for Montezuma Creek Elementary School, and the current Navajo Nation Board of Education Vice-President. She is of the Navajo Tribe in south-eastern Utah by which the Navajo Nation extends.

Rebecca M. Benally initially became a prominent individual with her involvement with the 1997 Aneth Oil Protest against ExxonMobil's Utah Navajo community policies. Rebecca along with the Former Navajo Nation Council Delegate Mark Maryboy and protesters from the Aneth Chapter Blocked the main ExxonMobil Corp. Office for 3 days in Aneth, Utah. Her actions during this turmoil along with the improvement of Navajo education brought a new kind of improvement and attention from politicians and coalitions. She is consistently supported by the Navajo Council Delegate and San Juan County Commissioner Kenneth Maryboy, Council Delegate Davis Filfred and Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., and many colleagues and parents.

In 2006, Rebecca M. Benally was directly appointed by the Navajo Nation President on the Navajo Nation Board of Education which oversees the operations of schools under its jurisdiction on the Navajo Nation as the vide-president of that Navajo Nation position. The Navajo Board of Education is very important in that it works to help transition the Navajo Nation model in education to a more Efficient system much like state school systems around the country.

Life and Education

Rebecca was born at the Indian Health Service Hospital in Shiprock, New Mexico, and was raised in a strict Catholic Navajo family with an intense integration of Navajo Cultural and Traditional values in Egnar, Colorado. She has two older brothers and three younger sisters.

Her father, Robert Sr. (Navajo Name: "Redhorse's Son"), operated a small farming/cattle industry. Her father, well known within the Shiprock and Gallup areas, made a lasting impression who had an adamant Philosophy in Education and Work Ethics; which proved to be beneficial throughout her life.

After graduating from high school in 1981, she enrolled in Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. The college is famous for its outdoor activities as well as a relatively notable academic programs in Liberal Arts which is where she majored in Education. Upon receiving her bachelor's degree in 1990, she began her career in Montezuma Creek, Utah.

Beginning her career in the field of education, she has provided opportunity programs for the Navajo children in and around the Montezuma Creek area.

When she entered Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah in 1997. She received her academic post-graduate Master's Degree in Educational Administration from BYU in 1998.

Aneth Oil Crisis

Rebecca Benally initially became a prominent individual with her involvement with the 1997 Aneth Oil Protest against Exxon-Mobil's Utah Navajo community policies. Rebecca, along with former Navajo Nation Council Delegate Mark Maryboy and protesters from the Aneth Chapter blocked the main ExxonMobil Corp. Office for 3 days in Aneth, Utah.

From the start, the protest was made up of local Navajo people who were becoming increasingly angry at Exxon-Mobil's stance towards the environment and its hiring practices within the local communities. The planning of the Protest itself was somewhat unique in that the meetings between ExxonMobil and the Utah Navajo Community Member's broke-down and within that same evening, talks for the protest began.

Many other national political activist organizations such as the American Indian Movement wanted to get involved with the protest. However, it was agreed to not include outside affiliates, which might result in losing the original meaning and message of the protest [http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=3102] .

Former Navajo Nation president Albert Hale was also mobilized to the northernmost corner of the Navajo Nation where the protest was initiated. Rebecca, along with certain members of the Aneth Community, helped create a new standard for the Navajo workers working in the Aneth Oil area as well as the hiring process.

Montezuma Creek Elementary School

Rebecca began at the Elementary school as a teacher's assistant then as a preschool teacher. She also began directing a research project in an early childhood grant program with Utah State University and served as an educational advisor/liaison between the State of Utah and Navajo Nation, a position to which she was appointed by Utah state governor Norman H. Bangerter in 1992.

While believing that education is a means to overcome many obstacles in life such as poverty she has directed a Family Literacy grant program to help adults achieve a GED or high school diploma and a ninth-grade reading level so that they may contribute to the workforce and become self-sufficient.

During the following decade she accomplished a significant amount of experience in the educational field starting from the position of a Special Education and Early Childhood teacher to a High School Assistant Principal to currently an Elementary Principal of Montezuma Creek Elementary School, Montezuma Creek, Utah.

In 1999, Rebecca became the Elementary School Principal at a point when American President George W. Bush began implementing the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The Act reauthorizes a number of federal programs aiming to improve the performance of U.S. primary and secondary schools by increasing the standards of accountability for states, school districts and schools, as well as providing parents more flexibility in choosing which schools their children will attend. Additionally, it promotes an increased focus on reading and re-authorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA).

Rebecca soon after smoothly transitioned the ailing school into one of Utah's leading public institutions for primary education. Since her tenure as the Elementary School Principal, the school school has achieved an Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) award four of the five years since 2002 when No Child Left Behind became mandated.

Utah Governor Meets with Montezuma Creek Elelemtary School

In the Summer of 2007, Rebecca Benally met with and presented the Elementary School for Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. during his visit to the Montezuma Creek Elementary School to tour many of the Native American Schools within the State of Utah. [http://navajotimes.com/politics/070507utahgov.php (Utah governor makes first visit to Navajo)]

The tour was arranged by the Utah Navajo Commission in an effort to focus the governor's attention on problems, issues and successes in Navajo country.

Literacy is Empowering Project

Historically, Utah Navajo issues are ignored not only by the Utah county and state governments but also by the Navajo Nation. The narrow Utah strip that is home to 8,000 of the Navajo Nation's 300,000 citizens. San Juan County officials long believed Utah Navajos were primarily the responsibility of the tribe.

In November 2005, Rebecca along with her daughter, Rozanna Benally with the support of the rest of her family ( spouse-Ray, son-Ryan and daughter-Rhianna) began the Literacy is Empowering Project to promote literacy and pre-reading skills for Native children to increase standard academic language. And always to instill the 'love of reading.'

Books are distributed throughout remote communities of Navajo Nation and bordering communities in Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. The project is certainly a family and community project in hopes to connect in unity with compassion to make the life of a young Navajo child enjoy reading, while to increase and improve their literacy skills in areas such as vocabulary, comprehension, phonemic awareness, alphabetic principles, fluency, oral language and phonics. Rebecca and Rozanna's motto, "Readers are Leaders."

It includes an annual fund-raising program and a book drive to provide free books and lessons for children ranging from Preschool to Eighth-grade students.

The book distribution program is held in conjunction with the Montezuma Creek Evenstart Program's Family Literacy Night and schools and communities. The program is aimed at the Navajo and Ute children.

Arizona State University, University of Arizona, Salina Bookshelves, Navajo Nation First Lady-Vicki Shirley, Southwest Board of Cooperative Services, and many caring and supportive individuals and Vikki's Ink donated money to purchase books and book donations from the Utah State Office of Education, local community members and local business contribute routinely as well.Navajo Board of EducationIn December 2005, Rebecca Benally along with six other educational member across the Navajo Nation were appointed by the Navajo Nation President for the new, 11-member Navajo Nation Board of Education.

Navajo Nation Department of Diné Education

The Navajo Nation Board of Education is an 11 member board instructed to oversee the operations of schools on the Navajo Nation and exercise regulatory functions and duties over education programs on the Navajo Nation. It was established by the Navajo Nation education code, Title 10 which was enacted in July 2005 by Navajo Nation Council.

The board acts to promote the goals of the Navajo Sovereignty in Education Act of 2005 which include the establishment and management of a Navajo Nation Department of Diné Education, to confirm the commitment of the Navajo Nation to the education of the Navajo People, to repeal obsolete language and to update and reorganize the existing language of Titles 10 and 2 of the Navajo Nation Code.

It is the educational mission of the Navajo Nation to promote and foster lifelong learning for the Navajo people, and to protect the culture integrity and sovereignty of the Navajo Nation. A Navajo Nation Board of Education meeting is scheduled the first Friday of every month.

Through a ballot election process, the Board realigned their officers in 2006. The new officers are:

Jimmie C. Begay - President

Rebecca M. Benally - Vice President

Vee F. Brown - Secretary

Maijorie Dodge-Teacher representative.

Navajo Nation Board of Education's purpose is to elevated the Division of Diné Education to a Department of Diné Education, the development Navajo-specific standards of education, and creates a database of information regarding Navajo student academic achievement.

Rebecca and other Navajo Education Board Members most notable want to develop a Navajo language and Culture based education system which Western Education Systems integrates Navajo Way of Life. It's proposed structure will uniquely form an independent Navajo Nation Educational system much like State Agency.

Tommy Lewis Incident

As much as the Navajo Board of Education tried to the stay away from the very polarizing political life of the Navajo Nation, when an at-will employee was terminated by the board for substantially being unresponsive and unproductive; the result was a very explosive political crisis.

Navajo Nation Board of Education voted to release Superintendent of Schools Dr. Tommy Lewis from his job, effective immediately.

Board Vice-President Rebecca Benally said the board voted 5-2, with one absent, to release Lewis because of lack of performance. Eddie Biakeddy, who is second in command, was appointed acting superintendent. The board immediately began to advertise the job position. [http://www.gallupindependent.com/2007/august/080107kh_nvjoschlsupefired.html]

Continual Navajo Education Improvement

In July 2007, Rebecca Benally will give a presentation in Honolulu, Hawai'i at a conference called Wellness is a Lifetime Journey. Her presentation will most notably be about Coordinating Health and Academics for students to become successful academically.

Currently Rebecca is working at an unofficial liaison between the State of Utah and the Navajo Nation in order to maintain a smooth systematic process which both party's can work together in order to create a better educational infrustructure between the State Government and the Tribal Educational system.

Indian affairs group honors Rebecca Benally

The Division of Indian Affairs honored recently people who have contributed to Utah's American Indians at its seventh annual Indigenous Day Awards and Dinner Celebration, themed "Utah's American Indian Youth — Our Hope, Our Future."

For the state of Utah, she was awarded Utah's Outstanding American Indian Educator Award for 2007 [http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,5143,695229553,00.html] .

ee also

* Fort Lewis College
* Brigham Young University
* Navajo Nation
* Uranium mining in the United States
* Supreme Court of the Navajo Nation
* Navajo language
* Navajo people
* Southern Athabaskan languages
* Dinetah

External links

;Official sites
* [http://www.dineeducation.navajo.org/Board%20of%20Education.htm Navajo Nation Board of Education (Official Site)]
* [http://www.sanjuan.k12.ut.us/Schools/mzc/Main.html#list Montezuma Creek Elementary School (Official Site)]
* [http://www.sanjuan.k12.ut.us/ San Juan School District (Official Site)]

;Documentaries, topic pages and databases
* [http://navajotimes.com/politics/070507utahgov.php "Utah governor makes first visit to Navajo"]
* [http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=3102 Navajos blocked Mobil Oil Corp. offices near Aneth, Utah (Rebecca Benally as Moderator)]
* [http://www.ashaweb.org/ "Wellness is a Lifetime Journey" Rebecca M. Benally to Present in Honolulu, Hawai'i July 8-13, 2007]
* [http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml No Child Left Behind]
* [http://www.navajo.org/images/pdf%20releases/George%20Hardeen/dec%20gh/Navajo%20Nation%20Board%20of%20Education%20appointed%20for%20Dec%20%202.pdf Board of Education Appointments]
* [http://www.house.gov/matheson/ Jim Matheson]
* [http://www.gallupindependent.com/2007/august/080107kh_nvjoschlsupefired.html Navajo schools superintendent fired (2007)]